Lake Worth's first Chamber of Commerce building

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July 1912, originally called the
Lake Worth Commercial Club changed its name two months later to
the Lake Worth Chamber of Commerce
 according to Lake Worth Jewel of the Goldcoast.
  At that time, we had
38 people residing in Lake Worth.

The building is now called The Trojan House--
soon to be a memory

The purchase of the above building was approved by former mayor Tom Ramiccio's regime. In 2004, It was  donated to Lake Worth High School probably because the City of Lake Worth could not and never has maintained one building it owns. It was an exchange for 4 residential properties that were given to the CDC (We love to give away property) that sold them to the CRA.  Lake Worth High's Shop class was to learn skills and renovate it for a Trojan Building. We all have been looking at this blue tarped building forever. The students worked on it for awhile but it never seemed to get off the ground and work was stopped after the person in charged passed away.


This building, built originally in 1911 and opened in 1912 as the first Chamber of Commerce building in our city, is shown in the book, page 182, Lake Worth, Jewel of the GoldCoast by Jonathan Koontz and how it looked in 1997. The condition of this historic property, situated on land zoned as MF20, is like night and day today. It was listed for sale in 2013. Bo Allen is the real estate broker involved in handling the property. I believe that he was also on the Ramiccio regime as a commissioner of District 3 when the city purchased it from the Chamber of Commerce.

The school is selling it back to the city.  It's been in decay for years and because it's school board property, we have never done anything about the eyesore. Apparently, the city started a code file on it this year and the city  will assume the fines--those code fines probably prompted its sale. It has been appraised by an outside appraiser who charged $1,000 for his report at $35,000 (land value only).  According to PAPA, it's worth, $61,874. The Purchase and Sale Contract, will result in the City acquiring the property.

The Summary in the Agenda's back-up says: The Purchase and Sale Contract, will result in the City acquiring the property at 1702 Lake Worth Road and Trojan House, Inc., receiving approximately $30,000 to be used to establish a construction lab for Lake Worth students. Additionally, up to $10,000 for demolition, document recording and lot improvement.

The wheeling dealing continues in our city. This was a property that was bought to preserve our history but turned out to be just another historical property, mismanaged with bad decisions made by the city, that was allowed to rot. We deeded it to the school and now we are buying it back to demolish it. Watch this property eventually go to the CRA to build more affordable housing.

I would suppose that the secret to maintaining property we own is to either give it away or knock it down but then we would have to mow the vacant land. What a drag.