Wilton Manors

In the early twentieth century the area now know as Wilton Manors was known as Colohatchee. A train stop along the Florida East Coast Railroad near the current NE 24th Street shared that name. The name Wilton Manors was coined in 1925 by Ned Willingham, a Georgia transplant and land developer. Wilton Manors was incorporated in 1947.

The city is home to a sizable LGBT minority as well as winter vacationers, who frequent its many nightclubs and gay-owned businesses along the main street, Wilton Drive; the 2010 U.S. Census reported that it is second only to Provincetown, Massachusetts in the proportion (15%) of gay couples relative to the total population (couples as reported to the U.S. Census). It contains a large Pride Center, the World AIDS Museum and Educational Center, and a branch of the Stonewall National Museum & Archives, whose main facility is in neighboring Fort Lauderdale. The mayor, Gary Resnick, refers on his official biography to his male partner. While most of the gay guesthouses are to be found in neighboring Fort Lauderdale, a growing number are being established in Wilton Manors. A city web page highlights LGBT life in Wilton Manors, stating that "the City of Wilton Manors Police Department conducts police training that is geared towards working with the City’s LGBT population and has gay and lesbian officers amongst its ranks."

Wilton Drive is the equivalent of "Main Street" in Wilton Manors. Over the past twenty years, the Wilton Drive corridor has undergone an economic transformation. Formerly a sleepy street lined with small retail shops, Wilton Drive is now the small City's Arts & Entertainment District, home to numerous restaurants, bars, shops, condos and rental developments that have blossomed over the last decade. Many of the businesses in the Arts & Entertainment District are LGBT-owned and/or operated, and "The Drive" has become a local, regional, and national destination for LGBT tourism.

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