Lakeland, Florida City of Lakeland Downtown Lakeland Downtown Lakeland Location in Polk County and the state of Florida Location in Polk County and the state of Florida Lakeland is a town/city in Polk County, Florida, United States, east of Tampa.
Enumeration Bureau estimate, the town/city had a populace of 100,710. Lakeland is a principal town/city of the Lakeland Winter Haven Metropolitan Travel Destination (coterminous with Polk County), which had an estimated populace of 623,009 in July 2013 based on data from the University of Florida Bureau of Economic and Business Research.
It is twinned with Richmond Hill, Ontario; Imabari, Ehime, Japan; Balti, Moldova; Portmore, Jamaica; and Chongming County, Shanghai, China through the Lakeland chapter of Sister Cities International.
White pioneer appeared in Lakeland in the 1870s and the town/city period in the 1880s with the arrival of rail service.
Lakeland is home to the 1,267-acre Circle B Bar Reserve.
See also: Timeline of Lakeland, Florida The first Paleo-Indians reached the central Florida region near the end of the last ice age, as they followed big game south. As the ice melted and sea levels rose, these Native Americans ended up staying and thrived on the peninsula for thousands of years.
A view of Lakeland's company district, early 1920s Florida became a state in 1845, and Polk County was established in 1861.
After the American Civil War, the governmental center of county was established southeast of Lakeland in Bartow.
While most of the early history of Polk County centered on the two metros/cities of Bartow and Fort Meade, eventually, citizens entered the areas in northern Polk County and began settling in the areas which became Lakeland.
Lakeland was first settled in the 1870s and began to precarious as the rail lines reached the region in 1884.
Lakeland was titled for the many lakes near the town site. In April 1898, the Spanish American War began and started a crucial point in Lakeland's development.
While the war ended quickly and had little impact on most of the nation, the Florida peninsula was used as a launch point for the war and the then small town of Lakeland homed over 9,000 troops. The Florida boom resulted in the assembly of many momentous structures in Lakeland, a number of which are today listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
This list includes the Terrace Hotel, New Florida Hotel (Regency Tower, presently Lake Mirror Tower), Polk Theatre, Frances Langford Promenade, Polk Museum of Art (not a product of the 1920s boom), Park Trammell Building (formerly the Lakeland Public Library and today the Lakeland Chamber of Commerce), and others.
The Tigers still train at Lakeland's Joker Marchant Stadium and own the city's Class A Florida State League team, the Lakeland Flying Tigers.
In the mid-1930s, the Works Progress Administration assembled the Lakeland Municipal Airport.
In 1938, Florida Southern College President Ludd Spivey invited architect Frank Lloyd Wright to design a "great education temple in Florida." Wright worked on the universal over a reconstructionof 20 years as Spivey found ways to fund the universal and to find assembly workers amid World War II. Wright's initial plan called for 18 structures, in total he designed 30, but only 12 were completed. Wright's textile block motif is used extensively on the campus, and the concrete blocks he used are in need of restoration. Wright titled the universal Child of the Sun, describing his Florida Southern buildings as being "out of the ground, into the light, a child of the sun." It is the biggest single-site compilation of Frank Lloyd Wright buildings in the world, and attracts 30,000 visitors each year. In 1975, the "Florida Southern Architectural District" was added to the National Register of Historic Places. In 2012, Wright's ground was designated a National Historic Landmark by the National Park Service.
Cox Grammar School opened in 1925, now repurposed as the clinic for Lakeland Volunteers in Medicine At the beginning of World War II, the Lakeland School of Aeronautics headquartered at the recently-built Lakeland Municipal Airport became part of a nationwide network of civilian flight schools enjoined for the war accomplishment by the United States Army Air Corps. From June 1941 until October 1942, 1,327 British Royal Air Force cadets trained at the Lakeland facility. Lakeland is positioned inside the Central Florida Highlands region of the Atlantic coastal plain, with a terrain consisting of flatland interspersed with gently rolling hills. Lake Mirror Park in downtown Lakeland is lined by City Hall and Lakeland Terrace Hotel.
The dominant feature in Lakeland is the city's many lakes.
Much of the culture of Lakeland revolves around its many lakes, and many citizens use the lakes as reference points in much the same way that citizens in other suburbs use streets as reference points, such as "I live near Lake Beulah." In addition to Lake Parker, some of the more prominent lakes in the Lakeland region are Lake Hollingsworth, Lake Morton, Lake Mirror, and Lake Gibson.
Swans are one of the most visible features on the lakes of Lakeland.
A Lakeland resident who mourned the passing of the swans wrote to Queen Elizabeth.
