Live in Lakewood Estates
A 1924 golf-course suburb between 31st Street South and Boyd Hill Nature Preserve where the City recorded no Helene damage and FEMA's 1% flood zone holds no one, but 3,743 of the 4,402 residents live in the county's evacuation zones D and E, so in the strongest storms the plan is still to leave.
Lakewood Estates grew up around the Lakewood Country Club, which opened in 1924 with a course by the English golf architect Herbert Strong and Charles Hall as the developer of the estates around it; the club has been the private St. Petersburg Country Club since May 2000, and its course is still inside the line at 2000 Country Club Way South. This guide is the area the Lakewood Estates Civic Association filed on the City's map, 960 acres north of 54th Avenue South and east of 31st Street South where the 2020 census counted 4,402 residents in 1,864 housing units, with Maximo Elementary inside and Boyd Hill Nature Preserve and Lake Maggiore just outside to the north-east. The ground sits higher than the bay shore: FEMA's map puts 0.5% of the area and none of its residents in the 1% annual chance flood zone, and the City recorded no damage assessment here after Hurricane Helene in 2024, though it assessed 26 parcels after Milton. Zillow's typical value for ZIP code 33712, which holds 3,835 of the residents, was $321,132 in August 2026, but that ZIP held 26,395 people in 2020, most of them in Pinellas Point and the blocks north of it, and is not a Lakewood Estates price.
A country club suburb on higher ground, still inside the evacuation map
The area the Lakewood Estates Civic Association serves, as the City of St. Petersburg's Neighborhood Associations layer maps it (OBJECTID 19790, association number 46, last edited 28 September 2026): a line the association filed, not one the City drew, clipped to the City's current limits, 960 acres. Traced against the Census Bureau's road files, it runs north up 31st Street South from 54th Avenue South to 35th Avenue South, with Interstate 275 about 200 m west of it; east along 35th Avenue South to Country Club Drive South; along the edge of Boyd Hill Nature Preserve, which is in no association's area, to Country Club Way South; south-east down Country Club Way South to Jasmine Way South; south down Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street South to 54th Avenue South; and west along 54th Avenue South back to 31st Street. Lake Maggiore and the preserve are outside to the north-east, and Pinellas Point, with Lakewood High School, is across 54th Avenue South. Inside are the St. Petersburg Country Club's course, Maximo Elementary School and one City landmark, the Custer-Moore Residence on Alhambra Way South. All of it is in Pinellas County and Pinellas County Schools, and no City historic district or National Register district overlaps it.
Lakewood Estates was laid out around a golf course. The Lakewood Country Club opened in 1924 with a course by Herbert Strong, and Charles Hall developed the estates around it; the club took the name St. Petersburg Country Club in May 2000 and is private, and its course at 2000 Country Club Way South is still inside the line. Its streets include Alhambra, Alcazar, Aragon, Asturia and De Soto Ways. One house here is a City landmark, the Custer-Moore Residence on Alhambra Way South. No City historic district or National Register district covers the rest, so exterior work outside that one landmark meets no historic review.
The line is the civic association's, not the City's. This guide is the area the Lakewood Estates Civic Association filed on the City's map: 960 acres from 31st Street South, with Interstate 275 just beyond it, east to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Street South, and from 54th Avenue South north to 35th Avenue and the edge of Boyd Hill Nature Preserve. The 2020 census counted 4,402 residents in 1,864 housing units. Maximo Elementary is inside; Lakewood High School, despite the name, is across 54th Avenue in Pinellas Point; Boyd Hill and Lake Maggiore are in no association's area.
The water story here is different from the bay shore's. FEMA's map puts 0.5% of the area and no resident in its 1% annual chance flood zone, and after Helene's record surge in September 2024 the City's damage assessments recorded no parcel inside the line. Milton, two weeks later, was the storm that reached here: the City assessed 26 parcels afterward, 8 with major damage and 4 with water inside. Those are assessment points, one per parcel, not a count of homes. And the evacuation map tells a third story: the parcel at the reference point is in Zone E, and 3,743 of the residents live in zones D and E, which Pinellas County sizes for surges of up to 28 and 35 feet. Dry in 2024 does not mean staying put in a major hurricane. A homeowners policy does not cover rising water, and a Citizens policy with wind cover must carry flood from 1 January 2027.
