South Palm Park


South Palm Park is Lake Worth's oldest incorporated Neighborhood Association in the City of Lake Worth. We were established in 1963 with the intent to preserve our unique waterfront neighborhood from overdevelopment. Our boundaries from 5th Ave South to the City's southern border and east of Federal Highway to the Intracoastal Waterway, comprise single family homes, apartments and condominiums. South Palm Park is named for our waterfront passive park located at the east end of 11th Ave South. We also enjoy a unique feature that is a landscaped median running the full length of South Palmway Drive that offers shady trees, flowering plants and an excellent boulevard attracting walkers, bike riders and joggers for its beauty and tranquility. Our annual events include a neighborhood-wide yard sale coinciding with the City's Street Painting Festival, Christmas/Holiday Lighting of the Median the Saturday after Thanksgiving, Monthly Full Moon Social, Sping Celebration, 4th of July Picnic, and we love to participate in the many events put on by other Neighborhood Associations.

BoundariesThe South Palm Park Neighborhood extends from the alley-way just East  of Federal Highway to the Lake Worth Lagoon and from south of 5th Avenue South to the City of Lake Worth City limits (18th Avenue South), including South Palmway and South Lakeside Drive, comprising single family homes.

Meetings: Directors' meetings are held the first Monday of the month. General Membership meetings are held on the 2nd Monday of the Month at The Irish Brigade located at 621 Lake Ave, Lake Worth Beach Fl. 33460. Social hour begins at 6 pm and the meeting starts at 7 pm. Meetings are sometimes suspended during the Summer months. Please contact South Palm Park for more information.

Membership: Membership is open to all Residents and everyone is welcome to attend and participate in their meetings and their activities. Annual membership dues are: single household (general or associate) - $10 per person, household (two or more persons - general) - $20.

2024 Officers:
President, Greg Richter
Vice President, Linda Brower
Secretary, Lewis Makepeace
Treasurer, Gina Devine

Email: president@southpalmpark.org









Saturday, December 28, 2013

Palm Beach Post Article on South Palm Park

Affordability Near the Water

By Emily J. Minor Special to The Palm Beach Post
   Every once in a while, you’ll find a little jewel of a neighborhood, tucked right along the beaten path — and that’s certainly the case with South Palm Park. Just south of downtown Lake Worth, this collection of 200 or so homes that runs in a narrow north-south strip between Federal Highway and the Intracoastal Waterway offers everything from million-dollar homes to $200,000 fixer-uppers.
   “It’s just a great old Lake Worth neighborhood,” says Realtor Susan Fleming, who sells with Illustrated Properties and used to live in South Palm Park. “It’s such an interesting mix of architecture.”
 And as it turns out, interesting architecture draws an interesting mix of people. Neighborhood association president Chip Guthrie is a Palm Beach County native who has lived in South Palm Park for 30 years. He loves what the place used to be, and what it is today.
   As the oldest neighborhood association in Lake Worth, Guthrie and his wife, Irene, helped through a party back in November to celebrate the association’s 50th year.
   “We have kind of a famous street,” says Guthrie. “We have a very lush median strip that runs the north-south length of Palmway. People come from outside the neighborhood to walk along there.”
   Homes here were built as early as the 1920s, when Florida’s first settlers began picking prime pieces of real estate close to developing city centers. That growth continue into the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s. Joanne Kelly still lives in the house she moved to in the early 1950s as a young girl. Her mother, father and their five children found the house in South Palm Park and proceeded to embrace the Florida lifestyle. They were always outdoors, she said, playing along the waterfront, going over the bridge to the beach. “Every Christmas we swam in the ocean, no matter how cold it was,” she said. “It was a family ritual.”
   Kelly lives in her childhood home now with her husband.
 Guthrie, the association president — the group is voluntary and membership is only $20 — said the association was formed in 1963 to thwart possible development.
   Because each of the homes was built through time, there’s a little bit of everything. The Birthday Cake House at the north end of the neighborhood is a favorite place to stop and gawk. The house at 1 Fifth Avenue South was designed and built by Sherman Childs, a protege of Addison Mizner.
   Homes here can sell for well over $1 million for a place on the water. But you can also find a smaller home along an interior street that’s much more affordable. Downtown Lake Worth is close. The beach is just across the bridge. And the schools here are also nearby, although the grade school and middle school are rated C by the state of Florida. (South Grade Elementary and Lake Worth Middle.) Lake Worth Community High School is rated B.
   Brendan Lynch and his wife, Lisa, moved to the neighborhood in 2009, and they love their house, which is on a big lot on the water. The couple have two small boys.

   “There’s nowhere else in Palm Beach County where you can get three-fourths of an acre on the water for this price,” he said. “We love it.”


PHOTOS

Neighborhood Picnic in South Palm Park ~ May 2013