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. As of the 2020 census, the year-round population was 9,245, though that number swells considerably each winter. The island's never wider than three-quarters of a mile (1.2 km), and in some spots it's only 500 feet (150 m) across. The island and its sole municipality share a close geographic and historical relationship with West Palm Beach, a city that was itself created largely to serve the resort economy of the island across the lagoon.
Geography and Geology
Palm Beach is one of Florida's easternmost towns. It sits on an 18-mile (29 km) long barrier island wedged between the Intracoastal Waterway (locally called the Lake Worth Lagoon) on the west and the Atlantic Ocean on the east. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the town covers a total area of 8.12 square miles (21.0 km²). Land accounts for 4.20 square miles (10.9 km²), while water covers the remaining 3.92 square miles (10.2 km²).
Geologically, the island's a sand-covered ridge of coquina rock. Before people settled here, the island was a pronounced coastal ridge bordering the Atlantic. The Intracoastal Waterway coast was mostly low-lying and swampy, with marshy sloughs generally situated between the two features. An oolitic limestone ridge ran along some parts of the island's western side. Since 1883, the landscape has changed dramatically from development, the filling of sloughs, and a receding coastline due to erosion. But the Atlantic ridge still dominates the island's topography and serves as a seaward barrier.
The Lake Worth Inlet marks the northern boundary of Palm Beach. It was joined with Singer Island until the inlet was permanently dredged in 1918. The average elevation is 7 feet (2.1 m), with the highest point reaching 30 feet (9.1 m) above sea level on the golf course at the Palm Beach Country Club.[2]
Origins and Early Settlement
The entire area was known as "Lake Worth" when the first settlers arrived. It was named for Major General William Jenkins Worth, who fought in the Second Seminole War. Clearing land for houses and crops proved difficult for pioneers. The first permanent settlers came in 1872.
The island's distinctive name comes from a well-documented maritime incident. According to early settler accounts, Palm Beach got its name from a shipwreck called the Providencia. The ship washed ashore in January 1878 carrying coconuts bound from Havana to Barcelona. Early settlers didn't waste time claiming salvage rights and planting the coconuts, which weren't native to South Florida. They wanted to launch a commercial coconut industry. Within a decade, coconut palm trees filled the area. The island had a new name: Palm Beach.
In 1880, Elisha Newton "Cap" Dimick turned his private residence into the Cocoanut Grove House, a hotel. At its opening, it was the only hotel along Florida's east coast between Titusville and Key West. By the early 1890s, the island community was thriving with several hotels, businesses, and winter residents.[3]
The Flagler Era and Rise as a Winter Resort
Henry Morrison Flagler, a co-founder of Standard Oil, transformed Palm Beach from a small pioneer settlement into a celebrated winter destination for the wealthy. He turned his attention to Florida in his later years. In 1892, Flagler visited southeast Florida to survey land for expanding his Florida East Coast Railway. He was captivated by the beauty and saw an opportunity to create a resort community for wealthy northern industrialists.
Flagler built the Hotel Royal Poinciana on the lakefront. It was both the world's largest resort and the world's largest wooden building. He built The Breakers on the ocean side. He also constructed his winter home, "Whitehall," in Palm Beach. The pioneer era ended in 1894 when the Royal Poinciana Hotel opened, followed by the arrival of the Florida East Coast Railroad in 1896. The railroad tracks crossed Lake Worth so trains could deliver passengers directly to Flagler System hotels, including the Palm Beach Inn on the ocean. Guests kept asking for rooms "down by the breakers," so that became the new name. Fire destroyed the hotel in 1903. Flagler ordered a larger, more luxurious hotel built at the same spot, which opened the following year. Another fire struck in March 1925, but it was replaced by the magnificent stone structure that remains a Palm Beach landmark today.[4]
Flagler's development plan had a critical consequence: the founding of West Palm Beach. He wanted Palm Beach to be exclusive for the very wealthy. Workers and hotel staff had to live somewhere, so Flagler created West Palm Beach across Lake Worth. In November 1893, he founded a workers' community and business district on the mainland side of the Intracoastal Waterway. Clematis Street was built the following year, becoming the town center as the community expanded.