No price index follows the line. ZIP code 33712 holds 3,835 of the residents, and Zillow's typical value there was $321,132 in August 2026, about level with a year earlier, but the ZIP held 26,395 people in 2020, 10,282 of them in Pinellas Point. The whole city's figure was $355,759 in June 2026. Every address pays the same Pinellas stack, 19.9197 mills for 2025. A homesteaded buyer at the ZIP figure owes about $5,558 a year after Florida's homestead exemption, $25,000 off every levy and a second, indexed slice off all but the school board's; a landlord owes about $6,397. Stormwater comes on the City utility bill, $12.67 to $59.08 a month for a house from 1 October 2026. Save Our Homes caps a homestead's assessed value at 3% a year and resets on a sale, so the seller's bill understates yours. The arithmetic is on the St. Petersburg page.
- Look the address up in the County's Know Your Zone lookup as well as on FEMA's map
- Ask what the house did in Milton in October 2024, not only in Helene
- Get a flood quote even in Zone X; the 0.2% annual chance zone covers 8.3% of the area
- File for the homestead exemption with the Pinellas County Property Appraiser by 1 March of the year after you buy
How Lakewood Estates got here
- 1924The Lakewood Country Club opens with a course by Herbert Strong; Charles Hall is the developer of Lakewood Estates around it.
- 1987The present Sunshine Skyway Bridge opens on 20 April, carrying Interstate 275, which passes just west of 31st Street South, across Lower Tampa Bay.
- 2000In May the Lakewood Country Club takes the name St. Petersburg Country Club; it remains a private club at 2000 Country Club Way South.
- 2020The census counts 4,402 residents and 1,864 housing units inside the association's line.
- 2021FEMA's revised Pinellas County flood maps take effect on 24 August, putting 0.5% of the area in the 1% annual chance zone.
- 2024Hurricane Helene's surge sets a record at the St. Petersburg tide gauge on 26 September, and the City records no damage assessment inside the line; after Milton on 9 and 10 October it assesses 26 parcels, 8 with major damage and 4 with water inside.
- 2026In January the School Board approves a K-8 school combining Bay Point Elementary and Bay Point Middle on the middle school's campus; Maximo Elementary is graded A. PSTA's new schedule starts on 4 October.
A nature preserve on Lake Maggiore across Country Club Way
Boyd Hill Nature Preserve, at 1101 Country Club Way South, runs along the north-eastern edge: trails through pine flatwoods, scrub, hammock and marsh on the shore of Lake Maggiore, with gopher tortoises and alligators. The City gives it 400 acres; Wikipedia gives 245, and neither says what the other counts. It charges $3 an adult and closes on Mondays. Inside the line the City's park layer has only Maximo Elementary's playground.
What the map does not show: the preserve's nature center exhibits are closed for renovation; the trails are open, closing at 6:30 p.m. from March to October and 5:30 p.m. in winter.
Elsewhere in St. Petersburg, not Lakewood Estates
20 places, with real drive times
Road-adjusted distance and drive time from the centre of the community to each destination, nearest first. Filter by category.
Showing 1–12 of 20 places, nearest first.
Method: straight lines from OpenStreetMap's Lakewood Estates node near Columbus Way South, times a road factor of 1.32, with a tiered speed model for the drive: honest ranges, not routed times.
Every gym within reach
The nearest City recreation center is Lake Vista, about 2 km south across 54th Avenue, with an indoor gym, courts, a skatepark and an outdoor fitness center. Its pool is a summer pool. The Jim & Heather Gills YMCA on 1st Avenue South has the nearest indoor lap pool.
- Lake Vista Recreation Center: about 3 km, indoor gym and courts
- Lake Vista Pool: about 3 km, open in summer
- Jim & Heather Gills YMCA: about 6.5 km, indoor heated pool
| Facility | What it is | Drive |
|---|---|---|
| Lake Vista Recreation Center open | The City's recreation center at 1401 62nd Avenue South: an indoor gymnasium, tennis and basketball courts, a skatepark and the park's outdoor fitness center; open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday to Thursday and to 7 p.m. on Friday, closed at weekends. | 6–9 min |
| Lake Vista Pool open | The City pool at 1450 60th Avenue South, one of the six that open only for summer; the year-round City pools are farther north. | 6–9 min |
| Jim & Heather Gills YMCA open | The YMCA of Greater St. Petersburg's wellness center at 3200 1st Avenue South: an indoor heated pool with lap lanes, a full-size gymnasium, a cycling studio, a climbing wall, free weights and cardio machines. | 9–14 min |
The free option is Lake Vista Park's outdoor fitness center and trails, which connect to the Pinellas Trail.
