About Palm Beach County - Palm Beach County is home to an enviable array of community events and attractions. And who can forget the daily sunshine, endless sandy beaches and palm-lined avenues? One stroll through America’s playground and you will find a community built with care. Excellent private and public school systems, premier medical facilities, restaurants from the elite to the utterly sublime, sidewalk cafes, and of course one of the most prestigious shopping destinations in the country – all enjoyed in absolutely perfect weather. Palm Beach County stretches from Jupiter to Boca and from Lake Okeechobee to the island of Palm Beach. With over 36 municipalities, you’re sure to find the perfect place to call home. Despite the tremendous growth in population, the county retains its rare intimate setting that gives folks a sense of true belonging. This eclectic region is known for its resorts, museums, galleries and an array of year-round recreational activities. As you leisurely stroll along the beaches, it’s easy to forget you are in a county with over 1 million people. The area maintains its charm with free weekly concerts in local parks, green markets featuring fresh, locally grown goods and a myriad of special events including Florida’s largest outdoor music festival, SunFest. Sophistication, wealth, and economic diversity await you in this tropical paradise called Palm Beach County.
WELCOME TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD!
Neighborhoods - The diverse housing opportunities found throughout the Palm Beaches make the area an ideal choice for those looking to live by the beach, own a house on acres of land, reside in a historic home in a neighborhood with a lot of history to tell or even those who want to live the popular downtown lifestyle in a condominium. Everybody is bound to find their dream home in one of the unique regions of Palm Beach County. With 2,023 square miles of land amidst lush, tropical surroundings, the Palm Beaches attract a broad range of newcomers, from young professionals and families to active retirees. Mixed-use housing incorporates luxurious residences with retail, dining and nightlife, while our wide-open spaces found in the western communities offer acres of land for residents—and their horses. Native Americans prospered along the Florida coastline since time immemorial. Settlers of European descent began settling on the shore of Lake Worth in the 1870s. More people arrived when Henry Morrison Flagler extended his Florida East Coast Railroad from St. Augustine to West Palm Beach in 1894, the same year the City of West Palm Beach was incorporated. Housing in Palm Beach County has come a long way since the county was established as the 47th of the state’s eventual 67 counties in 1909. Most houses in South Florida were pretty plain and simple back then—and usually built after waiting months for the lumber to be shipped south from Jacksonville. But the boom years of the 1920s saw new neighborhoods, with many of the homes built in the highly decorative Mediterranean Revival style, and sprang up in communities along the coast. When it was established 97 years ago, only 5,300 people lived in the county. Now the population of the county tops 1.2 million. Approximately half of the people live in one of the county’s 37 municipalities, with the balance of the population residing in unincorporated areas. Recently there has been a high demand for downtown urban lifestyle, which gives residents the opportunity to live, work and play downtown. Magnificent buildings such as One Watermark, 610 Clematis, Marina Grande, The Mark at CityPlace, The Slade and The Sterling are now redefining the downtown skyline.
HISTORIC NEIGHBORHOODS - West Palm Beach is the oldest city in Palm Beach County. Henry Flagler developed the city to provide workers for the palatial homes and hotels on the resort island of Palm Beach. But the city on the west side of Lake Worth soon took on its own identity, boasting a number of downtown hotels, movie theaters and shops along Clematis Street and the waterfront. The city’s streets were named for native flowers in alphabetical order from north to south, beginning with Althea and extending to Jessamine Street. Some of the city’s earliest homes, mostly of wood frame construction, were built in the downtown “Garden District” and are still there today. Much of this neighborhood, however, had fallen into disrepair by the 1980s and was leveled in favor of redevelopment. Eventually, CityPlace, the mixed-use shopping, dining and entertainment site that opened in 2000, took its place. But to the north and south of downtown, much of the city’s housing stock built from just before and during the 1920s and into the 1940s survives in revitalized historic neighborhoods. In 1980, the City of West Palm Beach joined with neighborhood residents, local banks and the federally-chartered Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation to create Neighborhood Housing Services of West Palm Beach—a model neighborhood revitalization program in place in dozens of cities across the nation. Through this program, the residents from the downtown “Garden District,” Grandview Heights, Flamingo Park and Sunshine Park neighborhoods were empowered to transform these once-blighted neighborhoods into some of the most sought-after residential properties in South Florida. Residents organized neighborhood clean-up projects, housing rehab workshops, landscaping seminars and neighborhood social events. Residents also worked with the city administration to repave streets, repair historic street lamps, install new landscaping along the streets and in adjacent parks. Local lending institutions and the city’s Community Development Department provided conventional low- and no-interest loans to residents to restore their homes. This effort led to the successful revitalization of these neighborhoods and began a trend throughout the city and in historic neighborhoods all along the Coast of Palm Beach County. Once the Neighborhood Housing Services program had proven effective in the Flamingo Park, Sunshine Park and Grandview Heights neighborhoods, all located south of downtown and west of Dixie Highway, it relocated to the Northwood section of West Palm Beach north of downtown. The West Palm Beach City Commission has now designated 14 historic districts throughout the city.
