The History of
Cleveland Heights |
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Cleveland, Ohio real estate magnate H. A. Stahl began vacationing in central Florida in the early 1920s. One of his destinations was Lakeland, then the spring training home of the Cleveland Indians baseball team. Sensing an opportunity to promote their city, the Lakeland Chamber of Commerce invited Stahl to visit the city in late 1923 for the purpose of "studying the possibility of developing a large subdivision in the area."
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Stahl was suitably impressed by his tour and spent time over the next several months searching for an available parcel of land on which to build a large housing development. The search ended in October 1924 when Stahl purchase 560 acres on the south side of Lake Hollingsworth for $935,000. He planned a development similar to his Madison Golf Lakelands in Cleveland. Before the end of the year he had sent several members of his development staff from Cleveland to oversee the construction of the development, which became known as "Cleveland Heights" after Stahls home city. Streets were laid out and a sales office built at the corner of Lake Hollingsworth Drive and what is now known as Cleveland Heights Boulevard.
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To provide recreational opportunities for the residents of Cleveland Heights, Stahl included plans for a golf course in his new development. He hired Cleveland architect H. P. Whitworth to design the clubhouse and the golf course architectural firm of Toomey and Flynn to lay out a championship eighteen hole golf course. The golf course and the clubhouse, the latter built on the shore of Lake Hollingsworth, opened in the spring of 1925.
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With the golf course and clubhouse amenities in place, the Cleveland Heights grew rapidly in 1925 and 1926. By 1927, however, the Florida land boom had gone bust. Stahl, as did many other Florida real estate developers, encountered severe financial difficulties, and was forced to put the golf course and clubhouse up for sale for delinquent taxes. The city took over both properties by the end of the decade. The city continues to own and operate the golf course and added nine holes to the original eighteen-hole layout in the early 1980s. The clubhouse remained empty for nearly five years until the city leased it to the newly organized Lakeland Yacht and Country Club in 1935. The Yacht Club continued to lease the facility from the city of Lakeland until it purchased the building in the late 1950s.
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