THE CHAIN OF LAKES CITY
Courtesy of Wikipedia:
In 1930, George W. Jenkins opened the first Publix supermarket in Winter Haven.[10] His second store and the first stand-alone Publix store, was a 27 ft by 65 ft building at 199 West Central Avenue, opened in 1935, which exists today as the Regenerations thrift store.[10][11][12] During the 1930s and 1940s, citrus magnate, John A. Snively operated one of the largest fruit packing plants in the world in Winter Haven.[13]
Another defining event in Winter Haven was the opening of Cypress Gardens in 1936 by Dick Pope, Sr. and his wife, Julie Pope. They first got the idea for the park from a Good Housekeeping magazine that they were reading. Together they created America's first theme park, and by the 1950s, Cypress Gardens was nationally famous.
It featured a beautiful botanical garden, water skiing shows, and a staff of southern belles. Many famous celebrities of that time visited the park, including Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, Betty Grable, and King Hussein of Jordan. In the 1980s, the Anheuser-Busch
corporation purchased the park. They continued to operate the park until 1995. After that, the park struggled, finally closing for good in 2009.
On January 21, 2010, the site of Cypress Gardens was formally announced as the selected location for Legoland Florida,[14] which opened on October 15, 2011. Legoland Florida is a state-of-the-art, world-class theme park that successfully retained some of the tradition and history of the original site, including part of the original botanical garden and a water ski show.[15]
Winter Haven featured many buildings designed by Gene Leedy, one of the founders of the Sarasota School of Architecture.
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