FLAMINGO PARK and SUNSHINE PARK - Flamingo Park was developed from 1921 to 1930 and encompasses the area between the FEC Railroad tracks on the east to Parker Avenue on the west, Park Place on the north to Belvedere Road on the south. The adjacent retail area along Dixie Highway was known as The Flamingo Park Business District and included two grocery stores, three movie theaters, a car dealership, bowling alley and numerous cafes and drugstores through the 1950s. The land was first purchased with plans to develop a pineapple plantation. But the land boom of the 1920s saw it subdivided into city lots on which numerous builders built homes. The majority of homes are Mission and Mediterranean Revival style built between 1924 and 1926. Monterey art modern and frame vernacular homes and other architectural styles also appear. The neighborhoods sit atop the coastal ridge which runs from West Palm Beach to Miami, allowing some homes on the ridge ocean views from second and third-story rooms. The only home in the neighborhood originally designed by an architect is The Comeau House at 701 Flamingo Drive. Architects Harvey and Clarke designed the Mediterranean Revival home in 1924 for Mr. Comeau, builder of the city’s first “skyscraper” still known as The Comeau Building on Clematis Street. Another home of note is The Rice House, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. It earned this designation because Clifton Rice, the Harvard-educated engineer who built the home for his family, along with several others on Claremore Drive, created the tile work on a number of Palm Beach mansions designed by Addison Mizner. The three-story Rice House features tile work throughout. The revitalization of Flamingo Park that began with Neighborhood Housing Services in 1980 continues today through the efforts of the Flamingo Park Neighborhood Association, a group dedicated to the upkeep of the neighborhood. Home values have sky-rocketed and the neighborhood is well known for its many annual events, including the Historic Holiday Home Tour the first Sunday in December, its annual spring Garden Tour as well as the monthly “Happy Hours” where the entire neighborhood is invited to a home in the neighborhood for after-work refreshments the last Friday of each month. The small community of Sunshine Park was originally part of Flamingo Park. Located on the southeast corner of Flamingo Park, Sunshine Park was also developed in the 1920s. Back then, the neighborhood attracted moderate-income residents who purchased smaller residences on 40- to 50-foot lots. Mission-style homes are abundant in the Sunshine Park area. On Avon Road between Florida and Georgia avenues, every house is Mission style.
GRANDVIEW HEIGHTS - North of Flamingo Park and Sunshine Park is Grandview Heights, approved as a West Palm Beach historic district in 1995. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and boasts some of the oldest homes in the city, just a few blocks south of CityPlace. Grandview Heights was platted from 1910-20 and extends from Alabama and Florida avenues on the east to Lake Avenue on the west, and from N Street south to Park Place. Part of the original neighborhood was demolished in 1989 for redevelopment and is now home to the Palm Beach County Convention Center. Many craftsman bungalows are found in the district as well as homes designed in the Mediterranean Revival, Mission, Monterey, Colonial Revival and American foursquare styles. Grandview Heights has seen an abundance of home restorations in the past 10 years. Several large homes were relocated to the neighborhood from the Hillcrest neighborhood as the result of an airport expansion and buyout program. An added amenity to this neighborhood, as well as nearby Flamingo Park, is its proximity to Howard Park. The park has undergone significant improvement in recent years, and now boasts basketball courts, a softball field, play grounds, shuffleboard courts, a recreation center, clay tennis courts and the CityPaws dog park. The small lake at the north end of Howard Park is the original turning basin where barges bringing in produce and goods from the Glades would turn around for the return trip to the Everglades. Grandview Heights is also noted for its friendly home tour held on Palm Sunday in the spring of each year.
PINEAPPLE PARK - West of Flamingo Park is the Pineapple Park community. Pineapple Park is located south of CityPlace, the Kravis Center and downtown West Palm Beach, just east of Interstate 95 and six blocks west of the Intracoastal. Just north of Belvedere Road and minutes from the beaches and airport is where you’ll discover this quaint neighborhood. The homes in Pineapple Park are typically post-World War II, ranch style with scattered 1920s, 1930s and 1940s Spanish, Mission and Colonial Revival styled homes. The oldest home dates back to 1910 and is said to have been an original plantation home for owners of a pineapple crop. Current homeowners include several pioneers of the area along with growing families and new professionals.
