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.
The island had a name before it had a resort, and the name came from a shipwreck. In 1878 a Spanish brig called the Providencia ran aground here carrying a cargo of coconuts; the settlers along Lake Worth salvaged them and planted them, and within a few years the shore was lined with palms. People started calling the place Palm Beach. Before any of that the Jaega people had lived along these waters for centuries, and a scattering of pioneers grew pineapples and tended the new palm groves. It was a quiet frontier coast — until the tracks came south.
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.
