I am a fan of 1920's Mediterranean Revival architecture and love the El Cid neighborhood in West…read morePalm Beach. There are 281 historic structures located in the boundaries of Flamingo Drive, South Flagler Drive, Dyer Road and South Dixie Highway. El Cid was one of the few areas of Florida without any Native American history because the area was isolated from the rest of Florida by the Everglades. The first permanent resident to this western shore of Lake Worth was Benjamin Lainhart who built a cabin near Barcelona Road with the help of his cousin William. Lainhart started the first commercial pineapple farm and the land in this area was mainly pineapple farms. Disease ruined the pineapple industry in the early 1900's. Henry Flagler brought the railroad in 1894 and the town of West Palm Beach became incorporated causing a population explosion. In the 1920's, the Florida land boom resulted in population doubling again. Jay Phipps, the son of Andrew Carnegie's partner in U.S. Steel created the neighborhood with the old pineapple fields. He named it El Cid after Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar (1040-1099), a Spaniard who led Castilians and Iberian Moors to conquer Valencia in 1094. Cid is an Arabic term meaning lord. Between 1923 and 1926 upscale Mediterranean Revival and Mission style homes were sold on lots but the land boom bust after hurricanes and the Great Depression halted further building. WWII brought in new people and construction that filled in the empty lots. After a downturn in the 1960's, this neighborhoods beautiful homes and proximity to the water and downtown makes it highly sought after today. Historic homes range in the one million to three million range. The very first home built in El Cid in 1922 at 282 Barcelon Rd, is currently on the market for $2,695.000. One of the most well known homes and the only one you can tour in this neighborhood, is the Ann Norton Sculpture Gardens. This house turned museum once belonged to artist Ann and her husband Ralph Norton. Ralph founded the Norton Art Museum in West Palm Beach which is where he met his second wife Ann. The El Cid District is listed on the local, State, and National Register of Historic Places. The neighborhood maintains and supports the landscaping with dues from it's El Cid neighborhood association. There is a marker along the Lake Worth Lagoon describing the historical importance of this neighborhood.

Girl with a Shawl is a five foot-tall bronze statue located in West Palm Beach's Flamingo Park…read more While you might think its just a public art piece, it actually carries a much deeper meaning. What many visitors don't realize is that Flamingo Park is also a cemetery. Approximately 100 people are believed to be buried beneath the grass, although no one knows the exact number. During the early 1900s, families who could not afford a formal burial often came here under the cover of darkness to lay their loved ones to rest. The land was purchased from the City of West Palm Beach in 1902 by the Lakeside Cemetery Association and became an African American cemetery during the era of segregation, while white residents were buried at Pioneer Memorial Park on the site where the Norton Museum of Art now stands. In 1913, the city attempted to reclaim the property for development, but the effort was blocked by the Florida Supreme Court. Burials eventually ceased, and five years later the land was donated back to the city. It was transformed into a public park called Dixie Playground before later being renamed Flamingo Park after the surrounding historic neighborhood. The city made additional attempts to redevelop the property, proposing housing in 1966 and an exotic car showroom in 1991. Both plans were ultimately defeated after neighborhood residents rallied to preserve the park. In 2007, improvements funded through a city bond issue transformed the park with new walkways, benches, and landscaping. The redesign was led by local architect Wayne Villavaso. As part of the renovation, the city installed Girl with a Shawl, a five-foot bronze sculpture chosen to serve as a symbolic memorial to the forgotten men, women, and children buried beneath the park. Rather than commemorating one individual, the statue represents the many people whose names and stories have been lost to history. While Flamingo Park is now a peaceful neighborhood green space, Girl with a Shawl stands with a quiet dignity and she reminds me of an important chapter in West Palm Beach's history that should never be forgotten.

Not an official State of Florida Marker but a more local one, this plaque is embedded in a large…read moreboulder along A1A/Ocean Boulevard opposite Nassau Street. It points out some of the earliest developments of the area now known as Delray Beach. The marker reads, "Sara Gleason, Belle G. Dimick Reese and Ella M. Dimick Potter dedicated this beach to the public in 1899. In 1895 Sarah Gleason and her husband's business partner, W.H. Hunt, sold a parcel of land containing the beach area to William S. Linton for about $10.00 an acre except for a small portion then occupied by the Orange Grove House of Refuge (see marker north of Atlantic Avenue). A mortgage from William Linton, U.S. Congressman from Michigan who was promoting a town here called Linton, secured $3,000 of the purchase price. At the end of 1895, civil engineer E. Burslem Thomson drew a plat describing the Town of Linton. The plat, filed by William Linton and the Model Land Company during 1896, contained the first dedication for public use of what is now this mile-long municipal beach. When William Linton defaulted, the mortgage was foreclosed, half to Sara Gleason and half to the heirs of W.H. Hunt, his granddaughters Belle Reese and Ella Potter. These three women filed a replat dedicating the area east of the ocean beach lots and "Ocean Road" to the public in 1899." The marker was erected in 2008 by the Delray Beach Historical Society and the Robert Neff Family. There is metered street parking along A1A and a parking lot at Anchor Park. "Gleason" Street is the next one over from A1A. "Linton" Blvd is the main route through Delray Beach. [Review 978 of 2024 - 1854 in Florida - 22006 overall]