OLD NORTHWOOD, NORTHWOOD HILLS, NORTHBORO PARK, NORTHWOOD SHORES - Old Northwood was the city’s first neighborhood to receive its designation as a historic district in 1991. Home to many of the city’s most gracious homes, the neighborhood extends 10 blocks from south to north between 26th and 35th streets and from Poinsettia Avenue (North Dixie Highway) on the east to Broadway on the west. The district is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Rev. Elbridge Gale, a retired horticulture professor who grew mangoes, homesteaded most of the Northwood area. Gale’s home, which has since been altered and moved, stands at 401 29th St. The area was developed between 1920 and 1930 during the Florida land boom. Local builders designed the majority of homes. However, the neighborhood is dotted with houses designed by noted local architects John Volk, William Manly King and Henry Stephen Harvey. Predominant architectural styles are Mediterranean Revival, Mission Revival and frame vernacular. Two of the historic homes in Old Northwood operate as bed and breakfast guesthouses. The Old Northwood Neighborhood Association has worked tirelessly to restore the neighborhood’s original charm and is well known for its many neighborhood events. They originated the historic home tours in the city and Old Northwood’s Candlelight Tour of Homes is now in its 18th year. Other events include neighborhood cocktail parties and Coffee in the Park. The success of Old Northwood has prompted ongoing restoration efforts in other nearby neighborhoods including Northwood Hills, the highest point in the city. Known as the site of the first mango tree planted in Florida, Northwood Hills hosts its annual Legends of the Past Home Tour, featuring the neighborhoods’ noted castle houses on the hill. Nearby Northboro Park and Northwood Shores are also hotbeds of historic housing restoration. With its waterfront location and eclectic mix of housing styles, Northwood Shores is the host each November to Beaujolais Nouveau. This celebration, complete with live entertainment and a silent auction, is held at a waterfront home and commemorates the tasting of the first fruits of that year’s vintage of Beaujolais wine.
EL CID, PROSPECT PARK, SOUTHLAND PARK - These waterfront neighborhoods south of downtown West Palm Beach feature some of the city’s largest and most elaborately designed historic homes. This area and its associated jogging and biking trails stretches along Flagler Drive from Flamingo Drive on the north to Monroe Drive to the south and from the waterfront west to South Dixie Highway. The northern area was part of a parcel of land from Belvedere Road north to Okeechobee Boulevard that was homesteaded in 1876 by pineapple grower Benjamin Lanehart. Elizabeth Wilder Moore homesteaded the land south of Lanehart’s property to Monroe Street. John Phipps, a wealthy man from Pittsburgh whose father was a partner with Andrew Carnegie in businesses that later became U.S. Steel, developed the northern area and named it El Cid after Spanish hero Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, whose loyal troops called him Cid, the Arabic word for lord. El Cid was granted historic neighborhood designation by the City of West Palm Beach in 1993. The El Cid Historic District is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Developed from 1920 to 1930, dominant architectural styles are Mediterranean Revival and Mission. One of the oldest homes in the El Cid area is a three-story, shingle-style home at 200 Pershing Way built in 1909 by carpenter Christian Kirk, who worked for Flagler. He originally owned a parcel of land from the water to South Dixie Highway and built his home facing the water. In 1925, he sub-divided the property and built Pershing Way. So that his home would face the newly built street, he hitched a team of mules to the house and rotated it 90 degrees on its foundation. New development has also come to El Cid with the addition of Magnolia Court, a series of three-story townhomes built on the former site of the Stewart Pontiac car dealership, which opened in 1941. Two groups of neighborhood residents, the El Cid/Prospect Park/Southland Park Homeowners Association and the El Cid Historic Neighborhood Association have been instrumental in neighborhood revitalization efforts. The Prospect Park/Southland Park Historic District runs from Flagler Drive west to South Dixie Highway and extends from Monceaux Road south to Monroe Drive. Most of the historic homes were built during the 1920s and 1930s and along with Mediterranean Revival and Mission, styles include Monterey, Colonial Revival, Tudor Revival, art modern, American foursquare and others. The neighborhood was modeled after Prospect Park in Brooklyn. Architects Belford Shoumate and William Manly King designed homes in both districts and the El Cid area features homes designed by Maurice Fatio and the team of Henry Stephen Harvey and Louis Phillips Clarke.
