West Palm Beach, Florida, United States

History | Economy | Post-secondary education | Libraries | Tourism and recreation | Shopping areas/districts | Transport | Newspapers | Media : Radio : Television

🇺🇸 West Palm Beach is a city in and the county seat of Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It is located immediately to the west of the adjacent Palm Beach, which is situated on a barrier island across the Lake Worth Lagoon. West Palm Beach is a principal city of the Miami metropolitan area. It is the oldest incorporated municipality in the South Florida area, incorporated as a city two years before Miami. West Palm Beach is located approximately 68 miles north of Downtown Miami.

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History The beginning of the historic period in south Florida is marked by Juan Ponce de León's first contact with native people in 1513. Europeans found a thriving native population, which they categorized into separate tribes: the Mayaimi in the Lake Okeechobee Basin and the Jaega and Ais people in the East Okeechobee area and on the east coast north of the Tequesta. When the Spanish arrived, there were perhaps about 20,000 Native Americans in south Florida. By 1763, when the English gained control of Florida, the native peoples had all but been wiped out through war, enslavement, or European diseases.

Other native peoples from Alabama and Georgia moved into Florida in the early 18th century. They were of varied ancestry, but Europeans called them all "Creeks". In Florida, they were known as the Seminole and Miccosukee Indians. The Seminoles clashed with American settlers over land and over escaped slaves who found refuge among them. They resisted the government's efforts to move them to the Indian Territory west of the Mississippi River. Between 1818 and 1858, three wars were fought between Seminoles and the United States government. By 1858, there were very few Seminoles remaining in Florida.

The area that was to become West Palm Beach was settled in the late 1870s and 1880s by a few hundred settlers who called the vicinity "Lake Worth Country". These settlers were a diverse community from different parts of the United States and the world. They included founding families such as the Potters and the Lainharts, who would go on to become leading members of the business community in the fledgling city. The first white settlers in Palm Beach County lived around Lake Worth, which at the time was an enclosed freshwater lake, named after Colonel William Jenkins Worth, who had fought in the Second Seminole War in Florida in 1842. Most settlers engaged in the growing of tropical fruits and vegetables for shipment to the north via Lake Worth and the Indian River. By 1890, the U.S. Census counted over 200 people settled along Lake Worth in the vicinity of what would become West Palm Beach. The area at this time also boasted a hotel, the "Cocoanut House", a church, and a post office. The city was platted by Henry Flagler as a community to house the servants working in the two grand hotels on the neighboring island of Palm Beach, across Lake Worth in 1893, coinciding with the arrival of the Florida East Coast railroad. Flagler paid two area settlers, Captain Porter and Louie Hillhouse, a combined sum of $45,000 for the original town's site, stretching from Clear Lake to Lake Worth.

On November 5, 1894, 78 people met at the "Calaboose" (the first jail and police station located at Clematis St. and Poinsettia, now Dixie Hwy.) and passed the motion to incorporate the Town of West Palm Beach in what was then Dade County (now Miami-Dade County). This made West Palm Beach the first incorporated municipality in Dade County and in South Florida. The town council quickly addressed the building codes and the tents and shanties were replaced by brick, brick veneer, and stone buildings. The city grew steadily during the 1890s and the first two decades of the 20th century, most residents were engaged in the tourist industry and related services or winter vegetable market and tropical fruit trade. In 1909, Palm Beach County was formed by the Florida State Legislature and West Palm Beach became the county seat. In 1916, a new neo-classical courthouse was opened, which has been painstakingly restored back to its original condition and is now used as the local history museum.

The city grew rapidly in the 1920s as part of the Florida land boom. The population of West Palm Beach quadrupled from 1920 to 1927, and all kinds of businesses and public services grew along with it. Many of the city's landmark structures and preserved neighborhoods were constructed during this period. Originally, Flagler intended for his Florida East Coast Railway to have its terminus in West Palm, but after the area experienced a deep freeze, he chose to extend the railroad to Miami instead.

