Palm Beach, Florida
The Town of Palm Beach is an Incorporated town in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The Intracoastal separates it from the neighboring cities of West Palm Beach and Lake Worth. As of 20180, Palm Beach had a year-round population of 8,348. In 2018, Blooomberg ranked Palm Beach as the 27th-wealthiest place in the United States
Palm Beach, 1916
The Lake Trail along the Lake Worth Lagoon
Worth Avenue
HISTORY
Prior to being established as a resort by Henry Morrison Flagler who made the Atlantic coast barrier island accessible via his Florida East Coast Railway, Palm Beach was a sparsely populated part of Lake Worth. The nucleus of the community was established by Flagler’s two luxury resort hotels, the Royal Poinciana Hotel and The Breakers Hotel. West Palm Beach was built across Lake Worth as a service town and has become a major city in its own right.
Flagler’s house lots were bought by the beneficiaries of the Gilded Age, and in 1902 Flagler himself built a Beaux-Arts mansion, Whitehall, designed by the New York-based firm Carrere and Hastings and helped establish the Palm Beach winter “season” by constantly entertaining. The town was incorporated on 17 April 1911.
An area known as the Styx housed the people who built up the island. Workers rented small houses from the landowners. In the early 1900s the landowners agreed to evict all of the residents of the Styx (who moved to West Palm Beach, Florida) and Edward R. Bradley bought up much of this land. The houses were razed, according to the Palm Beach Daily News.
GEOGRAPHY
Palm Beach is the easternmost town in Florida, located on an 18-mile (29 km) long barrow island between Lake Worth Lagoon on the west and the Atlantic Ocean on the east. At no point is the island wider than three-quarters of a mile (1.2 km), and in places it is only 500 feet (150 m) wide.
According to the U.S. Census Bureau , the town has a total area of 10.4 square miles (27 square kilometres). 3.9 square miles (10 square kilometres) of it is land and 6.5 square miles (17 square kilometres) of it is water. The total area is 62.45% water.