MANGO PROMENADE - One of the city’s smallest, and perhaps most unique, historic neighborhoods is Mango Promenade. Tucked alongside the ever-expanding Norton Museum of Art, this neighborhood features Spanish style and vernacular wood-frame homes nestled among a handful of streets with whimsical names such as Tuxedo Lane and Cranesnest Way. Mango Promenade, the neighborhood’s namesake, is not really a street at all, but a pedestrian promenade. All of the homes on Mango Promenade, many featuring generous old-fashioned porches, face the path rather than the alleys behind the homes. It is a delightful experience to stroll down this pedestrian “street” shaded by the welcoming arms of mango and banyan trees, capturing a nostalgic breath of an era when life moved at a slower, more pedestrian pace in South Florida.
URBAN TREND - West Palm Beach is just one of the cities in Palm Beach County that experienced the building boom of the 1920s. Historic neighborhoods hailing from the 1920s and before can be found in Boca Raton, with its Old Floresta neighborhood developed by Addison Mizner and in Delray Beach’s historic neighborhoods of Del-Ida Park, Pineapple Grove and Bankers’ Row, strung up and down Swinton Avenue. Lake Worth has also seen a recent resurgence of interest in historic home restoration in the neighborhoods of College Park, South Palm Park, Bryant Park, Mango Grove and Parrot Cove. The new urbanism trend in housing has taken hold in Palm Beach County with downtown housing now available in venues that were once deserted after work hours. The revitalization of Clematis Street brought the mixed-use concept to the city with apartments built over retail shops. CityPlace continued this concept with loft apartments above shops and restaurants, along with the townhomes and its high-rise Residences at CityPlace. Currently, several new downtown rental apartment buildings and condominiums are being built from Okeechobee Boulevard on the south to the northern waterfront past Good Samaritan Medical Center. With easy access to the waterfront as well as offices, shops, dining and entertainment, these housing concepts are attractive to young professionals and active retirees alike. Similar trends are seen in Delray Beach and Lantana. City living has never been better!
THE VILLAGES OF PALM BEACH LAKES - For those who prefer a suburban lifestyle just minutes away from bustling downtown West Palm Beach, The Villages offer a wide selection of housing options. Located west of I-95 between Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard and 45th Street, The Villages is a 5,500-acre mixed-use project. It was developed in the 1980s by the Perini Land and Development Company and was originally known as the Westward Expansion Project. It is home to the Bear Lakes Country Club and several distinct neighborhoods. From generously sized homes on single-family lots adjacent to a golf course to maintenance-free living in zero-lot line neighborhoods, The Villages also includes a number of apartment and townhome complexes such as Village Place Apartments and Shenandoah Village Town Homes.
WESTERN COMMUNITIES WELLINGTON - The Village of Wellington is heaven—and a haven—for horse lovers and those seeking the comfort and ease of suburban living. This equestrian community is located west of the City of West Palm Beach and is bounded by Southern Boulevard on the north and Lantana Road on the south. Heralded as “The Winter Equestrian Capital,” Wellington features miles of riding trails and the International Polo Club Palm Beach, where polo games, equestrian competitions and exhibitions take place in the winter season. Before the land was developed, the C. Oliver Wellington family owned most of it and sold or leased property to farmers. At one time, commercial strawberry fields covered more than 2,000 acres. In 1972, the first home in the Wellington development was sold. Wellington now has more than 50,000 year-round residents and incorporated on December 31, 1995 as the Village of Wellington. It boasts a wide variety of housing options from townhomes and apartments to numerous single-family neighborhoods and sprawling equestrian estates with luxurious “barns” larger than most conventional homes. The village offers endless recreational opportunities for its residents with 30 parks and leisure facilities, and is home to the grand Mall at Wellington Green.
ROYAL PALM BEACH - The Village of Royal Palm Beach was incorporated in 1959, with roads and neighborhoods created out of the former edges of the Everglades. The village extends west from Florida’s Turnpike and encompasses 11.5 square miles with approximately 30,000 residents. One of the county’s fastest growing municipalities, Royal Palm Beach offers a great diversity of housing opportunities for everyone from young families to active retirees and is noted for its expansive park system.
