Palm Beach (island)
Palm Beach is an 18-mile (29 km) long barrier island situated along the southeast coast of Florida, separated from the city of West Palm Beach to the west by the Lake Worth Lagoon, a stretch of the Intracoastal Waterway, and bordered on the east by the Atlantic Ocean.[1] The island is home to the incorporated Town of Palm Beach, one of the most exclusive resort communities in the United States, which had a year-round population of 9,245 as of the 2020 census, though its seasonal population swells considerably each winter. At no point is the island wider than three-quarters of a mile (1.2 km), and in places it is only 500 feet (150 m) wide. The island and its lone municipality share an intimate geographic and historical relationship with West Palm Beach — a city that was itself created, in significant part, to serve the resort economy of the island across the lagoon.
Geography and Geology
Palm Beach is one of the easternmost towns in Florida. The town is situated on an 18-mile (29 km) long barrier island between the Intracoastal Waterway (locally known as the Lake Worth Lagoon) on the west and the Atlantic Ocean on the east. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 8.12 square miles (21.0 km²), with land accounting for 4.20 square miles (10.9 km²) and water covering the remaining 3.92 square miles (10.2 km²).
Geologically, the island is a sand-covered ridge of coquina rock. Before settlement, the island was a pronounced coastal ridge bordering the Atlantic Ocean. The Intracoastal Waterway coast was primarily low-lying and swampy; marshy sloughs generally lay between the two features, though an oolitic limestone ridge stood along some parts of the island's westward side. Since 1883, the environment has been significantly altered by developing land, the filling of the sloughs, and a receding coastline due to erosion, but the Atlantic ridge is still the dominating topographical feature of the island and acts as a seaward barrier.
The northern boundary of Palm Beach is the Lake Worth Inlet, though it adjoined with Singer Island until the permanent dredging of the inlet in 1918. The average elevation of the town is 7 feet (2.1 m); the highest point is 30 feet (9.1 m) above sea level on the golf course at the Palm Beach Country Club.[2]
Origins and Early Settlement
When the first settlers arrived in what was to become Palm Beach, the entire area was known as "Lake Worth," named for Major General William Jenkins Worth, who fought in the Second Seminole War. Pioneers struggled to clear land for their houses and to make room for their crops. The first of the permanent pioneers arrived in 1872.
The island's distinctive name has a well-documented origin rooted in a maritime accident. According to early settler accounts, Palm Beach received its name from a shipwreck named the Providencia. The ship washed ashore in January 1878 with a load of coconuts bound from Havana to Barcelona. Early settlers lost no time claiming salvage and planting the coconuts, which were not native to South Florida, in an effort to launch a commercial coconut industry. Local residents planted the coconuts, and within a decade the area was filled with coconut palm trees. The island soon had a new name — Palm Beach.
In 1880, Elisha Newton "Cap" Dimick converted his private residence to a hotel known as the Cocoanut Grove House. At the time of its opening, the Cocoanut Grove House was the only hotel along Florida's east coast between Titusville and Key West. By the early 1890s, the island community was well established with several hotels, businesses, and winter residents.[3]
The Flagler Era and Rise as a Winter Resort
The transformation of Palm Beach from a small pioneer settlement into a celebrated winter destination for the wealthy is largely attributable to Henry Morrison Flagler, a co-founder of Standard Oil who turned his attention to Florida in his later years. In 1892, Flagler visited southeast Florida to survey land in regard to the expansion of his Florida East Coast Railway. He was awed by the beauty of the area and envisioned a resort community for the wealthy northern industrialists in what is now known as Palm Beach.
On the lakefront, Flagler built the Hotel Royal Poinciana, which was both the world's largest resort and the world's largest wooden building. On the ocean, he built The Breakers. He also built his winter home, "Whitehall," in Palm Beach. The pioneer era ended in 1894 with the opening of Flagler's Royal Poinciana Hotel and the arrival of the Florida East Coast Railroad in 1896. The railroad tracks crossed Lake Worth so trains could deliver their passengers directly to the Flagler System hotels, which included the Palm Beach Inn directly on the ocean. Soon renamed The Breakers, because so many guests wrote asking for a room "down by the breakers," fire destroyed the hotel in 1903. Henry Flagler ordered a larger, more luxurious hotel built at the same location, which opened for business the following year. The hotel was again destroyed by fire in March 1925 and was replaced by the magnificent stone structure which continues to serve as a Palm Beach landmark today.[4]
A critical consequence of Flagler's development plan was the founding of West Palm Beach itself. Flagler wanted Palm Beach to be an exclusive retreat for the very wealthy. He needed a place for the construction workers and hotel staff to live, so he created West Palm Beach across Lake Worth. In November 1893, Flagler founded a workers' community and business district across Lake Worth (the Intracoastal Waterway) from Palm Beach. Clematis Street was built the following year, becoming the community center as the town expanded through business creation and population growth.
