Latest / Inside West Palm Beach / Memorials to the Past: How History Lives On in WPB's Woodlawn Cemetery

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Memorials to the Past: How History Lives On in WPB's Woodlawn Cemetery · Inside West Palm Beach

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  Welcome to the City Center podcast. I'm
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  Jerry Marcello. As cities like West Palm
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  Beach continue to change and grow, it is
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  a challenge to preserve its history.
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  New structures wipe away the old, taking
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  with them the memories of when this area
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  was a small town and a largely
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  undeveloped frontier.
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  But there is a place where ties to our
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  city's past live on, and strangely
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  enough, it is where we remember our dead.
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  Today, we'll explore Woodlawn Cemetery
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  and why this place of eternal rest also
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  serves as a link to West
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  Palm Beach's rich history.
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  Next on the City Center
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  podcast from West Palm Beach.
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  And joining us today is Ginger Peterson,
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  who is a writer and historian who is also
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  native to the area. Ginger, welcome.
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  Thank you. Good to be here.
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  We're here to talk about history, and
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  there's no one better I can imagine
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  having this conversation with West Palm
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  Beach, even though we are about 135 years
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  or so old at this point.
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  We have a very rich history. There's an
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  amazing story between its birth through
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  Henry Flagler and its growth, and a lot
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  of amazing stories have taken place here.
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  It's almost a shame that sometimes people
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  who are moving here aren't even aware of
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  some of the fantastic
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  things that have happened here.
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  You're a historian. Tell us what made you
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  so interested in history and why West
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  Palm Beach history is a focus for you.
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  I always loved history. Even as a child,
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  growing up in Jupiter, I used to love to
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  go to see the Du Bois family and some of
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  their older members.
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  They always had pioneer coffee once a
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  year in Jupiter, and I would drag my
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  parents along to it,
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  not the other way around.
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  So I always had that penchant for
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  history. Plus, my family had some deep
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  history roots in Palm Beach County.
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  My grandparents ran a tourist attraction
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  in Boca Raton called Africa USA, which
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  was kind of an early
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  version of a lion country safari.
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  There were no cages, so the animals, not
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  carnivorous, were out and about zebras
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  and giraffe and elephants and things.
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  Let's touch on that just for a second
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  here. It's really zany. Now, it's not
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  about West Palm Beach, but in Boca Raton,
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  there was a lion country
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  safari style animal thing?
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  Yeah, you would drive through on a little
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  Jeep train that they took you when you
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  sat in one of the little wagons that were
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  dragged behind a Jeep, and you would
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  watch and you could interact somewhat
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  with the animals, even in that time.
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  So, yeah, it was open in the 1950s. I
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  never saw it personally, but I have heard
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  all the stories from my
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  cousins who grew up there.
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  Something new for our friends in South
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  County. Y'all had a thing there that was
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  a lot like, oh, it's just insane.
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  The things we learn just by having
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  conversations and talking about parts of
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  the past that would never come up in
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  normal conversation, you
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  learn about the history.
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  And I think that's part of what we're
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  doing here, is rediscovering a very
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  colorful past, not only here in West Palm
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  Beach, but as far as the entire county is
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  concerned, so much has happened here.
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  So much has happened, and I think people,
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  especially who have come here and made
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  this their home, don't realize that we do
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  have a long history.
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  So back in 2014, we wanted to capture
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  part of that history in a book, saying
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  why not—the Legendary Locals is a
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  series that's done by a book company, and
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  we said why not Legendary
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  Locals of West Palm Beach?
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  And it was through the research for the
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  book that we found ourselves in Woodlawn
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  one day, looking at where some of the
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  people that we wrote
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  about had been interred.
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  So we said why not do a tour of Woodlawn
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  and tell these same stories that we tell
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  in the book and tell different ones, and
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  all of us find—we're
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  always finding something new.
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  Even after 10 years, we discover new
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  stories in Woodlawn.
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  Something interests you in a tombstone,
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  or you read something in a paper, and
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  you're like, "I wonder if they're in
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  Woodlawn," and sure enough, they are.
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  And there's very dark stories, and
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  there's very
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  wonderful stories in Woodlawn.
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  It was a point where a lot of people from
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  the 1928 hurricane were buried in a mass
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  grave because they had no choice.
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  The people—the disease threat was so
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  great after that hurricane that they had
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  to do something as terrible as that.
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  So it's really quite amazing.
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  Well, we're going to talk a lot more
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  about Woodlawn and the cemetery, but I
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  note you were kind enough to bring along
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  the copy of the book that has
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  you as one of the co-authors.
