Sebring, Florida

Sebring is a city in Highlands County, Florida, United States, nicknamed "The City on the Circle", in reference to Circle Drive, the center of the Sebring Downtown Historic District. In 2010, the United States Census Bureau a population of 10,491. It is the county seat of Highlands County, and is the principal city of the Sebring Micropolitan area.

Sebring is the home of the Sebring International Raceway, created on a former airbase, first used in 1950. It hosted the 1959 Formula One United States Grand Prix, but is currently best known as the host of the 12 Hours of Sebring, an annually held American Le Mans Series race. Nearby Highlands Hammock State Park is a popular attraction. Additionally, the house where novelist Rex Beach committed suicide is located on one of Sebring's main lakes, Lake Jackson.

History
Sebring was founded in 1912. It was named after George Sebring, a pottery manufacturer from Ohio who developed the city. The village of Sebring, Ohio is also named for George E. Sebring (1859–1927) and his family. It was chartered by the state of Florida in 1913, and was selected as the county seat of Highlands County when the county was created in 1921.

Geography and climate
Sebring is located at 27.49556°N, -81.44444°W. According to the Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 11.01 sqmi, 5.13 sqmi of which is land and 5.88 sqmi of which is water. Water comprises 53.4% of the city's total area.

The city's geography is dominated by 9212 acre Lake Jackson, but 420 acre Dinner Lake and 137 acre Little Lake Jackson are also within the city limits. Highlands county has more than 84 lakes, most of which are located in unincorporated areas of the county. Sebring lies on the southern end of the Lake Wales Ridge, a chain of ancient islands that is the native habitat for many rare plants and animals. Most of the area is rural and part of the Florida scrub ecosystem, with smaller areas of hammocks and cypress swamps, similar to those found at Highlands Hammock State Park, four miles (6 km) west of Sebring.

Sebring's climate is a humid subtropical climate (Köppen climate classification Cfa), with hot, humid summers and cool, dry winters. Unlike most places with a similar climate classification, Sebring's rainfall is clearly seasonal, with approximately 57 percent of the total rainfall occurring in the June–September summer period. However, the variation between the wettest and driest months does not reach the threshold required for climate classification Cwa, which requires the wettest month to have ten times the precipitation of the driest month.

Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 9,667 people, 3,969 households, and 2,305 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,883.7 per square mile (727.6/km²). There were 5,024 housing units at an average density of 979.0 per square mile (378.1/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 75.81% White, 15.69% African American, 0.57% Native American, 0.74% Asian, 0.10% Pacific Islander, 5.06% from other races, and 2.02% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 11.00% of the population.

There were 3,969 households out of which 23.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 42.0% were married couples living together, 12.0% had a female householder with no husband present, and 41.9% were non-families. 36.0% of all households were made up of individuals and 21.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.25 and the average family size was 2.91.

In the city the population was spread out with 22.1% under the age of 18, 7.9% from 18 to 24, 22.8% from 25 to 44, 19.4% from 45 to 64, and 27.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 42 years. For every 100 females there were 91.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 88.6 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $23,555, and the median income for a family was $29,915. Males had a median income of $21,799 versus $19,167 for females. The per capita income for the city was $15,125. About 17.4% of families and 23.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 36.0% of those under age 18 and 12.0% of those age 65 or over.

As of 2000, speakers of English as a first language accounted for 89.39% of residents. Other languages in the city included Spanish, spoken by 10.18% of the city's residents, and French, spoken by 0.42%.

Education
According to the 2000 American Community Survey (conducted by the US Census Bureau), 13.8% of all adults over the age of 25 in Sebring have obtained a bachelor's degree, as compared to a national average of 24.4% of adults over 25, and 67.6% of Sebring residents over the age of 25 have earned a high school diploma, as compared to the national average of 80.4%. The School Board of Highlands County operates eight public schools drawing from the city of Sebring with a combined enrollment of approximately 6200 students; one kindergarten center, four elementary schools (1st through 5th grades), two middle schools (6th through 8th grades), and one high school (Sebring High School). One of the elementary schools and both of the middle schools received "A" grades under Florida's A+ school grading plan, based on pupil results on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test; none of the schools received a "D" or "F" grade. The county's graduation rate of 69.6% is below the state average, and the dropout rate of 5.7% is above the state average of 3.5%.

During segregation time, E.O. Douglass High School, Home of the Mighty Tigers, was located in this city for blacks throughout Highlands County. The last graduating class from this school is 1967. After desegregation, students from E.O. Douglass transferred to Lake Placid High and other schools that were provided to whites.

There is one community college in Highlands County, South Florida Community College; its main campus is located just north of Sebring in neighboring Avon Park. There are no four-year colleges in Sebring or in the county.

Transportation
Sebring has no interstate highways or other limited access roads. U.S. Route 27 (cosigned with U.S. Route 98 in Sebring) is the major artery providing access to the rest of the state. State Road 17 begins in Sebring and heads north to its terminus in Haines City. State Road 64 (to the north) and State Road 66 (to the south) are important secondary roads. Several of Sebring's streets are named after automobile manufacturers or their models, as is evident in Peugeot Street, Ferrari Drive, Porsche Avenue, Vantage Terrace, Corvette Avenue, and Thunderbird Road, to name a few.

Sebring Regional Airport is located a few miles southeast of the city and provides general aviation facilities for Sebring. The airport is also the home of the Sebring International Raceway, the host of the 12 Hours of Sebring American Le Mans Series automobile race, held annually in March. The nearest regularly scheduled passenger service is provided at Orlando International Airport, 70 mi to the north. The airport has also hosted the annual US Sport Aviation Expo for eight years.

The city is served by Amtrak from the Sebring Train Station, a depot built in 1924 by the Seaboard Air Line and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Amtrak's daily service to Sebring consists of two trains each from the Silver Meteor and Silver Star, heading south to Miami and north to Tampa, Orlando and New York City. CSX Transportation owns the track over which Amtrak operates. The South Central Florida Express railroad connects to the CSX line in Sebring, allowing transportation of sugar from Clewiston to the rest of the country.

Television
Sebring is located in a fringe viewing area of the Tampa-St. Petersburg television market (DMA). In addition to the primary Tampa-market television signals, local services offer signals from WFTV, the ABC affiliate in Orlando and WINK, the CBS affiliate in Fort Myers/Naples.

Radio
Sebring is the largest city in the Sebring radio market, which is ranked as the 288th largest in the United States by Arbitron. Radio stations broadcasting from Sebring include WGSE (95.7FM/Religious), WWLL (105.7FM/Adult Contemporary), WITS (1340AM/Standards), and WJCM (1050AM/Oldies). The latter three are co-owned with WWOJ (99.1FM/Country), licensed to neighboring Avon Park and WWTK (730AM/News-Talk), licensed to Lake Placid, to the south. The five stations together operate from studios in Sebring on Highway 27 near the town's northern city limit.

Newspapers
Local print media include the News-Sun, a newspaper published on Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday, and Highlands Today, a daily local supplement to The Tampa Tribune that covers newsworthy events in Highlands County. The weekly Lake Placid Journal, printed in nearby Lake Placid, is also available.

Famous people from Sebring

 * Tom Gordon, Major League Baseball player
 * Frankie Neal, National Football League player
 * Gabe White, Major League Baseball player
 * Major Thomas B. McGuire, Jr., World War 2 fighter ace, Medal of Honor recipient