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As the Lake Mirror Promenade nears the century mark, the walkway has been undergoing a series of repairs to deteriorated areas, with more needed going forward.
Pam Page, the assistant director of Lakeland Parks, Recreation and Cultural Arts, updated the City Commission at a project workshop earlier in April, recapping preservation efforts that have been made over the last five years, at a cost of nearly $469,000.
The City of Lakeland’s Capital Improvement Fund has covered funding for cleaning and repairs up to this point, but there is no money allocated for repairs beyond this year.
“This is a Lakeland gem, and we have to take care of it,” Page said during the workshop.
“In the 1990s we turned our backs on it, and it caught up with us.”
The promenade is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Handled with care: Page explained that the loggia (porch-like entryway) and balustrades (decorative white stone railings) have been cleaned now.
More than 100 areas on the balustrades needed repairs.
American Masonry handled the cleaning and repairs. The New York company is known for its historic restoration work on sites such as Mount Vernon, Fort Ticonderoga and the FDR library.
Bryan Snell, American Masonry founder and president, and his team of four others found exposed rebar on the loggia and horizontal cracks in some of the promenade’s columns.
Damage from Hurricane Milton last October exacerbated some of those cracks.
“There were a lot of areas that were deteriorated,” Snell said.
“Concrete has the ability to take in moisture and the rebar inside of it gets saturated and rusty.”
The columns were fortified with two stainless steel rods at the base of each to help them better stand up to future hurricanes.
“They paid great attention to detail,” said Page of American Masonry’s work.
“They brought dental instruments and carved into (the columns and balustrades) so they wouldn’t look new.”
Snell’s crew tried to keep its work faithful to the original construction, including paint to match repaired and original sections of the promenade.
Future repairs and funding in doubt: American Masonry — which served as a subcontractor to Lakeland’s Rodda Construction — will finish its work this week, giving way to another team that will conduct a study in coming weeks to identify where additional repairs need to be made.
“This is not the end of our troubles,” Page said. “We have water intrusion on the loggia… and we are going to see what needs to be done with that.
”Identifying the issues with the historical landmark is only part of problem,” Page said.
There is currently no money allocated for repairs in the 2026 budget.
A possible solution could be the Friends of Lake Mirror Fund, which was founded to “ensure the care and maintenance of the promenade, seawall, landings, amphitheater, lighting, landscaping, grounds, and any damage to flora and fauna.”
That fund has raised more than $330,000 but is limited by a spending formula that will cap the available funds at $166,000, according to Page.
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Good reporting.