Today, Whitehall is open to the public and the National Historic Landmark is known around the world as one of America's great historic house museums. While a great many have helped to make the Town of Palm Beach the beautiful and special place that it has become over the last century, Palm Beach owes its existence and character more to Henry Flagler than to any other individual.[5]
Incorporation and the Mizner Era
The Town of Palm Beach, Palm Beach County's second municipality, was incorporated on April 17, 1911, after it was discovered in January that West Palm Beach was going to attempt an annexation of the island resort during that year's legislative session. Residents objected and hired an attorney from Miami to officially become incorporated. Dimick, Louis Semple Clarke, and 31 other male property owners met at Clarke's house and signed a charter to officially incorporate the town of Palm Beach on April 17, 1911. Elisha Newton "Cap" Dimick, a former state senator and first mayor of Palm Beach, built the original Royal Park Bridge as a wooden structure in 1911. He named the bridge after a housing project he was developing in Palm Beach called the Royal Park Addition. The toll was 25 cents per vehicle and 5 cents per pedestrian.[6]
The years immediately following incorporation brought a building boom that fundamentally shaped the island's visual identity. Although several architects are credited with creating Palm Beach's Mediterranean Revival style, during the 1920s Addison Mizner was the leading architect not only in Palm Beach, but also in Florida. He designed 67 structures in Palm Beach, 27 in Boca Raton, and ten elsewhere in Palm Beach County. Mizner's first Palm Beach design was El Mirasol, which began the look that distinguishes the town today, incorporating tiled roof towers and turrets, sheltered cloisters, and paneled rooms. Mizner's flowing floor plans opened onto patios and terraces, with stone fountains gracing the grounds.
In 1918, as World War I ended, Mizner went to Palm Beach at the invitation of his friend Paris Singer, the sewing machine heir and developer. The two shared a passion for art and architecture, and Singer commissioned Mizner to build him the Moorish-inspired pink-stuccoed Everglades Club on Worth Avenue. In 1922, Mizner designed the oceanfront Casa Bendita for John S. Phipps and Via Mizner on Worth Avenue, which revolutionized Palm Beach shopping. Mizner's clients included some of the most prominent American industrialist families of the Gilded Age. He designed for America's Gilded Age nobility — Vanderbilt, Stotesbury, Phipps, Rasmussen, Munn, Moore and more — giving them houses that were lavish and grand.[7]
World War II and the Modern Island
Palm Beach island did not emerge from World War II unchanged. Early in World War II, the United States Army established a Ranger camp at the northern tip of the island, which could accommodate 200 men. The Palm Beach Civilian Defense Council ordered blackouts in Palm Beach beginning on April 11, 1942. Throughout the war, German U-boats sank 24 ships off Florida, with eight capsized off Palm Beach County between February and May 1942. The Army converted The Breakers into the Ream General Army Hospital, while the Navy converted the Palm Beach Biltmore Hotel into a U.S. Naval Special Hospital. The Biltmore Hotel would also become a training school for SPARS, the United States Coast Guard Women's Reserve.
On September 15, 1950, the Southern Boulevard Bridge opened, the third and southernmost bridge linking Palm Beach and West Palm Beach. Today, three bridges traverse the Intracoastal Waterway, linking Palm Beach and West Palm Beach by roadway. The northernmost bridge, the Flagler Memorial Bridge, is along State Road A1A, which is locally known as Royal Poinciana Way in Palm Beach and Quadrille Boulevard in West Palm Beach. First opening in 1938, the Flagler Memorial Bridge underwent a five-year reconstruction and renovation between 2012 and 2017 at a cost of $106 million.[8]
In the postwar decades, Palm Beach retained its identity as a destination for the exceptionally wealthy. Rodman Wanamaker II hired Mizner to build La Guerida in 1923 for about $50,000, and sold it to Joseph P. Kennedy in 1933 for $120,000. Joseph and Rose Kennedy had nine children. They attended St. Edward Catholic Church and the younger generations were frequent visitors at Green's Pharmacy's lunch counter. John F. Kennedy and his family stayed at the house; it became known as the Winter White House during his presidency.
Governance, Character, and Contemporary Status
The Town is governed by an elected Mayor and a five-member Council, and operates under the Council-Manager form of government. It has an active historic preservation program, strict zoning standards, high levels of public safety and public works services, 3 miles of public beaches, and a wide array of recreation programs, including award-winning golf and tennis facilities.
Palm Beach has remained one of the most luxurious winter resorts in the United States, with hotels, clubs, private estates, and yacht facilities. Building construction is strictly regulated, and the town has no manufacturing. Approximately 9,000 citizens make Palm Beach their year-round home, and about 20,000 more have a seasonal home in Palm Beach where they enjoy the winter months.
The town has three bicycling and pedestrian paths. The Lake Trail is a 4.7-mile (7.6 km) path along the Intracoastal Waterway from Worth Avenue to near the Lake Worth Inlet. The town provides 3 miles of public beaches and a wide array of recreation programs, including award-winning golf and tennis facilities.[9][10]
The island's relationship with West Palm Beach remains intimate and symbiotic. The two communities are connected not only by the three bascule bridges spanning the Lake Worth Lagoon, but by a shared economic, cultural, and civic history stretching back to the earliest days of Henry Flagler's grand ambitions for southeast Florida.