THE ACREAGE/LOXAHATCHEE AND LOXAHATCHEE GROVES - The Acreage/Loxahatchee and Loxahatchee Groves are unincorporated western communities, which appeal to the equestrian community and folks who value wide-open spaces with the conveniences of city living nearby. The Acreage/Loxahatchee is located north of Royal Palm Beach and has a population of approximately 45,000 people. It covers approximately 110 square miles and consists of 1.25-acre home sites with both paved and unpaved roads. One of the oldest communities in Palm Beach County, Loxahatchee Groves was first settled around 1917 to 1920. Loxahatchee Groves is now home to approximately 3,300 people and encompasses approximately eight square miles west of Royal Palm Beach to the farmlands of the Glades. One of the least densely populated areas of Palm Beach County, home sites in Loxahatchee Groves are usually five acres or larger.
WELCOME TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD!
Neighborhoods - The diverse housing opportunities found throughout the Palm Beaches make the area an ideal choice for those looking to live by the beach, own a house on acres of land, reside in a historic home in a neighborhood with a lot of history to tell or even those who want to live the popular downtown lifestyle in a condominium. Everybody is bound to find their dream home in one of the unique regions of Palm Beach County. With 2,023 square miles of land amidst lush, tropical surroundings, the Palm Beaches attract a broad range of newcomers, from young professionals and families to active retirees. Mixed-use housing incorporates luxurious residences with retail, dining and nightlife, while our wide-open spaces found in the western communities offer acres of land for residents—and their horses. Native Americans prospered along the Florida coastline since time immemorial. Settlers of European descent began settling on the shore of Lake Worth in the 1870s. More people arrived when Henry Morrison Flagler extended his Florida East Coast Railroad from St. Augustine to West Palm Beach in 1894, the same year the City of West Palm Beach was incorporated. Housing in Palm Beach County has come a long way since the county was established as the 47th of the state’s eventual 67 counties in 1909. Most houses in South Florida were pretty plain and simple back then—and usually built after waiting months for the lumber to be shipped south from Jacksonville. But the boom years of the 1920s saw new neighborhoods, with many of the homes built in the highly decorative Mediterranean Revival style, and sprang up in communities along the coast. When it was established 97 years ago, only 5,300 people lived in the county. Now the population of the county tops 1.2 million. Approximately half of the people live in one of the county’s 37 municipalities, with the balance of the population residing in unincorporated areas. Recently there has been a high demand for downtown urban lifestyle, which gives residents the opportunity to live, work and play downtown. Magnificent buildings such as One Watermark, 610 Clematis, Marina Grande, The Mark at CityPlace, The Slade and The Sterling are now redefining the downtown skyline.
HISTORIC NEIGHBORHOODS - West Palm Beach is the oldest city in Palm Beach County. Henry Flagler developed the city to provide workers for the palatial homes and hotels on the resort island of Palm Beach. But the city on the west side of Lake Worth soon took on its own identity, boasting a number of downtown hotels, movie theaters and shops along Clematis Street and the waterfront. The city’s streets were named for native flowers in alphabetical order from north to south, beginning with Althea and extending to Jessamine Street. Some of the city’s earliest homes, mostly of wood frame construction, were built in the downtown “Garden District” and are still there today. Much of this neighborhood, however, had fallen into disrepair by the 1980s and was leveled in favor of redevelopment. Eventually, CityPlace, the mixed-use shopping, dining and entertainment site that opened in 2000, took its place. But to the north and south of downtown, much of the city’s housing stock built from just before and during the 1920s and into the 1940s survives in revitalized historic neighborhoods. In 1980, the City of West Palm Beach joined with neighborhood residents, local banks and the federally-chartered Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation to create Neighborhood Housing Services of West Palm Beach—a model neighborhood revitalization program in place in dozens of cities across the nation. Through this program, the residents from the downtown “Garden District,” Grandview Heights, Flamingo Park and Sunshine Park neighborhoods were empowered to transform these once-blighted neighborhoods into some of the most sought-after residential properties in South Florida. Residents organized neighborhood clean-up projects, housing rehab workshops, landscaping seminars and neighborhood social events. Residents also worked with the city administration to repave streets, repair historic street lamps, install new landscaping along the streets and in adjacent parks. Local lending institutions and the city’s Community Development Department provided conventional low- and no-interest loans to residents to restore their homes. This effort led to the successful revitalization of these neighborhoods and began a trend throughout the city and in historic neighborhoods all along the Coast of Palm Beach County. Once the Neighborhood Housing Services program had proven effective in the Flamingo Park, Sunshine Park and Grandview Heights neighborhoods, all located south of downtown and west of Dixie Highway, it relocated to the Northwood section of West Palm Beach north of downtown. The West Palm Beach City Commission has now designated 14 historic districts throughout the city.