The land boom was already faltering when city was devastated by the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane. The Depression years of the 1930s were a quiet time for the area, which saw slight population growth and property values lower than during the 1920s. The city only recovered with the onset of World War II, which saw the construction of Palm Beach Air Force Base, which brought thousands of military personnel to the city. The base was vital to the allied war effort, as it provided an excellent training facility and had unparalleled access to North Africa for a North American city. Also during World War II, German U-Boats sank dozens of merchant ships and oil tankers just off the coast of West Palm Beach. Nearby Palm Beach was under blackout conditions to minimize night visibility to German U-boats.

The 1950s saw another boom in population, partly due to the return of many soldiers and airmen who had served in the vicinity during the war. Also, the advent of air conditioning encouraged growth, as year-round living in a tropical climate became more acceptable to northerners. West Palm Beach became one of the nation's fastest-growing metropolitan areas during the 1950s; the city's borders spread west of Military Trail and south to Lake Clarke Shores. However, many of the city's residents still lived within a narrow six-block wide strip from the south to north end. The neighborhoods were strictly segregated between White and African-American populations, a legacy that the city still struggles with today. The primary shopping district remained downtown, centered around Clematis Street.

In the 1960s, Palm Beach County's first enclosed shopping mall, the Palm Beach Mall, and an indoor arena were completed. These projects led to a brief revival for the city, but in the 1970s and 1980s crime continued to be a serious issue and suburban sprawl continued to drain resources and business away from the old downtown area. By the early 1990s there were very high vacancy rates downtown, and serious levels of urban blight.

Since the 1990s, developments such as CityPlace and the preservation and renovation of 1920s architecture in the nightlife hub of Clematis Street have seen a downtown resurgence in the entertainment and shopping district. The city has also placed emphasis on neighborhood development and revitalization, in historic districts such as Northwood, Flamingo Park, and El Cid. Some neighborhoods still struggle with blight and crime, as well as lowered property values caused by the Great Recession, which hit the region particularly hard. Since the recovery, multiple new developments have been completed. The Palm Beach Mall, located at the Interstate 95/Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard interchange became abandoned as downtown revitalized - the very mall that initiated the original abandonment of the downtown. The mall was then redeveloped into the Palm Beach Fashion Outlets in February 2014. The West Palm Beach station for Brightline, a high speed passenger rail service serving Miami, Fort Lauderdale, and West Palm Beach, was opened in 2018.

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Economy Companies based in West Palm Beach include Affiliated Managers Group, Florida Public Utilities, ION Media Networks, Ocwen, and The Palm Beach Post. Other major employers are Pratt & Whitney, Aerojet Rocketdyne, Sikorsky Aircraft, General Dynamics, Cemex, and CSC.

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Post-secondary education The original Palm Beach Junior College building was restored and is now adjacent to the campus of the Dreyfoos School of the Arts, a magnet performing and visual arts high school. It is now a satellite building of Palm Beach State College.

Palm Beach Atlantic University (PBAU), a four-year private Christian university with approximately 3,200 students, is located in the city on seven blocks within the south end of downtown. The campus includes several historic structures converted to academic use. PBAU has recently added schools of nursing and of pharmacy.

Northwood University formerly had a residential campus in West Palm Beach, Florida. The campus now belongs to Keiser University, a regionally accredited school that offers a variety of degrees at the Associate, Bachelor, Master, and Doctoral levels. It is one of their 16 Florida campuses.

Various private for-profit institutions are located in the city, including the Lincoln College of Technology (formerly known as New England Institute of Technology), Florida Culinary Institute, owned by the New Jersey-based Lincoln Group of Schools, and Southeastern College.

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Libraries The Mandel Public Library of West Palm Beach serves the city. The new city public library opened in April 2009 at 411 Clematis Street, replacing the 1962 building which stood at the intersection of Clematis and Flagler Drive, along the Intracoastal Waterfront. Named for a Mandel Foundation grant received in 2012, the Mandel Public Library provides books, performances, classes, research, entertainment, technology, music and more.

The Main Branch of the Palm Beach County Library System is also located in West Palm Beach, as well as the Okeechobee Branch Library.

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Tourism and recreation • Palm Beach Zoo at Dreher Park • West Palm Beach Parks and Recreation • Rapids Water Park • South Florida Science Museum • Lion Country Safari • International Polo Club Palm Beach • National Croquet Center • Trump International Golf Club (West Palm Beach).

