Lauderhill, Florida

Etymology

The development that eventually came to be known as Lauderhill was originally to be named "Sunnydale", but William Safire, a friend of the developer, Herbert Sadkin, convinced him to change his mind. Safire felt that "Sunnydale" sounded like a neighborhood in Brooklyn. Sadkin said there were no hills in the new town, to which Safire replied, "There are probably no dales in Lauderdale, either!" From that discussion, the name "Lauderhill" was coined. The development eventually grew to become Lauderhill, the city.

History

Lauderhill was one of two developments (the other in New York) that began largely as off-the-shelf architectural designs which had been available to the public at Macy's department store. The homes, which had been designed by Andrew Geller, had originally been on display at the "Typical American House" at the American Exhibition in Moscow. Following a group of approximately 200 of the homes constructed in Montauk, New York in 1963 and 1964, the same developer, Herbert Sadkin of the New York-based All-State Properties reprised his success in New York, building a series of similar homes in Florida, calling the development Lauderhill.

In 2003, the New York Times described the Macy's homes:

In 1970, the Inverrary Country Club was built, and in 1972 its golf course became home to the Jackie Gleason Inverrary Classic. Gleason himself built his final home on the golf course. Up until the late 1980s-early 1990s, Lauderhill was mostly a retirement community for Jews and a second home for snowbirds (especially in the Inverrary neighborhood). It is now home to mostly Jamaicans, West Indians and African Americans, but it still has a sizeable white, Jewish, and Hispanic population in the Northwest section and in the Inverrary neighborhood, located north of Oakland Park Boulevard and east of University Drive).

On November 9, 2007, in the Central Broward Regional Park, the Main Event cricket field was opened, and on May 22, 2010, became the first ground to host an international between two full members of the ICC on U.S. soil. The park features many other sports venues as well.

Geography

Lauderhill is located at 26°9′56″N 80°13′57″W (26.165679, -80.232589) in north-central Broward County.

The city borders the following municipalities:

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 8.6 square miles (22.2 km²), of which 8.5 square miles (22.1 km²) is land and 0.04 square miles (0.1 km²) is water (0.37%).

Demographics

Lauderhill has a high foreign-born population, with a noticeable proportion from the West Indies. In 2000, 33.65% of Lauderhill's population was born outside of the United States (24.63% were born in the Caribbean, and 14.73% from Jamaica alone). Other major West Indian populations were born in Haiti, Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, Dominica, The Bahamas, Guyana, U.S. Virgin Islands, and other Caribbean nations.

As of 2010, there were 29,519 households, with 15.9% being vacant. As of 2000, 31.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 37.4% were married couples living together, 20.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 37.4% were non-families. 31.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 13.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.49 and the average family size was 3.12.

As of 2000, in the city the population was spread out with 26.6% under the age of 18, 8.7% from 18 to 24, 30.3% from 25 to 44, 18.3% from 45 to 64, and 16.1% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females there were 84.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 78.0 males.

In 2000, the median income for a household in the city was $32,515, and the median income for a family was $36,723. Males had a median income of $29,756 versus $25,167 for females. The per capita income for the city was $17,243. About 15.5% of families and 17.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 25.0% of those under age 18 and 13.1% of those age 65 or over.

In 2000, English was the sole home language of 79.14% of the population. Haitian Creole was spoken at home by 7.85% of residents, Spanish by 6.92%, French by 2.69%, Yiddish by 0.59%, and Hebrew by 0.45% of residents.

As of 2010, Lauderhill had the highest percentage of residents of Jamaican ancestry in the United States, at 20.11% of the city's population, and the percentage of Haitian residents in the United States, at 12.9% of the city's population

Notable person