The royal family allowed the capture of two of the royal swans, and the swans now on the lakes of Lakeland are the descendants of the royal swans sent by the queen.
In July 2006, Scott Lake, one of the city's lakes, was almost totally drained by a cluster of sinkholes. The lake later partially refilled . Lakeland, like most other parts of Florida north of Lake Okeechobee, is positioned in the humid subtropical zone (Koppen climate classification: Cfa). Typically, summers are hot and humid with high temperatures seldom dropping below 90 F and 70 F for the overnight low.
Winters in Lakeland are drier and mild, with incessant sunny skies.
Climate data for Lakeland (LAL), 1981-2010 normals, extremes 1948-present See also: List of mayors of Lakeland, Florida Lakeland is governed by a six-member town/city council.
Lakeland made nationwide headlines on September 28, 2006, when Polk County Sheriff's Deputy Vernon "Matt" Williams and his K-9 partner Diogi were shot and killed after a routine traffic stop in the Wabash region of Lakeland.
On December 18, 2011, Lakeland Police Officer Arnulfo Crispin was shot and killed after he stopped five young men while on a routine patrol.
The Lakeland Police Department is recognized as having one of the best-trained canine units in the United States.
At the annual USPCA Police Dog Field Trials the biggest competition of police dogs in the United States Lakeland police dog "Nox" took first place in 2015, "Bruno" took first place in 2012 and 2013, and "Charief" took second place in 2009 and 2011. Lakeland Demographics 2010 Enumeration Lakeland Polk County Florida In 1913, the Wolfson family appeared from Lithuania and became the first Jewish pioneer to the area. After some struggles, the Jewish improve in Lakeland flourished and the first Jewish church, Temple Emanuel opened in 1932. The Rohr Jewish Learning Institute presents classes and seminars in Lakewood in partnership with Chabad of Lakeland. Lakeland is home to one of the first Hindu temples in the United States, the Swaminarayan Hindu Temple. It was called Masjid Aisha, but is now called the Islamic Center of Lakeland.
Christianity makes up the biggest theological group in Lakeland.
Lakeland is the biggest city on Interstate 4 between Orlando and Tampa.
Large industries in the Lakeland region are citrus, cattle, and phosphate mining.
After a series of freezes in counties north of Polk County, the region became the focal point for citrus burgeoning in Florida.
Although citrus is no longer the biggest industry in the area, it still plays a large part in the economy of Lakeland and Polk County.
Phosphate quarrying is still meaningful to the economy of Lakeland, although most of the quarrying now takes place further south.
Lakeland's biggest employer is Publix Supermarkets. Publix is one of the biggest county-wide grocery chains in the United States with over 1,000 stores.
Publix employs over 6,500 citizens in the Lakeland region including headquarter and warehouse employees.
Fed - Ex Freight and Fed - Ex Services and the Saddle Creek Corporation employ over 600 citizens in the area. Other large employers in the region include Amazon, GEICO, Rooms To Go, and Lakeland Regional Medical Center. Lakeland Center Lakeland Square Mall Old Lakeland High School See also: List of newspapers in Florida, List of airways broadcasts in Florida, and List of tv stations in Florida Bright House Networks is the cable tv franchise serving Lakeland, which offers most tv stations from the Tampa Bay market, as well as WFTV, the ABC partner from Orlando.
WMOR-TV, an autonomous tv station, is licensed to Lakeland, with its studios in Tampa and its transmitter in Riverview.
Lakeland and Polk County are inside its own radio market.
WLLD 94.1 FM is licensed to Lakeland, but has wider focus on the Tampa Bay area, with studios in St.
WKES 91.1 FM is also licensed to Lakeland as part of the statewide Moody Radio Florida network, with studios in Seminole, near St.
The town/city periodical is "The Lakelander" presented by Patterson Publishing In 1990, Lakeland made its Hollywood debut when the Southgate Shopping Center was featured in the movie Edward Scissorhands.
Because Lakeland is the biggest city on Interstate 4 between Tampa and Orlando, the town/city is an meaningful transportation hub.
The county nickname, Imperial Polk County, was coined because a large bond copy in 1914 enabled wide roads between the metros/cities of Polk County. The meaningful freeways and highways in Lakeland today are: The Interstate 4 overpass in Lakeland (exit 32) Interstate 4 is the chief interstate in central Florida linking Tampa, Lakeland, Orlando, and Daytona Beach.
Polk Parkway, or SR 570, is a tolled beltway around Lakeland, with both ends terminating at Interstate 4.
US 92, following Memorial Boulevard for most of the city, was the route dominant to both Tampa and Orlando before I-4 was built; US 92 is still a chief road dominant to Plant City going west, and Auburndale, Winter Haven, and Haines City going east.