FLAMINGO PARK and SUNSHINE PARK - Flamingo Park was developed from 1921 to 1930 and encompasses the area between the FEC Railroad tracks on the east to Parker Avenue on the west, Park Place on the north to Belvedere Road on the south. The adjacent retail area along Dixie Highway was known as The Flamingo Park Business District and included two grocery stores, three movie theaters, a car dealership, bowling alley and numerous cafes and drugstores through the 1950s. The land was first purchased with plans to develop a pineapple plantation. But the land boom of the 1920s saw it subdivided into city lots on which numerous builders built homes. The majority of homes are Mission and Mediterranean Revival style built between 1924 and 1926. Monterey art modern and frame vernacular homes and other architectural styles also appear. The neighborhoods sit atop the coastal ridge which runs from West Palm Beach to Miami, allowing some homes on the ridge ocean views from second and third-story rooms. The only home in the neighborhood originally designed by an architect is The Comeau House at 701 Flamingo Drive. Architects Harvey and Clarke designed the Mediterranean Revival home in 1924 for Mr. Comeau, builder of the city’s first “skyscraper” still known as The Comeau Building on Clematis Street. Another home of note is The Rice House, which is on the National Register of Historic Places. It earned this designation because Clifton Rice, the Harvard-educated engineer who built the home for his family, along with several others on Claremore Drive, created the tile work on a number of Palm Beach mansions designed by Addison Mizner. The three-story Rice House features tile work throughout. The revitalization of Flamingo Park that began with Neighborhood Housing Services in 1980 continues today through the efforts of the Flamingo Park Neighborhood Association, a group dedicated to the upkeep of the neighborhood. Home values have sky-rocketed and the neighborhood is well known for its many annual events, including the Historic Holiday Home Tour the first Sunday in December, its annual spring Garden Tour as well as the monthly “Happy Hours” where the entire neighborhood is invited to a home in the neighborhood for after-work refreshments the last Friday of each month. The small community of Sunshine Park was originally part of Flamingo Park. Located on the southeast corner of Flamingo Park, Sunshine Park was also developed in the 1920s. Back then, the neighborhood attracted moderate-income residents who purchased smaller residences on 40- to 50-foot lots. Mission-style homes are abundant in the Sunshine Park area. On Avon Road between Florida and Georgia avenues, every house is Mission style.
GRANDVIEW HEIGHTS - North of Flamingo Park and Sunshine Park is Grandview Heights, approved as a West Palm Beach historic district in 1995. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and boasts some of the oldest homes in the city, just a few blocks south of CityPlace. Grandview Heights was platted from 1910-20 and extends from Alabama and Florida avenues on the east to Lake Avenue on the west, and from N Street south to Park Place. Part of the original neighborhood was demolished in 1989 for redevelopment and is now home to the Palm Beach County Convention Center. Many craftsman bungalows are found in the district as well as homes designed in the Mediterranean Revival, Mission, Monterey, Colonial Revival and American foursquare styles. Grandview Heights has seen an abundance of home restorations in the past 10 years. Several large homes were relocated to the neighborhood from the Hillcrest neighborhood as the result of an airport expansion and buyout program. An added amenity to this neighborhood, as well as nearby Flamingo Park, is its proximity to Howard Park. The park has undergone significant improvement in recent years, and now boasts basketball courts, a softball field, play grounds, shuffleboard courts, a recreation center, clay tennis courts and the CityPaws dog park. The small lake at the north end of Howard Park is the original turning basin where barges bringing in produce and goods from the Glades would turn around for the return trip to the Everglades. Grandview Heights is also noted for its friendly home tour held on Palm Sunday in the spring of each year.
PINEAPPLE PARK - West of Flamingo Park is the Pineapple Park community. Pineapple Park is located south of CityPlace, the Kravis Center and downtown West Palm Beach, just east of Interstate 95 and six blocks west of the Intracoastal. Just north of Belvedere Road and minutes from the beaches and airport is where you’ll discover this quaint neighborhood. The homes in Pineapple Park are typically post-World War II, ranch style with scattered 1920s, 1930s and 1940s Spanish, Mission and Colonial Revival styled homes. The oldest home dates back to 1910 and is said to have been an original plantation home for owners of a pineapple crop. Current homeowners include several pioneers of the area along with growing families and new professionals.