I enjoy exploring the architecture of the historic districts of West Palm Beach. There are twelve…read morehistoric districts mar\ked by blue historical markers. These historic districts were created when Henry Flagler brought the railroad to West Palm Beach. The Belair Historic District is between South Flagler Drive and South Dixie Highway. It is bounded by Plymouth Road on the south and Pilgrim Road to the north. Belair was developed from 1925 to 1935 as a neighborhood where the tradesmen and real estate salesmen who helped build and develop Palm Beach County lived. In 1885 South Carolina author James Woods Davidson acquired the area as part of a Homestead Act. He in turn sold the land to early pioneer, Englishman Richard Hone. Hone turned it into a pineapple plantation and he and his wife Mary lived in a frame vernacular home at 211 Plymouth Road. In 1902 Hone was shot to death at the age of 43 during a storm while writing a letter at his dining room table as his wife sat beside him. One of Hone's employees was caught a few days later and charged with the murder. He was hung for the crime in Miami. In 1985 the grave of Richard Hone and his infant sons Edward and Robert were discovered beneath the Norton Museum of Art where they still lay today. After the Hone murder, the property was sold in 1923 to William and Sophie Ohlhaber to grow coconut palms and ferns. George Curie platted the land for a subdivision and sold off in lots. The Ohihaber's owned the first house built, a mission-style home at 205 Pilgrim. In 1947 Hone's house was bought by Max Brombacher, Henry Flagler's chief engineer, and it remains in the Brombacher family today. Homes in this neighborhood were built after WWI during Florida's land boom years in the 1920's and early 1030's. Architectural styles include Mediterranean Revival, Mission Revival, and Wood-Frame and Masonry Vernacular style houses. Belair became West Palm Beach's fourth historic district in August 1993. Historic Marker F-1201 was installed in 2022 by the South End Neighborhood Association and the Florida Department of State. You can find it in the swale next to the lake Worth Lagoon.

While looking for something else in downtown West Palm Beach today, I happened upon this blue…read morehistorical marker behind the original Neoclassical 1916 Palm Beach County Courthouse and stopped to learn more about it. The marker is part of Florida's Historical Marker Program, one of the Florida Department of State's Division of Historical Resources' most recognizable public-history initiatives. These markers commemorate significant people, places, and events throughout the state and can be found along roadways, at archaeological sites, battlefields, colleges, schools, churches, historic cemeteries, historic districts, and historic courthouses like this one. Historical Marker F-712 was erected in 2011 through a partnership involving the Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioners, the Robert Neff Family, the Historical Society of Palm Beach County, and the Florida Department of State. Palm Beach County was established in 1909, and its first county offices were located in an old schoolhouse in West Palm Beach. As the community grew, the Palm Beach County Board of County Commissioners approved construction of a new courthouse in 1913. Designed by prominent Florida architect Wilber Burt Talley, the building was constructed by contractor Evert P. Maule, whose winning bid was $122,500. Completed in 1916 and dedicated in 1917, the courthouse was considered one of the finest buildings in Florida at the time and was even described as "the handsomest" courthouse in the state. The four-story courthouse is an example of Neoclassical Revival architecture, featuring three grand columned porticos and brick-veneer exterior walls trimmed with industrial limestone. Inside you will see oak paneling, mosaic-tile hallways, maple floors, and a two-story courtroom with a balcony and skylights. When it opened, the courthouse housed all of the county offices and contained a single courtroom, which served the county for about a decade. Palm Beach County's exploded in growth during the 1920s and again after World War II. The original courthouse quickly became too small. An addition was made in 1927, and in 1969 a massive $5.5 million wraparound addition was constructed that essentially concealed the historic building. By 1972, the original architecture of the courthouse was almost completely lost under additions. When a much larger courthouse opened directly across the street in 1995, preservationists saw an opportunity to save and restore the historic structure. One of the first things removed was the wraparound addition, revealing the original 1916 courthouse once again. After standing vacant for nearly a decade, the county committed $18.5 million to its restoration in 2002. The project was completed in 2007, and the building was repurposed as the home of the Historical Society of Palm Beach County's history museum. I have previously visited the museum and enjoyed seeing the courthouse itself. The historic interior offers a glimpse into Palm Beach County's early years, while exhibits in the courtroom balcony explore the history of Florida law and the state's legal system. This courthouse has more than a century of Palm Beach County history behind its walls.

