Lake Lucerne

Orlando, Florida · circa 1910s

Date

Circa 1910s

Location

Orlando, Florida

Publisher

E. C. Kropp Co., Milwaukee

Format

Postcard

Reference

CPV2-0009

A neighborhood on the water

Lake Lucerne sits at the southern edge of downtown Orlando, just north of Lake Cherokee. On this postcard, a palm frames a lone paddler while a path curves along the water toward a row of houses. The lake and its shoreline are as much a part of the scene as the homes.

When the railroad reached Orlando in the 1880s, homes and businesses began to spread around Lake Lucerne and nearby Lake Minnie, now Lake Cherokee. The neighborhood continued growing through the early twentieth century. One surviving example near the lake is the Peleg Peckham–Dr. Phillips House, built in 1893 on North Lucerne Circle East. It gives a sense of the era in which this shoreline developed. The houses in the postcard have yet to be identified.

Sources

• City of Orlando map of the Lake Lucerne area
• Orlando Historic Preservation Board history of Lake Cherokee
• City of Orlando historic district guide