LAKE HIGHLAND ... the most important lake in Orlando (part 1)



LAKE HIGHLAND - 2013 [1]

Most important lake in Orlando???  You betcha!!

Our Lake Highland founded and named our city, quenched its thirst, fought its fires, fed its citizens, produced its beer, absorbed its road dirt, and just plain makes us feel good when we are near.


????  Lake Highland was originally know as Woods Lake. [2]

JAMES GAMBLE SPEER'S PLANTATION - 1861 [6]

1845  Florida attained statehood and the U.S. Congress granted 500,000 acres of land to the state to encourage settlement.  Florida began distributing the land in 1855 via the Internal Improvement Fund. [3]

c 1855  James Gamble Speer, his wife Isophoenia, and his slaves built a farm and cotton plantation on he north side of Lake Highland between Lake Ivanhoe and Lake Highland.  He probably settled the land before Florida officially started distributing land.  Speer was one of the key founding fathers of Orlando and is credited with giving the city its name. [4]

1875  The City of Orlando was incorporated.  The city limits were defined as one mile north, east, south, and west of the courthouse.  Marks Street was the city limits on the north.  Lake Highland was not inside the city. [5]

1886  City Council approved the Orlando Water Works to supply water from Lake Highland to citizens, and fire hydrants.  The steam driven pumping station was west of today's Highland Ave. near the intersection with Lake Highland Drive. [7]

The pumping station is in the background of this photo.  Using this photo and the red building on the map below, can you find where the photographer was standing?  (Hint - it's on Lake Highland Prep School property.)


ORLANDO WATER WORKS [8]

1888  A scientific examination of water from Lake Highland supplied by the Orlando Water
Company stated, "in absolute purity and freedom from all injuries or contaminating substances, the Orlando water is among the very best in the known world." [9]



ORLANDO WATER & LIGHT CO, AND ICE PLANT - 1903 [14]

1893 John Cheney, later Judge Cheney (Old Cheney Hwy), purchased control of the Water Works. [10]

1899  John Cheney fenced the Water Company on Lake Highland against cattle. [11]

1900  John Cheney's Orlando Water & Light Company built the first power plant in Orlando on Lake Highland. [12]

1903  Cheney built an ice plant at the Lake Highland site, adjacent to the power and water plants. [13]


LAKE HIGHLAND - 1915 [20]

1913  A committee of the Ladies’ Civic League requested that council “take steps toward acquiring ownership and control of the waters of Lakes Highland, Lucerne and Cherokee, together with sufficient margin of these Lakes to form the beginning of a Park System, the women of the Civic League pledging themselves to aid financially and otherwise in a plan of park development; they understood that Lake Eola was already owned in this way by the City;” on recommendation of the street committee it was ordered that these lakes be “condemned and owned  by the City of Orlando," and condemnation proceedings ordered begun. [15]

All bathing was prohibited in Lake Highland. [16]

1914 Contract was given for the masonry intake at Lake Highland for the Orlando Water & Light Company. [17]

1922 August 25, the Orlando Water and Light Company was formally transferred to the City of Orlando at a purchase price of $975,000. [18]

In September, 1922 the city began construction of its own plant on Lake Ivanhoe. [19]

As the first quarter of the twentieth century was closing, Orlando entered into a boom of prosperity and new residents.  Growth proceeded at a dizzying rate.  Lake Highland was asked to work harder for our citizens than ever before.


Do you have photos, stories, or documented facts about the Park Lake / Highland neighborhood?  I'm always looking for new information.  Contact me at -
oldstuff656@gmail.com

Please bookmark Orlando Time Machine to return often.  Subscription by email should be up-and-running in a week or two.

Next time, LAKE HIGHLAND ... the most important lake in Orlando (part 2)
 

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REFERENCES

[1]  Google Earth
[2]  Orlando a Centennial History, Vol. 1, Eve Bacon, The Micklere House, Publishers, 1975, p. 377.
[3]  Laws of the State of Flordia Passed at the Seventh Session of the General Assembly, 1865-1855,Chapter 610, "An Act to provide for and encourage a liberal system of Internal Improvements in this State," http://edocs.dlis.state.fl.us/fldocs/leg/actsflorida/actsofge54flor.pdf
[4]  History of Orlando, Willa (Vick) Griffin (Mrs. S.S. Griffin), paper written and read before Sorosis, Jan. 16, 1923.  (Orange County Public Library Florida Collection); and Central Florida Memory, http://digitalcollections.net.ucf.edu/cdm/ref/collection/CFM/id/35705
[5]  Orlando a Centennial History Vol. I, Eve Bacon, The Mickler House, Publishers, 1975, p. 377.
[6]  Map: Orange County Property Appraiser,  http://www.ocpafl.org/; Boundaries: Orange County Comptroller Book D, page 437-438, http://or.occompt.com/recorder/eagleweb/downloads/18619004437.pdf?id=DOCC4426894.A0&parent=DOCC4426894
[7]  Rick Coleman, History of the OUC Water System, an internal report to the Orlando Utilities Company, 2009, pp. 2-3.
[8]  Orange County Regional History Center; and Florida Memory, http://www.floridamemory.com/fpc/prints/pr02793.jpg
[9]  Rick Coleman, History of the OUC Water System, an internal report to the Orlando Utilities Company, 2009, p. 3.
[10]  Rick Coleman, History of the OUC Water System, an internal report to the Orlando Utilities Company, 2009, p. 4.
[11]  Orlando a Centennial History, Vol. 1, Eve Bacon, The Micklere House, Publishers, 1975, p. 213.
[12]  Rick Coleman, History of the OUC Water System, an internal report to the Orlando Utilities Company, 2009, p. 4.
[13]  Rick Coleman, History of the OUC Water System, an internal report to the Orlando Utilities Company, 2009, p. 4.
[14]  Sanborn Map Company, Insurance maps of Orlando, Florida, 1903, http://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00074209/00006/4j?search=Orlando
[15]  History of Orange County Florida, William Fremont Blackman, The Mickler House Publishers, 1973, p.107;  University of Florida Digital Collection, http://ufdc.ufl.edu/UF00055601/00001/111j
[16]  Orlando a Centennial History, Vol. 1, Eve Bacon, The Micklere House, Publishers, 1975, p. 260.
[17]  Orlando a Centennial History, Vol. 1, Eve Bacon, The Micklere House, Publishers, 1975, p. 171.
[18]  Rick Coleman, History of the OUC Water System, an internal report to the Orlando Utilities Company, 2009, p. 6.
[19]  Rick Coleman, History of the OUC Water System, an internal report to the Orlando Utilities Company, 2009, p. 6.
[20]  Florida Memory, http://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/14184