Flagler did not just build hotels; he built a winter world. In 1902 he completed Whitehall, a white marble mansion on the Intracoastal that he gave his wife as a wedding present and that now serves as the Flagler Museum, a National Historic Landmark. Each winter the Gilded Age families came south by private railcar for ‘the season,’ the months between the holidays and Easter when Palm Beach filled with the wealthiest names in the country. The Town of Palm Beach was formally incorporated in 1911, a small, exclusive island already certain of what it was.
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.
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.
