That shopping street is Worth Avenue, named in 1913 for General William Jenkins Worth — the same officer Fort Worth, Texas, is named for. Mizner and those who followed lined it with arcades and tucked hidden courtyards, the Vias, behind the storefronts: little open-air passages of shops and fountains reached through archways off the main walk. Since the 1920s it has been one of the most famous luxury shopping streets in the country, a quarter mile of boutiques running from the Mediterranean arcades down to the clock tower at the ocean.
If Flagler built the resort, Addison Mizner gave it a face. The architect arrived around 1918 and, with his patron Paris Singer, designed the Everglades Club — and with it invented the look that still defines the island: Mediterranean Revival, all red barrel-tile roofs, stucco walls, arched loggias, and shaded courtyards, as if a corner of the Italian and Spanish coast had washed up in Florida. The style spread from the club down the shopping street and across the estate row, and ‘the Palm Beach look’ became a national shorthand for warm-weather glamour. It is the reason the island still feels like a stage set for the 1920s.
Why People Visit Palm Beach
Palm Beach offers refined culture beside an easy ocean shoreline. Visitors pair the Flagler and Mizner heritage with museum galleries, gardens, and a quiet bike path along the water. It is polished, historic, and relaxed in pace, with year-round appeal in its parks, paths, and public spaces. The vintage Gilded Age glamour is evergreen, drawing architecture lovers and vintage-resort enthusiasts from well beyond the small island, and history and everyday island life sit side by side here in a welcoming way.
