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.”
What’s with Flagler? Nearly everything in West Palm Beach traces back to one man. Henry Flagler — Standard Oil partner, railroad magnate — came down the Florida coast in the 1890s laying his Florida East Coast Railway, and decided the barrier island across the lagoon would make a glittering winter resort for wealthy Northerners. But a resort needs a workforce, a depot, a downtown. So in 1893 Flagler laid out a working town on the mainland to serve the island, paid two settlers $45,000 for the site, ran his rails in, and named it for exactly where it sat: West Palm Beach. The city has been Flagler’s ever since.
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.
