ALEJANDRO ROQUE., ESQ. | IMMIGRATION & CRIMINAL LAW ATTORNEY

Historia de West Palm Beach

The history of West Palm Beach began over 5,000 years ago with the arrival of the first aboriginal settlers. The area was inhabited by Native American tribes such as the Jaegas. Even though authority over Florida shifted between Spain, England, the United States, and the Confederate States of America, the region remained largely undeveloped until the 20th century. By the 1870s and 1880s, non-Native Americans had settled in regions around West Palm Beach, referring to the community as "Lake Worth Country." However, until the arrival of Henry Flagler in the 1890s, the population remained fairly small. Beginning in 1894, Flagler built hotels and resorts in Palm Beach to attract wealthy tourists who could travel there on his train.

Flagler intended West Palm Beach to be a residential neighborhood for the staff of his Palm Beach hotels. George W. Potter surveyed and platted the first 48 blocks of the town in 1893. On November 5, 1894, West Palm Beach was formed as a village before becoming a city in 1903. West Palm Beach was designated the county seat when Palm Beach County was formed in 1909. The city grew significantly faster during the real estate boom of the 1920s, which saw an approximately four-fold increase in population and the development of many of the city's historic structures and neighborhoods.

However, the storm of 1928, which damaged the city, and the end of the land boom ushered in an era of economic depression just before the Great Depression.

West Palm Beach enjoyed a post-World War II economic revival as soldiers who trained at Morrison Field vacationed or migrated to the region. Thousands of acres of wetlands were drained and filled as the city grew westward in the 1950s and 1960s. In the newly drained and filled area, a municipal stadium, theater, and shopping center were erected in the last decade. By the 1980s, commercial expansion west of the city's original boundaries had resulted in urban decay in the downtown area.

However, in the early 1990s, the renovation of Clematis Street and the establishment of CityPlace in 2000 resulted in a revived downtown district. The city has a population of 111,398 according to the United States Census Bureau in 2018.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_West_Palm_Beach,_Florida