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  I've written quite a few books with Janet
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  DeVries-Naughton, and we do a lot of our
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  research together, and
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  we've done other writings.
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  So it's always good to have someone to
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  bounce ideas off of when you're writing
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  and thinking of these things.
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  That's really great. I'm flipping through
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  it for the first time, and it's packed
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  with images, packed with tidbits.
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  It is a treasure trove of
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  information about local heroes.
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  Yeah, local heroes. I know we had a
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  couple of scoundrels we talked into
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  because you always have.
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  That's part of the total community.
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  But the center point is
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  West Palm Beach in the county.
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  It always has been for such a long time
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  as its county seat when
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  we became a county in 1909,
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  that it's always been here that things
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  are centered in the county.
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  If someone's interested in getting a copy
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  of this, where can they get it?
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  It's on Amazon. It's widely available.
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  It's available in
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  local bookstores as well.
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  We'll show it on the screen. Legendary
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  Locals of West Palm Beach
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  is the title of the book.
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  Correct. It's West Palm Beach Base Book.
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  All right. That's very good. I understand
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  that you have something
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  else that you're working on.
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  Just very quickly before
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  I get into the cemetery.
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  Yes, I do. It's the story of Dr. Mabel
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  Elliott, who was a physician following
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  World War I in
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  Turkey, Armenia, and Greece.
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  That family has very deep ties to West
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  Palm Beach, especially
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  because they had 14 children.
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  Wow.
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  Her father, Joseph Elliott, was the
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  chairman of the committee that formed the
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  town of West Palm
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  Beach on November 5, 1894.
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  So you can't get much more
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  West Palm Beach than that.
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  Absolutely.
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  It's going to be a really incredible
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  story of bravery and heroism that we
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  don't necessarily
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  associate many times with women,
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  but everybody can be a hero.
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  And when will that book become available?
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  That'll be coming out in
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  late summer, early fall.
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  Okay. So we'll keep an eye out for it,
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  too. I'm sure it'll be
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  available on Amazon as well.
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  It'll be on Amazon and
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  all the major booksellers.
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  Okay. So let's talk a
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  little bit about the cemetery.
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  Now, is Woodlawn the only cemetery in
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  West Palm Beach, or are there others?
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  There are others. There's Hillcrest
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  Cemetery up on Parker.
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  That's a privately owned cemetery.
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  But Woodlawn is the only public cemetery,
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  I believe, in the city of West Palm Beach
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  that is part of the
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  city's parks department.
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  And it has been. It was a gift from Henry
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  Flagler. It
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  originally belonged to Flagler.
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  He had paid to have the layout of the
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  cemetery way back in the late 1800s.
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  And then that's when the burials began.
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  Now, it's not West Palm
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  Beach's first cemetery.
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  There was a couple of small
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  cemeteries in the Northwood area.
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  There was one downtown very, very briefly
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  at Clematis and what we would call Dixie
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  today, what the pioneers
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  would know as Poinsettia.
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  It's like right here where City Hall is.
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  Yeah, pretty much. A little
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  bit. Yeah, it was basically here.
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  And it was very few people interred
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  because they knew it
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  would be way too small.
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  So then there was a much larger cemetery
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  where the Norton Museum is located that
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  was called Lakeside.
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  And that was also privately owned by the
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  Lake Worth Pioneer
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  Association, which still exists.
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  And they had hundreds of burials there.
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  Most of the people were moved over to
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  Woodlawn when the association decided to
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  deed that property to the
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  city because they couldn't.
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  They didn't have the
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  funds to maintain it. Gotcha.
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  There are still people interred under the
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  Norton, at least 40.
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  There are also a few tombstones in a
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  crawl space under the Norton.
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  So, you know, whether the place is
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  haunted, I mean, some people think it is.
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  I'm not, you know, I always stress to
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  people we're not doing a ghost tour. No.
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  This is a very dignified storytelling
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  tour of the people that
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  are there in Woodlawn.
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  So we've had ghost hunters on our tours,
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  but that's not the focus of what we do.
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  And I think that's completely valid.
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  I mean, it's a lot of fun to tell the
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  ghost stories and to, you know, it gets
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  to be Halloween time and
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  you go out and do stuff.
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  But you know what? The real value of what
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  you provide and the memorial quality of
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  the cemetery is, again,
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  a reminder of the lives that were lived
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  here in West Palm Beach and the people
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  who came here as
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  pioneers or as early residents.