Today, Whitehall is open to the public. The National Historic Landmark is known worldwide as one of America's great historic house museums. Many people helped make the Town of Palm Beach what it is today, but the town owes its existence and character more to Henry Flagler than to anyone else.[5]
Incorporation and the Mizner Era
In January 1911, West Palm Beach announced plans to attempt annexation of the island resort during that year's legislative session. Residents objected immediately. They hired an attorney from Miami to officially incorporate the town. The Town of Palm Beach, Palm Beach County's second municipality, was incorporated on April 17, 1911.
Dimick, Louis Semple Clarke, and 31 other male property owners met at Clarke's house and signed a charter that day. Elisha Newton "Cap" Dimick, a former state senator and the first mayor, built the original Royal Park Bridge as a wooden structure in 1911. He named it after a housing project he was developing called the Royal Park Addition. The toll was 25 cents per vehicle and 5 cents per pedestrian.[6]
The years right after incorporation brought a building boom. It fundamentally shaped the island's look. Several architects created Palm Beach's Mediterranean Revival style, but Addison Mizner was the dominant figure during the 1920s, not just in Palm Beach but across Florida. He designed 67 structures in Palm Beach, 27 in Boca Raton, and ten elsewhere in Palm Beach County. His first Palm Beach design was El Mirasol, which started the distinctive look the town has today. Tiled roof towers, turrets, sheltered cloisters, and paneled rooms became his trademark. Mizner's flowing floor plans opened onto patios and terraces, with stone fountains on the grounds.
In 1918, as World War I ended, Mizner came to Palm Beach at the invitation of his friend Paris Singer, heir to the sewing machine fortune and a developer. The two shared a passion for art and architecture. Singer commissioned Mizner to build 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 changed Palm Beach shopping. His clients were some of America's most prominent Gilded Age families. He designed for Vanderbilt, Stotesbury, Phipps, Rasmussen, Munn, Moore, and others, creating lavish and grand houses for them.[7]
World War II and the Modern Island
Palm Beach emerged from World War II fundamentally changed. Early in the war, the United States Army established a Ranger camp at the island's northern tip. It housed 200 men. Beginning on April 11, 1942, the Palm Beach Civilian Defense Council ordered blackouts. German U-boats sank 24 ships off Florida during the war. Eight were capsized off Palm Beach County between February and May 1942. The Breakers was converted into the Ream General Army Hospital. The Navy transformed the Palm Beach Biltmore Hotel into a U.S. Naval Special Hospital and a training school for SPARS, the United States Coast Guard Women's Reserve.
On September 15, 1950, the Southern Boulevard Bridge opened. It was the third and southernmost bridge linking Palm Beach and West Palm Beach. Today, three bridges span the Intracoastal Waterway. The northernmost is the Flagler Memorial Bridge, located along State Road A1A. It's locally known as Royal Poinciana Way in Palm Beach and Quadrille Boulevard in West Palm Beach. It first opened in 1938 and underwent a five-year reconstruction and renovation between 2012 and 2017 at a cost of $106 million.[8]
In the decades after the war, Palm Beach kept its identity as a destination for the exceptionally wealthy. Rodman Wanamaker II hired Mizner to build La Guerida in 1923 for about $50,000. Joseph P. Kennedy bought it in 1933 for $120,000. Joseph and Rose Kennedy had nine children. They attended St. Edward Catholic Church and younger family members 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
An elected Mayor and a five-member Council govern the Town. It operates under the Council-Manager form of government. The town 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. Award-winning golf and tennis facilities are available.
Palm Beach remains one of the most luxurious winter resorts in the United States. Hotels, clubs, private estates, and yacht facilities line the island. Building construction is strictly regulated, and the town has no manufacturing. Approximately 9,000 citizens live here year-round, and about 20,000 more have seasonal homes where they spend 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 public beaches span 3 miles, and recreation programs include award-winning golf and tennis facilities.[9][10]
The island's relationship with West Palm Beach is intimate and symbiotic. The two communities are connected not only by three bascule bridges spanning the Lake Worth Lagoon, but by a shared economic, cultural, and civic history stretching back to Henry Flagler's grand ambitions for southeast Florida in the earliest days.