West Palm Beach grew in waves. Pineapple farms and winter vegetables gave way to a 1920s land boom that quadrupled the population and left whole neighborhoods of Mediterranean-Revival houses — red barrel-tile roofs, stucco walls, shady courtyards — in El Cid, Flamingo Park, and Old Northwood. Hurricanes and downtown fires knocked the young city down more than once, and it rebuilt each time in brick and stone. Out on the flat, early-paved streets, so many residents took to two wheels that West Palm Beach was once cheerfully called the “bicyclingest town in the U.S.A.”
The city’s story isn’t only Flagler’s. When the Black community living in the “Styx” on Palm Beach island was displaced in the 1890s, many resettled on the mainland in the Northwest neighborhood, building a community of churches, businesses, and Bahamian-influenced cottages that became the city’s first National Register historic district. The railroad workers, the carpenters, the families who kept the resort running — they are as much the founders of West Palm Beach as the magnate who drew the map. The arts followed: the Norton, the largest art museum in Florida, and the Kravis Center stage.
Why People Visit West Palm Beach
West Palm Beach rewards visitors who want culture with their coastline: a serious arts scene, a lively downtown, historic neighborhoods under the palms, and the Intracoastal at the center of it all. Add the island just across the water and the year-round South Florida sun, and Flagler’s mainland city makes an easy case for itself.
