Portal:Florida/Selected article/20
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Launch Complex 39 is a rocket launch site at the John F. Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island in Florida, USA. The site and its collection of facilities were originally built for the Apollo program, and later modified to support Space Shuttle operations. NASA began modifying LC-39 in 2007 to accommodate Project Constellation.
The first development on this site was in 1890 when several wealthy graduates of Harvard University purchased 18,000 acres for $1 per acre. Very nearly on the site, the graduates constructed a three-story mahogony clubhouse with twenty rooms for members and guests. The club featured a large dining room, a wine cellar and a trophy room, and plenty of storage for arms and ammunition. Atop the lodge, there was a view of both the ocean and wildlife that resided in the surrounding marsh. During the 1920s, P. E. Studebaker, son of the automobile magnate, built a small casino at De Soto Beach eight miles north of the Canaveral lighthouse to lure buyers to the site where plans were being developed for an elaborate resort city, complete with water, sewer, sidewalks, street lights, and landscaping. Also, the Playa Linda Development Corporation sought buyers to their 'proposed' development of 8000 quarter acre lots advertised as the "greatest beach development north of Miami." Prior to the construction of the complex, State Road A1A ran east of the complex. Along this rural ocean road was United States Coast Guard Station Chester Shoals built in 1885.
