Does anyone know if there is any significant amount of filled land around Lake Euclid? By way of comparison, I found an article in the St. Petersburg Times from 2006, which said (in essence) that the apparent reason why there is so much ground settlement just southwest of Crescent Lake -- another nearby St. Pete neighborhood -- is that the lake formerly extended further south until it was filled in during the 1920's or 30's. The article gave recent examples of how some houses were so badly affected by the uneven settling that cracks developed in the walls and ceilings, which you could see through. And some of these houses have been torn down. If you drive through that neighborhood now, particularly on 13th or 12th Ave, you can see that the land on either side of the street dramatically slopes down away from the crown of the road, and you can see stairstep cracks in some houses' concrete block walls. Early in 2011, I was driving through that neighborhood, and on 13th or 12th Ave, I can't remember which right now, I saw a house where the concrete block walls were separating and falling out. You could have put your hand inside the cracks at the widest points. Since then that house has been demolished and the rubble removed.
The article aired contrasting opinions as to whether the settlement is ultimately caused by a sinkhole, or earth-movment unrelated to a sinkhole.
Crescent Lake is a lot bigger than Lake Euclid. But does anyone know the history of Lake Euclid? I recently visited the St. Pete public library on 9th Ave N, and looked through their map collection. I found some maps dating back to the mid-20's showing a street layout that didn't extend as far north as the current Lake Euclid neighborhood. But another, larger map, dated 1925, showed that in that vicinity, the most northerly street yet constructed would have been 25th Ave N, just south of the Lake Euclid of today. If I recall correctly no lake was actually depicted there, unlike Crescent Lake, which was depicted, with streets meeting the shores on the southwest corner of that lake.
I found an abstract from another St. Petersburg Times article, dated July 2, 2000, which said that the Community Preschool on 25th Ave N, had to have repair work because the building was sinking due to a drought-parched foundation, which made it possible to see daylight through the cracks.
A librarian suggested to me that the St. Petersburg Museum of History, near the pier, might have a more extensive collection of maps. I went to their website, and found that their Archives department has a large number of digitized photos and maps, and I bet they have maps showing the kind of before-and-after detail I am looking for, showing pristine land prior to any development in the 1920's or earlier, followed by the changes which were produced by filling in of wetlands, digging of reservoirs, road-building, etc. Unfortunately when I called their number I learned that the Archive department's hours are limited to Wednesday and Friday from Noon to 4PM, which are working hours for me.