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  And looking back at their lives and how
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  life was for them and how radically
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  different it is for us
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  today is like a history book.
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  You open it up and you can learn so much.
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  I had the opportunity to go on the tour
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  that you're describing just recently.
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  And what I discovered was so special for
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  me was instead of saying, OK, well, here
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  is this location or here is this marker.
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  A lot of the stories you told were very
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  personal and about people at different
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  moments in the city's history and how
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  they lived and what happened to them.
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  And it really brought it to life.
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  Yeah, you know, and I think
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  that's really what we did.
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  I mean, I always think as humans are the
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  thing that makes us to me different than
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  any other creatures is we tell stories.
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  It is the basis of so much of what we do.
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  And I tell people, if you want to be
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  remembered, tell your story.
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  Tell your story to someone because
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  everybody has a great story
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  and they just don't know it.
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  And I know I was surprised to learn that
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  we had some fairly, you know, fairly,
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  fairly old markers in the cemetery.
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  I believe one of the very first stops we
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  stopped, we were looking at a veteran
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  that was alive during the Civil War or
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  active during the Civil War.
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  And that's, you know, you don't think of
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  West Palm Beach, you think 50s, you think
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  40s, you don't jump all
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  the way back into the 1890s.
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  Yeah. And there are several people from
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  that time period and
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  people born as early.
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  I've never seen a 1700s, but there are
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  several like 1810, 1812 people that were
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  born at that time that
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  are interred at Woodlawn.
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  That's that's amazing.
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  So once again, you mentioned that I think
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  I use the term that there
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  are many heroes located there.
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  You said that there
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  could possibly be villains.
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  What sort of villains could we possibly
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  have in the cemetery?
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  Well, there are there are villains and
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  there's tragic stories and there are
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  empty graves, the most famous of which
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  belongs to Judge
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  Chillingworth and his wife.
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  There is a nice, very
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  nice headstone there.
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  And I always tell people this is an empty
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  grave because their bodies were never
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  recovered after they were killed by
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  basically the hit men who drowned them
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  somewhere out in the ocean.
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  So those kinds of tragedies.
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  But, you know, villains, if you want to
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  call them that someone who was kind of
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  someone who killed someone like Lena
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  Clark, the murdering postmistress of West
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  Palm Beach, who served time in a insane
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  asylum for two years.
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  But she came out after two years after
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  killing a man and stealing thirty two
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  thousand dollars of government money.
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  So it's all those kinds of twists and
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  turns and crazy tales that you stumble
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  across one day that I don't even I've
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  never gone looking for
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  a story that I found.
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  It somehow just just bounces into me.
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  And in the strangest ways with with Lena
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  Clark, my parents first
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  house was on Lake Clark.
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  So I was curious.
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  I'm like, oh, I wonder who
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  like Clark is named after.
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  So I googled Clark and her story was like
• 13:12:39
  the third link girl murderer.
• 13:12:41
  I'm like, what is this about?
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  So that's how sometimes things happen
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  with the Elliott book.
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  Somebody put something
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  on Facebook about her.
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  And I was like, oh,
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  I've never heard of her.
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  How did that happen?
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  So it's very strange how
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  how things like that happen.
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  And even with Birdsville, Mendoui, that
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  we wrote a book about pioneering Palm
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  Beach, which was a true West Palm Beach
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  story about a woman who was a writer, had
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  founded the town of Boynton and had this
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  beautiful estate called Ben Travato.
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  Well, one day someone emails me and said,
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  I think they're theming
• 13:13:15
  a hotel around your book.
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  I'm like, what?
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  And she's like, it's the Ben.
• 13:13:19
  And so the Ben Hotel is about Birdsville,
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  Mendoui and her dogs.
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  And there's a copy of
• 13:13:26
  her book in every room.
• 13:13:28
  And I was like, well, I
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  never saw that coming.
• 13:13:30
  And they really wanted.
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  I said, why did you guys pick that?
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  The designers of the hotel, they said
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  they wanted something that was uniquely
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  West Palm Beach, not Palm Beach, not
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  Flagler, something
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  that was just Palm Beach.
• 13:13:42
  And they kind of they
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  stumbled across her.
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  So I think it's important because West
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  Palm Beach has always had a little bit of
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  a little brother syndrome.
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  And it was always the service town to
• 13:13:53
  Palm Beach and all these kind of little
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  bit derogatory redheaded stepchild.
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  And it's not.
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  It's a wonderful city.
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  And it is like you
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  said, it is evolved in time.