Seagull Cottage is the oldest home in West Palm Beach. It was built in 1886 by Denver railroad…read moredeveloper R.R. McCormick. First called McCormick's cottage he built the staircase with mahogany from a ship wreck and stained glass. Henry Flagler was quite taken with pictures of it remarking when he first saw it "Why, I didn't know there was anything that beautiful south of Rockledge." Flagler purchased it to live in during the winter with his wife until Whitehall was completed in 1902. When Henry owned it it was called Croton Cottage for all of the crotons that were growing around it. When Henry Flagler moved out it was owned by a railroad executive. In 1913 it was named Seagull Cottage and moved to the ocean where it became a guest cottage for the Breakers and sat in anonymity until the 1980's. In 1982 former mayor Earl E.T. Smith heard the cottage was going to be demolished so he purchased it for $1 and paid $80,000 to move it to within 300 yards of it's original location. Overseen by the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach from 1984 to 1986, $600,000 was spent restoring it to it's 1886 aesthetic. Today the cottage is part of the Royal Poinciana Chapel on Cocoanut Row. I have passed the church many times before turning into Whitehall and never knew the cottage was here. The historical mark is facing the lake trail. It is within steps of Whitehall. It's a shame that is not a part of the Flagler museum. The house was used as a Parrish house and today is only used for Sunday school or community events. There are no private tours. The downstairs has a salon, dining room and sitting room and the house is filled with period pieces including Victorian wall paper and a 120 year old mirror. A larger hall was built to meet the needs of the church so the future fate of the house is still to be decided.

The Mango Promenade Historic District marker in downtown West Palm Beach is part of the Florida…read moreHistorical Marker Program, one of the Division of Historical Resources' most popular and valued public history programs. It raises awareness of Florida's cultural history while enhancing the enjoyment of historic sites for residents and tourists. The historic markers tell the stories of the people and places that were important to Florida's history and they can be found in front of schools, roads, archaeological sites, battlefields, cemeteries, historic buildings, churches, colleges, and historic districts like this one. Historic marker F-1169 was installed in 2021 by the Mango Promenade Historic Neighborhood Association and the Florida Department of State. Located less than a mile from Clematis Street is the Mango Promenade District, designated in 1999. The district was named after a pedestrian walkway that cuts through the neighborhood, originally linking South Dixie Highway to South Olive Avenue. The neighborhood is bounded by South Dixie Highway, Austin Lane, Coconut Lane, and Cranesnest Way. The Mango Promenade District contains 125 historic buildings built from the 1910's to 1920's. The first homes were built in 1912 but most were built between 1917 and 1926. Two of the most notable historic homes are the 1924 Comeau House at 701 Flamingo Drive and the Rice House, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Fun fact: the houses in this historic neighborhood were built with garages to accommodate Model Ts, making it the first neighborhood in the city planned around cars. This was one of West Palm Beach's earliest upper middle class neighbors. Early residents included a school principal, the editor of the area's first newspaper, and a former city attorney. Construction came to an end due to the Florida land bust in 1926 brought on by hurricanes and the Great Depression. By the 1970's and 1980's, houses here were mostly rentals and many were in disrepair. Today the neighborhood has turned a corner with many owners appreciating the neighborhood for its location, history, and sense of community.

The Ocean Avenue Bridge in Lantana has a unique history that reflects the town's transition from…read moretranquil fishing village to seaside community. The first bridge here was a wooden bridge built in 1925, replacing a primitive raft and chain pulley device used by locals to cross the Intracoastal. It was manually controlled by turning a massive iron "key" in a circle to swing the bridge open, which took around 15 minutes. A full-time bridge tender lived in a house on the west end. In 1950, the wooden bridge was replaced by a concrete drawbridge, which cost approximately $500,000 at the time. This second version served the town for more than six decades until being considered outmoded. The 1950 bridge was demolished in March 2012 to make room for the taller and broader span, which can better suit modern traffic and marine needs. The modern bridge has 21 feet of clearance above the water and 125 feet of horizontal clearance. It's nice that they included open railings so that you can (carefully) look out as you drive across. There is no toll to cross the bridge. [Review 479 of 2025 - 2119 in Florida - 24041 overall]