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Sebring International Raceway
Home of the Annual
12 Hours of Sebring
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By the late twenties
an end to the boom was caused by fraudulent land
sales, railroad embargoes and clogged shipyards.
Following the “Crash of ‘29,”
the area's economy was given a huge boost by the
development of Highlands Hammock State Park,
a Civilian Conservation Corps project,
and the establishment of Hendricks Field,
a WW-II bomber training base, by the US Army Air
Force.
Today, the Sebring Regional Airport
is on that same site. It is quite common for the
Chamber of Commerce to meet visitors who served
as U.S. Army Air Force Cadets in training at Hendricks
Field and whom return many years later
with wives and family members to show them where
they learned to fly and maintain military aircraft.
Because some of the wives were local Sebring girls,
the lives of these families and the history of
the airport will forever be intertwined. |
Area pride
and excitement was revived in the 50’s when
annual international sports car racing began at
the airport, using excess runways. The world renowned
“12 Hours of Sebring”
was born at the airport and continues today as
the oldest road race of its kind in North America.
Well over 100,000 people from
all over the world attend this annual event. |
Sebring Circle - Photo by Ted Shoemaker |
Like many downtown areas
across America, downtown Sebring suffered a slump
in the 70’s that began to correct itself in
the 80’s. Downtown Sebring, which was chartered
in 1913, has been designated a 1920’s Historic
District on the National Register
of Historic Places.
Archival records claim that George Sebring's
“Circle Plan” for downtown was based
on the design of Heliopolis,
an ancient Egyptian city. Looking to the future,
the Sebring City Council, through special legislation,
created the Community Redevelopment Agency
(CRA) to spearhead redevelopment in the
downtown area. As a result of outstanding efforts
by this agency, Sebring was named a “Florida
Main Street Community” in 1996
and since that time over $16 million dollars has
been reinvested in downtown. |
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227 US Hwy 27 North, Sebring, Florida 33870 Phone (863) 385-8448 Fax (863)
385-8810
All content is Copyright 2007 Sebring Chamber of Commerce. |
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