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  It is evolving again.
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  And it will evolve 100 years from now
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  when we're all gone.
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  It's just the way things are.
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  I call it the layers of history.
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  But I like to respect what was because I
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  think it's interesting.
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  I don't want those people to be forgotten
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  no more than we want to be forgotten.
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  We'd be losing color.
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  We'd be losing part of part of the fabric
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  that makes this this community so
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  interesting and so different.
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  And it's important that we have the
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  ability to capture this through your
• 13:14:34
  writings and the folks that you work with
• 13:14:35
  who are also involved with with history
• 13:14:38
  and reclaiming the history.
• 13:14:40
  That would otherwise be lost.
• 13:14:43
  And so it's really, really very valuable
• 13:14:44
  and really, really great.
• 13:14:47
  Again, you know, we talked about heroes
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  and people who had less
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  than heroic histories.
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  And I know that the the the the Judge
• 13:14:54
  Chillingworth story that
• 13:14:56
  you mentioned is astoundingly.
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  I mean, why it's not a major movie
• 13:15:01
  somewhere that we've
• 13:15:03
  never figured that out.
• 13:15:04
  They've done two documentaries, both, you
• 13:15:06
  know, national productions.
• 13:15:07
  But the fact that it's never
• 13:15:09
  been even written as a novel.
• 13:15:11
  They did the podcast on
• 13:15:13
  it, which was like 12 parts.
• 13:15:15
  And they did a nice job on that.
• 13:15:16
  But to me, there's you know, it's a very
• 13:15:18
  it's a very disturbing
• 13:15:19
  story for so many reasons.
• 13:15:21
  It is a very disturbing story.
• 13:15:23
  And I challenge folks
• 13:15:24
  who are listening to this.
• 13:15:24
  If you don't know about the story of the
• 13:15:27
  Chillingworth, it's
• 13:15:28
  spelled like it sounds.
• 13:15:29
  Go ahead and start to start googling it.
• 13:15:31
  Find out more about it.
• 13:15:33
  It is absolutely breathtaking.
• 13:15:35
  The story that that happened
• 13:15:37
  here in the fifties that took.
• 13:15:39
  Yeah, it's very disturbing.
• 13:15:41
  And they did an incredible job of what
• 13:15:43
  they had in the podcast of finding the
• 13:15:46
  original tapes that they did.
• 13:15:48
  And and really giving some
• 13:15:49
  of the details of the story.
• 13:15:51
  There you are.
• 13:15:52
  Very striking.
• 13:15:52
  Another party, even though it's a very
• 13:15:54
  dark part of our West Palm Beach history,
• 13:15:56
  it is it is an amazing bit of color.
• 13:15:58
  And it's it's it's a
• 13:16:00
  stunning story to get a hold of.
• 13:16:03
  But we're talking about the cemetery.
• 13:16:05
  Now, you are clearly expert in the people
• 13:16:09
  there, and the history of the of the
• 13:16:12
  folks who are part of the cemetery.
• 13:16:14
  Is there anything that is a standout to
• 13:16:15
  you, something that you find
• 13:16:16
  inspirational that you'd like to share as
• 13:16:18
  far as one of the people
• 13:16:19
  that are interred there?
• 13:16:22
  Inspirational.
• 13:16:26
  I've always been very taken with Guy
• 13:16:28
  Metcalfe because he was a character and a
• 13:16:31
  half and really
• 13:16:33
  believed so much in our area.
• 13:16:34
  He was instrumental in
• 13:16:36
  having the county formed.
• 13:16:38
  He was postmaster of West Palm Beach.
• 13:16:41
  He was school
• 13:16:41
  superintendent for the town.
• 13:16:44
  Ran a newspaper that captured so much of
• 13:16:47
  the beautiful early history of West Palm
• 13:16:50
  Beach in the whole area.
• 13:16:51
  And so many people
• 13:16:52
  know nothing about him.
• 13:16:54
  He ended tragically, too, by suicide.
• 13:16:57
  But his story kind of stopped so abruptly
• 13:16:59
  that I don't think I've tried so many
• 13:17:01
  times to reach out to his family because
• 13:17:03
  I volunteer at the Historical Society.
• 13:17:05
  They have almost nothing on him.
• 13:17:08
  Literally one photograph and then one
• 13:17:11
  photograph taken from the newspaper.
• 13:17:13
  That's it.
• 13:17:15
  And so, you know, he was
• 13:17:16
  such a colorful character.
