A Brief History
of West Palm Beach
 When
Henry Morrison Flagler
first came here in 1893, he called the Lake Worth region "a veritable
paradise" and decided upon a dual plan for the area. He would
turn Palm Beach into a resort and he would build a commercial city
across the lake for his workers. That "worker city" would
become beautiful West Palm Beach. Flagler had his city laid out in November 1893, naming the streets for native plants. Running east and west were Althea, Banyan, Clematis, Datura, Evernia and Fern streets. North-South avenues were Lantana, Myrtle, Narcissus, Olive, Poinsettia (now Dixie Highway), Rosemary, Sapodilla and Tamarind. On Nov. 5, 1894, by a vote of 77 to 1, residents of the little town decided to incorporate the city of West Palm Beach. It soon became a bustling frontier town with storefronts along Clematis and Narcissus streets, and saloons lining Banyan Street. Banyan Street became as wild and well-known as any raucous town in the Wild West. It was so notorious that famed anti-alcohol crusader Carry Nation visited in 1904, wielding her Bible.  From
1920 to 1927, the city's population quadrupled, and everything grew
including the schools, the farming and sugar businesses in the Glades,
the hotels and theaters. A 1925 New York Times article noted that
"Ten minutes to half an hour in any spot in the state would convince
the most skeptical eyes and ears that something is taking place in
Florida to which the history of developments, booms, inrushes, speculation,
investments, yields no parallel." Unfortunately, tthe meteoric
rise brought a terrible fall. Nervous speculators, in a bit of self-fulfilling
prophecy, began to take the money and run. Then came the killer hurricanes
of 1926 and 1928. From 1929 to 1930, the Depression dropped West Palm
Beach's total property value by more than half. By 1935 property value
was down to a little more than its pre-boom 1920 value. West Palm
Beach would come back, but it took a world war to do it.  Strengthened
by military dollars during World War II and an influx of veterans
moving south after 1945, West Palm Beach exploded into a new era of
progress. The city's total property value rose from a rock-bottom
$18 million in 1935 to $72 million in 1949 and continued to surge
year by year until it was $147.5 million by 1962 - an 800% increase
in less than 30 years. The West Palm Beach metropolitan area was the
fourth fastest growing area in the United States between 1950 and
1960. Development spread west past Military Trail and south to Lake
Clarke Shores. Ads in the Palm Beach Post touted "new prestige
neighborhoods" of concrete block homes in "suburban community
villages." What could be finer than a three-bedroom, swimming
pool home with central air - for just $14,950? The first TV station
WIRK (Channel 21) came to town in 1953, and channels 5 and 12 followed
a few years later.  On
October 29, 1966, the main terminal at Palm Beach International Airport
in West Palm Beach was dedicated (today over six million passengers
a year pass through PBIA). Between 1990 and 2000, the population of
West Palm Beach grew 22.8%. There are now over 100,000 permanent residents
making West Palm Beach the largest community in Palm Beach County
as well as the seat of its county government, judicial complex and
boasting a newly renovated, vibrant downtown business district. West
Palm Beach continues to grow into the 21st Century. |
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