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Palm Beach County is one of the premier destinations in the world for part-time or year-round
residency or for fun-filled vacations and weekend getaways. Famous for its lush landscaping,
exquisite real estate, elegant architecture and warm, tropical climate, Boca Raton to the Palm
Beaches continues to attract people from all over the world. It is a renowned business center
with a rich history, offering a wide variety of cultural activities, attractions and accommodations
to fit all tastes. Whether you are a newcomer or you just want to learn more about Boca Raton to
Palm Beach, please select one of the options below on this lovely city by the sea.
Palm Beach and West Palm Beach were born because they were beautiful. The big, gray Northern towns could make steel and mine coal, but what South Florida had to sell, then and now, was made by God - the sparkling water, the lush land and the endless summer. When Henry Morrison Flagler came here in 1893, he called the Lake Worth region a veritable paradise. And then he had a vision: He could turn Palm Beach into the most famous resort in the world. He would build a commercial city across the lake for his workers. That city was West Palm Beach. Flagler had the city laid out in November 1893, naming the streets for native plants. Running east and west were Althea, Banyan, Clematis, Datura, Evernia and Fern streets. North-south avenues were Lantana, Myrtle, Narcissus, Olive, Poinsettia (now Dixie Highway), Rosemary, Sapodilla and Tamarind. On Nov. 5, 1894, 77 to 1 residents of the little town voted to incorporate the city of West Palm Beach. It soon became a bustling frontier town, with storefronts along Clematis and Narcissus streets and saloons lining Banyan Street. Banyan Street became as wild and well-known as any raucous town in the West. It was so notorious that famed anti-alcohol crusader Carry Nation visited in 1904, wielding her Bible. That didn t help much, but soon the new churches did, as did the new neighborhoods, many of which sprang up in the Florida land boom of the early 1920 s. From 1920 to 1927, the city s population quadrupled, and everything grew: the schools, the farming and sugar businesses in the Glades, the hotels and theaters. One January 1925 newspaper, 150 pages fat, contained 12 full-page advertisements, in a row, for developments. Ten minutes to half an hour in any spot in the state would convince the most skeptical eyes and ears that something is taking place in Florida to which the history of developments, booms, inrushes, speculation, investments, yields no parallel, The New York Times would observe in the spring of 1925. But the meteoric rise brought a terrible fall. Nervous speculators, in a bit of self-fulfilling prophecy, began to take the money and run. Then came the killer hurricanes of 1926 and 1928. In one awful year, from 1929 to 1930, West Palm Beach s total property value dropped more than half. By 1935 it was down to a little more than its pre-boom 1920 value. West Palm Beach fought back, but it took years. By 1950, buoyed by military dollars during World War II and an influx of veterans moving south, West Palm Beach was ready to enter a new era of progress. The city s total property value rose from a rock-bottom $18 million in 1935 to $72 million in 1949 and continued to surge year by year until it was $147.5 million by 1962 - an eight-fold increase in less than 30 years. The metropolitan area was the fourth fastest growing area in the country between 1950 and 1960. Development spread west past Military Trail and south to Lake Clarke Shores. Ads in the Palm Beach Post touted new prestige neighborhoods of concrete block homes in suburban community villages. What could be finer than a three-bedroom, swimming pool home with central air - for just $14,950? And then, to top it all off, a set of rabbit ears and a television. The first TV station - WIRK, Channel 21 - came to town in 1953, and channels 5 and 12 followed a few years later. Growth remained the watchword for West Palm Beach. The West Palm Beach of 2000 has lived through a boom, a bust, a war right off the shore, another boom, a recession - and now, perhaps the greatest challenge of all, the revitalization of downtown. The Centennial Square fountain, CityPlace and the new walkways of Narcissus and Clematis are designed to bring people back downtown, and to remind them of the awesome beauty the pioneers first found here so long ago.
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