• 13:17:18
  And his story, because it just ends so
• 13:17:22
  abruptly with him that I just thought
• 13:17:23
  there could be more about him somehow.
• 13:17:27
  But so he's always been one of my heroes
• 13:17:28
  for early county history.
• 13:17:30
  That's really, really neat.
• 13:17:32
  So I'm sure there's a lot of people who
• 13:17:35
  are now interested in
• 13:17:36
  taking part in one of the tours.
• 13:17:40
  Is that something that people can where
• 13:17:42
  can they reach out to
• 13:17:44
  find out more about?
• 13:17:44
  So we do the tours from we do them
• 13:17:47
  October and November.
• 13:17:49
  And then we do January, February, March
• 13:17:52
  and April, because then we hit the summer
• 13:17:54
  and we hit mosquitoes and rain and
• 13:17:55
  thunder and lightning.
• 13:17:56
  So it just became we couldn't do them.
• 13:17:58
  So if they reach out to the Palm Beach
• 13:18:01
  County Parks or I'm sorry, the West Palm
• 13:18:03
  Beach Parks Department,
• 13:18:04
  they have their Facebook page.
• 13:18:07
  And they also have we also have a
• 13:18:09
  Woodlawn Cemetery Facebook
• 13:18:10
  page with the information.
• 13:18:12
  It's a very easy sign up.
• 13:18:13
  It's free.
• 13:18:15
  We just do reservations through a system
• 13:18:18
  called Eventbrite, only because we don't
• 13:18:20
  want too many people.
• 13:18:21
  The first time we did the tour, we didn't
• 13:18:24
  have any reservations
• 13:18:25
  and 150 people showed up.
• 13:18:28
  And it was way too many because we can't
• 13:18:30
  accommodate that many.
• 13:18:32
  It's too hard to group to move a group.
• 13:18:34
  We usually have between 40 and 60.
• 13:18:37
  That's a good number.
• 13:18:39
  And so they open up reservations not for
• 13:18:41
  the whole season, but
• 13:18:42
  one month at a time.
• 13:18:42
  So right now, as this is being taped in
• 13:18:46
  February, the March
• 13:18:47
  reservations are open.
• 13:18:48
  So we still have March and
• 13:18:50
  April to do for this year.
• 13:18:53
  So to take part, the suggestion would be,
• 13:18:57
  first of all, go check on Facebook and
• 13:18:59
  see the group that's involved.
• 13:19:01
  It's called Woodlawn Cemetery Tours.
• 13:19:04
  And it's there as a Facebook page or just
• 13:19:06
  simply go to the West Palm
• 13:19:07
  Beach Parks Department website.
• 13:19:09
  And they have the link to the Eventbrite
• 13:19:12
  sign up, which is free.
• 13:19:14
  You don't have to put in any credit card
• 13:19:16
  or anything like that.
• 13:19:17
  It's just a crowd control system.
• 13:19:19
  Sure.
• 13:19:20
  And for people listening,
• 13:19:21
  the city website is wpb.org.
• 13:19:25
  You can go ahead and just--there's easy
• 13:19:26
  navigation to find your
• 13:19:27
  way to the park section.
• 13:19:29
  And you'll see information
• 13:19:29
  that will help you there.
• 13:19:31
  So that's terrific.
• 13:19:32
  We have an opportunity a couple of
• 13:19:33
  different ways for
• 13:19:34
  people to get involved.
• 13:19:35
  And that's really, really neat.
• 13:19:36
  So I understand that you
• 13:19:39
  are a volunteer, right?
• 13:19:41
  Yes.
• 13:19:42
  So that's terrific.
• 13:19:43
  And thank you for
• 13:19:44
  doing what you're doing.
• 13:19:45
  It's interesting because I think you're
• 13:19:47
  one of the very first people we've had on
• 13:19:48
  our program that wasn't
• 13:19:50
  actually a city employee.
• 13:19:52
  So congratulations.
• 13:19:53
  A volunteer, yeah.
• 13:19:55
  How is it being a volunteer?
• 13:19:56
  I love volunteering.
• 13:19:58
  I think it's giving back to our community
• 13:20:00
  is a way that we don't really consider.
• 13:20:03
  People may not like the way
• 13:20:05
  the country's going or whatever.
• 13:20:07
  And the first thing I say to someone like
• 13:20:08
  that, what do you do locally?
• 13:20:10
  Do you work at a shelter?
• 13:20:12
  Do you go to a retirement home and talk
• 13:20:15
  to lonely old people?
• 13:20:17
  I'm like, what do you do?