An A-graded school inside the line, and a K-8 coming at Bay Point
Every address is in Pinellas County Schools, which zones each home to one elementary, one middle and one high school. At the reference point the locator gives Maximo Elementary, inside the line; Bay Point Middle; and Lakewood High, all graded A for 2026. 535 residents are zoned to Lakewood Elementary, also an A. In January 2026 the School Board approved combining Bay Point Elementary and Middle into a K-8 on the middle school's campus.
| School | Board | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Maximo Elementary School | Pinellas County Schools | 4850 31st Street South, inside the line. Pinellas County Schools zones every address to one elementary, one middle and one high school, and the district's School Zone Locator gives Maximo for 2026-27 at 4415 Columbus Way South, the address point beside the reference point, with no change proposed for 2027-28. The guide is split: on the district's zoning map 3,867 residents are in Maximo's zone and 535 in Lakewood Elementary's, which was graded A for 2026. Maximo was graded A for 2026, B for 2025 and C for 2024. |
| Bay Point Middle School | Pinellas County Schools | 2151 62nd Avenue South: zoned at the reference point for 2026-27. Graded A for 2026, B for 2025 and C for 2024. The School Board approved a K-8 school combining Bay Point Elementary and Bay Point Middle on this campus in January 2026; the locator shows no change for this address for 2027-28. |
| Lakewood High School | Pinellas County Schools | 1400 54th Avenue South, just across the southern edge: the high school zone for every resident. Graded A for 2026, B for 2025 and C for 2024. The district's magnet and fundamental programs take applications from 5 to 15 January 2027 for 2027-28, and applying does not change the zoned school. Grades are the state's 2026 file as CBS12 republished it, because the Department of Education's site refused automated requests; run your own address in the locator. |
Run your own address in the School Zone Locator; it shows no change here for 2027-28. Magnet and fundamental programs take applications from 5 to 15 January 2027.
Month by month, what living here looks like
Not a highlights reel: the actual annual rhythm, including the dates residents have to remember.
- Highs near 20.6 °C and lows near 12.9 °C at Albert Whitted Airport on the downtown waterfront, about 5 km north-east, on NOAA's 1991 to 2020 normals, which it flags as representative rather than standard; inland nights here can run a little cooler
- If you bought last year, the homestead exemption is due with the Pinellas County Property Appraiser by 1 March
- Magnet and fundamental program applications for 2027-28 run from 5 to 15 January 2027
- Highs near 22.2 °C and about 51 mm of rain
- Boyd Hill Nature Preserve keeps its winter hours to 25 February: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., from 7 a.m. on Saturday, closed Mondays
- 1 March is the deadline for the homestead exemption and for portability of a previous Florida homestead's Save Our Homes benefit
- Boyd Hill's longer hours start on 1 March: to 7 p.m., trails closing at 6:30
- About 49 mm of rain, one of the driest months, with highs near 27.2 °C
- Highs near 30.2 °C, with about 5 days reaching 32 °C
- The Saturday Morning Market's last month at Al Lang Stadium downtown before its summer home at Williams Park
- The Atlantic hurricane season runs from 1 June to 30 November; most of this neighborhood is in evacuation zones D and E, sized for the largest surges
- The summer afternoon storms begin: about 172 mm of rain, against 57 mm in May
- Lake Vista Pool, about 2 km south, is one of the City's summer pools
- Highs near 32 °C and lows near 25.6 °C, with about 17 days reaching 32 °C
- About 190 mm of rain, most of it in afternoon storms
- The property appraiser mails the TRIM notice of proposed taxes in mid-August, and a petition to the Value Adjustment Board is due within 25 days of the mailing
- The wettest month on the normals, about 213 mm, with about 19 days reaching 32 °C
- The Atlantic season peaks around 10 September
- Helene's surge on 26 September 2024 set a record at the St. Petersburg tide gauge; the City assessed no parcel inside this line afterward
- About 169 mm of rain
- The City's utility rates for 2026-27 take effect on 1 October; the monthly stormwater charge for a single-family home runs from $12.67 to $59.08 by impervious area
- PSTA's new schedule starts on 4 October 2026; Route 4 on 54th Avenue South keeps its midday frequency
- Milton came through on 9 and 10 October 2024; the City assessed 26 parcels here afterward, 4 with water inside, more than after Helene
- Boyd Hill's winter hours start on 1 November: to 6 p.m., trails closing at 5:30
- Hurricane season ends on 30 November; about 37 mm of rain, the driest month on the normals
- Highs near 21.9 °C and about 61 mm of rain
- If you closed this year, the bill in hand is the seller's: Save Our Homes resets the assessment to market value the January after a sale
Every photograph in this guide's library is above
This library holds 8 photographs and the page has already printed all of them, each once. The credits are in the footer.
About these photographs. Openly licensed images from the site's shared St. Petersburg library, found on Wikimedia Commons and served from there with full attribution. None of them is presented as a photograph of Lakewood Estates.