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Shopping areas/districts Clematis Street: is West Palm Beach's historic "main street" and shopping venue, home to Clematis by Night, an outdoor event held on the street with live music and food.

The Square: Opened in 2000 as CityPlace, on re-developed land where dilapidated single family homes and apartments once stood, The Square houses a multi-plex movie theater, night clubs (comedy, dance), restaurants, clothing and home-decor retail outlets and multi-story town houses and apartments.

Palm Beach Outlets: Opened in 2014, it was developed on the site of the former Palm Beach Mall. Palm Beach Outlets features over 130 stores and is located directly off Interstate 95 on Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard.

Antique Row: is a shopping district on the south side of the city along Dixie Highway. Architectural Digest, The New York Times, Art & Antiques, and House Beautiful have all noted Antique Row as one of the east coast's premier antique districts, considered the "antique design center" of Florida.

Northwood Village: is an historic commercial district north of downtown. The city invested money in rebuilding the streetscape and promoting the area as an arts district.

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Transport Air: The city is served by Palm Beach International Airport, located in unincorporated Palm Beach County. The airport attracts people from all over the county as well as from the Treasure Coast and Space Coast counties to the north. In 2014 there were over 6.5 million passengers who passed through the gates of PBIA making it the 52nd busiest airport in the nation.

Bicycle The city's flat terrain, early paved streets, and year-round climate quickly earned it the designation as the "bicyclingest town in the U.S.A". The historic core consists of a dense grid of narrower streets, laid out by Henry Flagler. Clematis Street was one-lane each direction with a speed limit of 12 mph, and the middle of the street between lanes was used to park bicycles. The popularity of bicycling declined during the later half of the 20th century, but has undergone a renewed increase in popularity. In addition, a bike share program, SkyBike, was introduced in 2015, and the city's mobility plan calls for protected bike lanes on most downtown streets.

Highways: U.S. 1 passes through the city's downtown, commercial, and industrial districts. Interstate 95 bisects the city from north to south with multiple interchanges serving West Palm Beach, including an entrance to Palm Beach International Airport. Florida's Turnpike passes through West Palm Beach further west, connecting with the western suburbs of Royal Palm Beach and Wellington. State Road 80, running east–west, is a partial expressway, that runs from Interstate 95 to State Road 7.

Rail: Amtrak has daily long-distance trains, Silver Meteor and Silver Star, arriving and departing to points north and Miami to the south as well. Tri-Rail commuter rail system serves the city from a historical station located on the west side of Tamarind Avenue, just east of I-95. Tri-Rail provides commuter rides north to Mangonia Park and south to Miami. All Aboard Florida began track upgrades in 2015 in preparation for higher-speed passenger service serving Miami, Florida through Orlando, FL. Service on All Aboard Florida's Brightline service from West Palm Beach to Fort Lauderdale began on January 12, 2018. Service was extended from Fort Lauderdale to Miami on May 19, 2018. The freight rail companies, CSX Transportation and the Florida East Coast Railway also serve the city.

Trolley: There is a free downtown trolley that provides transportation around downtown including Clematis, City Place, Tri Rail Station, Palm Beach Outlets, and Waterfront districts of the city.

Bus: Greyhound Lines operates scheduled intercity bus service out of the train station on the west side of Tamarind Avenue. Palm Tran, the Palm Beach County municipal bus service, operates scheduled service throughout the city and the suburban areas of Palm Beach County.

Port: The Port of Palm Beach is located on the northern edge of the city limits. It is the fourth busiest container port in Florida and the 18th busiest in the continental United States. In addition to intermodal capacity, the Port is a major modal point for the shipment of various goods as well as being the home to several small passenger cruise lines.

Water Taxi: As a waterfront city there is specific need for water transportation between points in the city and surrounding areas. Waterway transportation is available to and from the downtown Clematis Street District, Sailfish Marina Resort, waterfront attractions, Peanut Island and special events.

