On Friday, April 16, 2004 the City of Lakewood celebrated the date of its 50th anniversary with a banquet honoring the founders of the community and residents who have made significant achievements throughout the city’s history.
Lakewood has worked hard to bring that history to life on the Web, on cable television, in an upcoming book and through live events.
Learn about many of "The Legends of Lakewood" and city history
Long-time residents may remember, and even have lived through, the heady days of Lakewood's incorporation and the “Lakewood Plan” that made it possible. Newer residents may find the stories of their city to be surprising.
An extensive special 50th Anniversary section on Lakewood Online and a new, three-part history series on CityTV Channel 31 tell the stories of Lakewood’s history, traditions, and enduring values.
Lakewood Online Special 50th Anniversary Section
Lakewood's 50th anniversary has ignited new interest in the people, events, and stories that connect the city’s history to its traditions and values.
To bring our stories to life, Lakewood Online has added new features and expanded existing collections, including never-before-published historical photographs, student and community member essays from The Write Stuff and Take Your Place in History projects, and actual documents that propelled the incorporation movement in 1953-1954.
Lakewood Plan (part 1 of 3): Lakewood city government breaks new ground
Lakewood Plan (part 2 of 3): Contracting needed good relationships
Lakewood Plan (part 3 of 3): Skeptics predicted failure for plan to contract for city services.
Expanded image archives
Expanded image archives and special document collections help illustrate 50 years of Lakewood’s history. You can click your way through a gallery of historic photographs including Lakewood's parks and recreation programs and the builders of Lakewood, founders S. Mark Taper, Ben Weingart, and Louis Boyar, who combined their vision and business skills to build the new community of Lakewood.
Lakewood's beginnings, from fields to booming suburb, are captured in “New City Born." These photos illustrate Lakewood from 1950 to 1954.
Another photo gallery features photos of the Sky Knight helicopter patrol program. Click here to view images of the chopper’s early years. Since 1996, Sky Knight has proven itself daily as one of the most effective multi-jurisdictional aerial law enforcement units in the nation.
Book: The Lakewood Story: History, Traditions, Values
LBook: The Lakewood Story: History, Traditions, Values akewood's early boast of “The City as New as Tomorrow" came with all the optimism that thousands of young men and women, weary of the war years and the Great Depression, could summon. Beginning in 1950, they moved to the largest planned housing development in America, put down roots, and built a flourishing community where there had been fields the year before.
That history is brought to life and linked to the present in "The Lakewood Story: History, Traditions, Values."
Against all the odds, young and optimistic Lakewood residents made their neighborhoods into California’s newest city, founded on new principles of local government, and made their way into the future that lay ahead.
The Lakewood Story: History, Traditions, Values" explores a pivotal moment in American history and looks at the reasons why Lakewood has answered the aspirations of so many of its residents, then and now.
Its release is expected on May 11, 2004, and it will be available at city hall (one copy per family) and online at the Club Lakewood eStore, /club-lakewood.
LBook: The Lakewood Story: History, Traditions, Values akewood's early boast of “The City as New as Tomorrow" came with all the optimism that thousands of young men and women, weary of the war years and the Great Depression, could summon. Beginning in 1950, they moved to the largest planned housing development in America, put down roots, and built a flourishing community where there had been fields the year before.