State Road 33, following mostly non-urban land, provides access to Lake County and the Florida Turnpike.
State Road 37, following Florida Avenue, the chief north-south route in Lakeland, is also the chief road dominant south to Mulberry.
State Road 540, Winter-Lake Road, is in southern Lakeland, dominant to Winter Haven and Legoland Florida.
In recent years, the Lakeland region has advanced a number of paved, multi-use bicycle routes including the Lake-To-Lakes Trail, which runs from Lake Parker through downtown, past a several lakes, ending at Lake John.
Other routes include University Trail, which joins Polk State College to Florida Polytechnic University, and the Fort Fraser Trail, which runs along US Highway 98 from Polk State College to Highway 60 in Bartow. Lakeland Amtrak Station Lakeland Linder Regional Airport Lakeland Greyhound Terminal The 28 elementary schools, seven middle schools, five traditional high schools, and three magnet-choice high schools in the Lakeland region are run by the Polk County School Board.
Lakeland Senior High School Polk State College Lakeland Collegiate High School Lakeland Highlands Middle School Lakeland Montessori Schoolhouse Lakeland Montessori Middle School Lakeland Collegiate High school Lakeland Christian School A number of opportunities exist for college studies around the Lakeland area.
Florida Southern College, established in 1883 and with a current enrollment of just over 2000, is positioned on Lake Hollingsworth.
In July 2008, the University of South Florida's Lakeland ground was granted partial autonomy by Governor Charlie Crist and became Florida Polytechnic University.
Florida Polytechnic (FLPoly) is positioned just inside the Lakeland's northeast border at the intersection of I-4 and Polk Parkway.
They also have some administrative offices on the ground of Polk State College on Winter Lake Road.
FLPoly is concentrated on STEM degree programs, such as engineering and computer science. Both Everest University and Keiser University, two multisite, accredited universities, have locations in Lakeland.
Traviss Career Center is a vocational school. Webster University offers on-site, regionally accredited graduate degree programs in company and counseling at their Lakeland Metropolitan Campus Joker Marchant Stadium, north of downtown, hosts spring training for the Detroit Tigers, as well as their Lakeland Flying Tigers class-A Florida State League and GCL Tigers rookie-league Gulf Coast League minor league baseball teams.
Lakeland is also home to the Central Florida Jaguars, an indoor football team playing in the Elite Indoor Football Conference.
They play at the Lakeland Center.
Lakeland is also home to the Florida Tropics SC a indoor soccer team playing in the Indoor Professional League They play at the Lakeland Center.
In the 1980s, the Lakeland Center briefly played host to the indoor version of the Tampa Bay Rowdies soccer team.
The Lakeland Center has also hosted a couple of hockey teams, the Lakeland Prowlers and the Lakeland Loggerheads.
The United States Basketball League once had a team here as well called the Lakeland Blue Ducks.
The Lakeland Center also hosts the Florida High School Athletic Association's state basketball finals.
Sun 'n Fun is the home of Lakeland's only roller derby league, the Lakeland Derby Dames.
Also, the Southeastern Football team started in 2014, the first college football team in Lakeland.
Starting with the 2017-18 season, Lakeland will be home to a National Basketball Development League team as an partner of the Orlando Magic of the National Basketball Association and play home games at the Lakeland Center.
List of citizens from Lakeland, Florida "Florida by Place.
"Annual Estimates of the populace for the Incorporated Places of Florida" (XLS).
Lakeland Ledger.
"Flight Cadets Attended Lakeland School of Aeronautics".
Lakeland, Florida.
"Florida Lake Swallowed by Sinkhole Reappearing".
Florida police officers entangled in widespread sex scandal, Associated Press, July 10, 2013 Two Lakeland police sergeants fired in wake of primary sex scandal, by Chris Trenkmann, July 15, 2013, WFTS "Lakeland (city) Quick - Facts from the US Enumeration Bureau".
Modern Language Association Data Center Results of Lakeland, Florida.
Lakeland.
Name="Counting Lakeland's Churches""Churches in Lakeland, FL".
"Lakeland Demographics Guide 2010" (PDF).
City of Lakeland.
"Amazon welcomes employees in Lakeland; drones in India?".
"LAKELAND, FL AREA MAJOR EMPLOYERS" (PDF).
Lakeland Development Council.
"Florida Southern College".
"Traviss Career Center | Lakeland, Florida".
See also: Bibliography of the history of Lakeland, Florida Lakeland Chamber of Commerce Municipalities and communities of Polk County, Florida, United States
Categories:
Cities in Polk County, Florida - Lakeland, Florida - Populated places established in 1884 - Cities in Florida - 1884 establishments in Florida
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