Palm Beach, FL

European settlers began to arrive at Palm Beach in 1872, and the first homestead claim would be made by Hiram F. Harmon along Lake Worth in 1873. The lake area’s first post office would be established in 1877, and was named the Tustenegee Post Office. A ship called the Providencia would wreck along this lake area in 1878, and it had carried a cargo of 20,000 coconuts. As a result, these coconuts would be quickly planted. Elisha Newton “Cap” Dimick would convert his private residence into a hotel called the Cocoanut Grove House in 1880. This would be the only hotel along Florida’s east coast between the towns of Titusville and Key West. The hotel would be destroyed by a fire in October 1893.

An oil tycoon named Henry Flagler first visited Palm Beach in 1893, and he described the lake are as “veritable paradise”. In 1901, the first pedestrian bridge across the Intercoastal Waterway opened near the Flagler Bridge. The next year in 1902, Flagler built a Beaux-Arts style mansion called Whitehall, which was designed by the New York-based firm Carrѐre and Hastings. Palm Beach would have telephone services officially established in 1908, having only 18 customers in the beginning.

From 1919 to 1924, resort architect Addison Mizner designed a total of 67 structures in Palm Beach. Some of the designed works accredited to Mizner that you can see in Palm Beach include the William Gray Warden House, Villa Flora, Via Mizner and El Solano.

1950 was a significant year in Palm Beach’s history as the Southern Boulevard Bridge opened on September 15. This bridge became the third and southernmost bridge connecting Palm Beach and West Palm Beach. From February until December 2015, the Town Square, which features the Addison Mizner Memorial Fountain, went through a $5.7 million restoration project. The American Public Works Association’s Florida chapter awarded this venture the “project of the year”.