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Newspapers The Palm Beach Post is owned by Virginia-based Gannett. Its name notwithstanding, the Post is based in West Palm Beach, not Palm Beach. The Post is the 57th highest daily circulation in the country, according to the 2007 BurrellesLuce survey, and is the city's sole daily newspaper. It serves Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast, the area north of Palm Beach County that includes Martin and St. Lucie Counties.

The Palm Beach Daily News, another publication owned by Gannett, serves the town of Palm Beach. It frequently covers issues and affairs of the Palm Beach city council. It also extends coverage to events taking place in West Palm Beach.

South Florida Sun-Sentinel, is based in Fort Lauderdale and covers portions of Southern Palm Beach County.

New Times Broward-Palm Beach is an alternative weekly publication serving West Palm Beach along with Fort Lauderdale.

WPB Magazine is a quarterly publication serving West Palm Beach.

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Media: Radio West Palm Beach is ranked as the 46th largest radio market in the country by Arbitron.

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Media: Television West Palm Beach is ranked as the 38th largest television market in the country by Nielsen Media Research. The market is served by stations affiliated with major American networks including WPTV-TV/5 (NBC), WPEC/12 (CBS), WBWP-LD/19 (Ind.), WPBF/25 (ABC), WFLX/29 (FOX), WTVX/34 (CW), WXEL-TV/42 (PBS), WTCN-CD/43 (MYTV), WWHB-CD/48 (Azteca), WFGC/61 (CTN), and WPXP-TV/67 (ION).

The area's official Telemundo affiliate is WSCV in Miami, WLTV is the area's Univision affiliate, and WAMI-DT is the area's UniMás affiliate, also in Miami. In addition to those, many Miami/Ft. Lauderdale market TV and radio stations are also available and viewed in West Palm Beach.

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West Palm Beach, Florida, United States 
<b>West Palm Beach, Florida, United States</b>
Image: Adobe Stock jovannig #107848927

West Palm Beach has a population of over 111,398 people. West Palm Beach also forms part of the wider Miami metropolitan area which has a population of over 6,198,782 people.

To set up a UBI Lab for West Palm Beach see: https://www.ubilabnetwork.org Twitter: https://twitter.com/UBILabNetwork

Twin Towns, Sister Cities West Palm Beach has links with:

🇲🇪 Budva, Montenegro 🇹🇷 Mersin, Turkey 🇲🇽 San Miguel de Allende, Mexico 🇮🇱 Tzahar, Israel
Text Atribution: Wikipedia Text under CC-BY-SA license

Antipodal to West Palm Beach is: 99.944,-26.708

Locations Near: West Palm Beach -80.0558,26.7078

🇺🇸 Palm Beach -80.037,26.703 d: 2  

🇺🇸 Delray Beach -80.067,26.45 d: 28.7  

🇺🇸 Boca Raton -80.085,26.345 d: 40.4  

🇺🇸 Deerfield Beach -80.083,26.317 d: 43.6  

🇺🇸 Coconut Creek -80.183,26.267 d: 50.7  

🇺🇸 Pompano Beach -80.106,26.235 d: 52.8  

🇺🇸 Coral Springs -80.264,26.278 d: 52.1  

🇺🇸 Margate -80.2,26.233 d: 54.7  

🇺🇸 Stuart -80.233,27.183 d: 55.7  

🇺🇸 Lauderhill -80.223,26.154 d: 63.8  

Antipodal to: West Palm Beach 99.944,-26.708

🇦🇺 Wanneroo 115.803,-31.747 d: 18379.3  

🇦🇺 Rockingham 115.717,-32.267 d: 18370.2  

🇦🇺 Vincent 115.834,-31.936 d: 18370.6  

🇦🇺 Perth 115.857,-31.953 d: 18368  

🇦🇺 City of Cockburn 115.833,-32.167 d: 18363.2  

🇦🇺 Mandurah 115.721,-32.529 d: 18360.6  

🇦🇺 Guildford 115.973,-31.9 d: 18359.2  

🇦🇺 Midland 116.01,-31.888 d: 18356.2  

🇦🇺 Bunbury 115.637,-33.327 d: 18337  

🇦🇺 Albany 117.867,-35.017 d: 18075.2  

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