OLD NORTHWOOD, NORTHWOOD HILLS, NORTHBORO PARK, NORTHWOOD SHORES - Old Northwood was the city’s first neighborhood to receive its designation as a historic district in 1991. Home to many of the city’s most gracious homes, the neighborhood extends 10 blocks from south to north between 26th and 35th streets and from Poinsettia Avenue (North Dixie Highway) on the east to Broadway on the west. The district is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Rev. Elbridge Gale, a retired horticulture professor who grew mangoes, homesteaded most of the Northwood area. Gale’s home, which has since been altered and moved, stands at 401 29th St. The area was developed between 1920 and 1930 during the Florida land boom. Local builders designed the majority of homes. However, the neighborhood is dotted with houses designed by noted local architects John Volk, William Manly King and Henry Stephen Harvey. Predominant architectural styles are Mediterranean Revival, Mission Revival and frame vernacular. Two of the historic homes in Old Northwood operate as bed and breakfast guesthouses. The Old Northwood Neighborhood Association has worked tirelessly to restore the neighborhood’s original charm and is well known for its many neighborhood events. They originated the historic home tours in the city and Old Northwood’s Candlelight Tour of Homes is now in its 18th year. Other events include neighborhood cocktail parties and Coffee in the Park. The success of Old Northwood has prompted ongoing restoration efforts in other nearby neighborhoods including Northwood Hills, the highest point in the city. Known as the site of the first mango tree planted in Florida, Northwood Hills hosts its annual Legends of the Past Home Tour, featuring the neighborhoods’ noted castle houses on the hill. Nearby Northboro Park and Northwood Shores are also hotbeds of historic housing restoration. With its waterfront location and eclectic mix of housing styles, Northwood Shores is the host each November to Beaujolais Nouveau. This celebration, complete with live entertainment and a silent auction, is held at a waterfront home and commemorates the tasting of the first fruits of that year’s vintage of Beaujolais wine.
EL CID, PROSPECT PARK, SOUTHLAND PARK - These waterfront neighborhoods south of downtown West Palm Beach feature some of the city’s largest and most elaborately designed historic homes. This area and its associated jogging and biking trails stretches along Flagler Drive from Flamingo Drive on the north to Monroe Drive to the south and from the waterfront west to South Dixie Highway. The northern area was part of a parcel of land from Belvedere Road north to Okeechobee Boulevard that was homesteaded in 1876 by pineapple grower Benjamin Lanehart. Elizabeth Wilder Moore homesteaded the land south of Lanehart’s property to Monroe Street. John Phipps, a wealthy man from Pittsburgh whose father was a partner with Andrew Carnegie in businesses that later became U.S. Steel, developed the northern area and named it El Cid after Spanish hero Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar, whose loyal troops called him Cid, the Arabic word for lord. El Cid was granted historic neighborhood designation by the City of West Palm Beach in 1993. The El Cid Historic District is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Developed from 1920 to 1930, dominant architectural styles are Mediterranean Revival and Mission. One of the oldest homes in the El Cid area is a three-story, shingle-style home at 200 Pershing Way built in 1909 by carpenter Christian Kirk, who worked for Flagler. He originally owned a parcel of land from the water to South Dixie Highway and built his home facing the water. In 1925, he sub-divided the property and built Pershing Way. So that his home would face the newly built street, he hitched a team of mules to the house and rotated it 90 degrees on its foundation. New development has also come to El Cid with the addition of Magnolia Court, a series of three-story townhomes built on the former site of the Stewart Pontiac car dealership, which opened in 1941. Two groups of neighborhood residents, the El Cid/Prospect Park/Southland Park Homeowners Association and the El Cid Historic Neighborhood Association have been instrumental in neighborhood revitalization efforts. The Prospect Park/Southland Park Historic District runs from Flagler Drive west to South Dixie Highway and extends from Monceaux Road south to Monroe Drive. Most of the historic homes were built during the 1920s and 1930s and along with Mediterranean Revival and Mission, styles include Monterey, Colonial Revival, Tudor Revival, art modern, American foursquare and others. The neighborhood was modeled after Prospect Park in Brooklyn. Architects Belford Shoumate and William Manly King designed homes in both districts and the El Cid area features homes designed by Maurice Fatio and the team of Henry Stephen Harvey and Louis Phillips Clarke.
MANGO PROMENADE - One of the city’s smallest, and perhaps most unique, historic neighborhoods is Mango Promenade. Tucked alongside the ever-expanding Norton Museum of Art, this neighborhood features Spanish style and vernacular wood-frame homes nestled among a handful of streets with whimsical names such as Tuxedo Lane and Cranesnest Way. Mango Promenade, the neighborhood’s namesake, is not really a street at all, but a pedestrian promenade. All of the homes on Mango Promenade, many featuring generous old-fashioned porches, face the path rather than the alleys behind the homes. It is a delightful experience to stroll down this pedestrian “street” shaded by the welcoming arms of mango and banyan trees, capturing a nostalgic breath of an era when life moved at a slower, more pedestrian pace in South Florida.
