The Hidden Lake neighborhood was created in the early 1980’s. Before being a nice spot for single-family homes, it was an orange orchard.

You can see the area in this photo from the 1970’s, before homes were built here:

And yes, no Hidden Lake was there! Just a lot of orange trees.

Once construction was started, people began to slowly purchase a lot and use a home builder to create a space just for them.  Yes, while some of the houses look similar, everything on the interior and exterior was selected by the owners.  This includes the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, but also how large or petit each room is completed.  Many homes also use decorative stones to highlight the exterior and/or the interior to set them apart from each other.  The developers started to advertise the area to sell more homes. 

Below is a portion of an ad found from The Economist in 1981: (If you find the entire ad, please let us know!)

Here is an ad we found from a local newspaper, The Evening Independent, published on February 1, 1984:

All of the lots were filled and homes completed by the mid-1990s.  One of the most spectacular areas of our neighborhood is the actual Hidden Lake, which also includes a park.  The lake is quite large and hosts many birds and fishes.  The park includes a tennis & pickleball court, as well as a kid’s area. The park is only available for the people that live here.

Photos from Gail Anderson

If you are truly interested in our area’s history, I found the Pinellas County Historical Background from 2008 with lots of background information. Enjoy!