URBAN TREND - West Palm Beach is just one of the cities in Palm Beach County that experienced the building boom of the 1920s. Historic neighborhoods hailing from the 1920s and before can be found in Boca Raton, with its Old Floresta neighborhood developed by Addison Mizner and in Delray Beach’s historic neighborhoods of Del-Ida Park, Pineapple Grove and Bankers’ Row, strung up and down Swinton Avenue. Lake Worth has also seen a recent resurgence of interest in historic home restoration in the neighborhoods of College Park, South Palm Park, Bryant Park, Mango Grove and Parrot Cove. The new urbanism trend in housing has taken hold in Palm Beach County with downtown housing now available in venues that were once deserted after work hours. The revitalization of Clematis Street brought the mixed-use concept to the city with apartments built over retail shops. CityPlace continued this concept with loft apartments above shops and restaurants, along with the townhomes and its high-rise Residences at CityPlace. Currently, several new downtown rental apartment buildings and condominiums are being built from Okeechobee Boulevard on the south to the northern waterfront past Good Samaritan Medical Center. With easy access to the waterfront as well as offices, shops, dining and entertainment, these housing concepts are attractive to young professionals and active retirees alike. Similar trends are seen in Delray Beach and Lantana. City living has never been better!
THE VILLAGES OF PALM BEACH LAKES - For those who prefer a suburban lifestyle just minutes away from bustling downtown West Palm Beach, The Villages offer a wide selection of housing options. Located west of I-95 between Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard and 45th Street, The Villages is a 5,500-acre mixed-use project. It was developed in the 1980s by the Perini Land and Development Company and was originally known as the Westward Expansion Project. It is home to the Bear Lakes Country Club and several distinct neighborhoods. From generously sized homes on single-family lots adjacent to a golf course to maintenance-free living in zero-lot line neighborhoods, The Villages also includes a number of apartment and townhome complexes such as Village Place Apartments and Shenandoah Village Town Homes.
WESTERN COMMUNITIES WELLINGTON - The Village of Wellington is heaven—and a haven—for horse lovers and those seeking the comfort and ease of suburban living. This equestrian community is located west of the City of West Palm Beach and is bounded by Southern Boulevard on the north and Lantana Road on the south. Heralded as “The Winter Equestrian Capital,” Wellington features miles of riding trails and the International Polo Club Palm Beach, where polo games, equestrian competitions and exhibitions take place in the winter season. Before the land was developed, the C. Oliver Wellington family owned most of it and sold or leased property to farmers. At one time, commercial strawberry fields covered more than 2,000 acres. In 1972, the first home in the Wellington development was sold. Wellington now has more than 50,000 year-round residents and incorporated on December 31, 1995 as the Village of Wellington. It boasts a wide variety of housing options from townhomes and apartments to numerous single-family neighborhoods and sprawling equestrian estates with luxurious “barns” larger than most conventional homes. The village offers endless recreational opportunities for its residents with 30 parks and leisure facilities, and is home to the grand Mall at Wellington Green.
ROYAL PALM BEACH - The Village of Royal Palm Beach was incorporated in 1959, with roads and neighborhoods created out of the former edges of the Everglades. The village extends west from Florida’s Turnpike and encompasses 11.5 square miles with approximately 30,000 residents. One of the county’s fastest growing municipalities, Royal Palm Beach offers a great diversity of housing opportunities for everyone from young families to active retirees and is noted for its expansive park system.
THE ACREAGE/LOXAHATCHEE AND LOXAHATCHEE GROVES - The Acreage/Loxahatchee and Loxahatchee Groves are unincorporated western communities, which appeal to the equestrian community and folks who value wide-open spaces with the conveniences of city living nearby. The Acreage/Loxahatchee is located north of Royal Palm Beach and has a population of approximately 45,000 people. It covers approximately 110 square miles and consists of 1.25-acre home sites with both paved and unpaved roads. One of the oldest communities in Palm Beach County, Loxahatchee Groves was first settled around 1917 to 1920. Loxahatchee Groves is now home to approximately 3,300 people and encompasses approximately eight square miles west of Royal Palm Beach to the farmlands of the Glades. One of the least densely populated areas of Palm Beach County, home sites in Loxahatchee Groves are usually five acres or larger.