• 13:20:18
  And invariably what I hear is they don't
• 13:20:20
  do anything except be angry at the world.
• 13:20:23
  And I'm like, do something small.
• 13:20:25
  Go work at the--sort food at the--I can't
• 13:20:30
  think of the name of
• 13:20:30
  what they call that place.
• 13:20:31
  They're food banks.
• 13:20:33
  Go to a food bank.
• 13:20:33
  Go to your church.
• 13:20:35
  Find a way to contribute
• 13:20:36
  something to your community.
• 13:20:38
  My way of doing it is by sharing history
• 13:20:40
  and stories and writing and volunteering
• 13:20:43
  at the Historical
• 13:20:44
  Society of Palm Beach County.
• 13:20:46
  Those are ways that I try to give back
• 13:20:48
  to--and also what I like to do.
• 13:20:51
  I mean, you're not going to volunteer in
• 13:20:52
  something that you
• 13:20:53
  don't like to do typically.
• 13:20:55
  We've done cleanings in Woodlawn, which
• 13:20:58
  are--I think there's one
• 13:20:59
  coming up where they supply--
• 13:21:00
  they supply the chemicals and things to
• 13:21:03
  wash the headstones.
• 13:21:05
  And we usually get help from Palm Beach
• 13:21:07
  Atlantic University.
• 13:21:08
  FP&L has come out and their employees.
• 13:21:11
  So those are great events also to learn
• 13:21:13
  about those because
• 13:21:14
  those headstones need care.
• 13:21:16
  Some of them they get--you know, with our
• 13:21:17
  Florida weather, they
• 13:21:19
  get mildewy and stained.
• 13:21:21
  And so they have special chemicals that
• 13:21:24
  are just made for that.
• 13:21:25
  They're very gentle that will actually
• 13:21:27
  help the headstones look a
• 13:21:29
  lot nicer and last longer.
• 13:21:29
  Well, that's fantastic. And we encourage
• 13:21:31
  everybody to get involved.
• 13:21:33
  Yes.
• 13:21:33
  You know, volunteer, as you pointed out,
• 13:21:35
  is the backbone of many things in our
• 13:21:37
  community and a great way to give back to
• 13:21:39
  the place that you live.
• 13:21:40
  So that's fantastic.
• 13:21:41
  And I want to give a shout out.
• 13:21:43
  You've mentioned a couple times the Palm
• 13:21:45
  Beach County Historical Society.
• 13:21:46
  Can you tell us a little bit about them?
• 13:21:48
  Yeah, the Historical Society of Palm
• 13:21:49
  Beach County has been around a very, very
• 13:21:52
  long time since the 1930s.
• 13:21:56
  Judge James Knott was one of the key
• 13:22:00
  players in getting it started.
• 13:22:02
  And right now they're
• 13:22:04
  located in the 1916 courthouse.
• 13:22:07
  That's where they have their archives,
• 13:22:09
  what I call the secret chamber of magic,
• 13:22:12
  where all of the wonderful documents and
• 13:22:14
  photographs are stored.
• 13:22:16
  They also have a facility offsite where
• 13:22:18
  they store a lot of the larger artifacts.
• 13:22:21
  And it's an incredible collection.
• 13:22:22
  And every time I go there, somebody, you
• 13:22:26
  know, I see someone bring in the shoe box
• 13:22:28
  or the photo album or
• 13:22:30
  whatever they have to contribute.
• 13:22:32
  Because I tell people, if you have things
• 13:22:34
  like old photographs and artifacts that
• 13:22:37
  are of historical value that tie to our
• 13:22:38
  area, you know, bring them there.
• 13:22:41
  And they will see and assess your
• 13:22:43
  collection to see if it fits their needs.
• 13:22:45
  And it's a place to store things that are
• 13:22:49
  not going to end up in the garbage when
• 13:22:51
  something happens to you.
• 13:22:53
  You know, people who have old letters or
• 13:22:55
  things that you may not think have value
• 13:22:57
  of great historical value.
• 13:22:59
  That's with the Elliott family.
• 13:23:01
  I had found some family letters that were
• 13:23:04
  that I was allowed to see.
• 13:23:06
  And I told them, I'm like, please donate
• 13:23:08
  these to an archive.
• 13:23:09
  Because for Mrs. Dewey, when I finally
• 13:23:14
  tracked down her family, I
• 13:23:15
  said, who has all her papers?
• 13:23:17
  Who has all her effects?
• 13:23:20
  Oh, they were all lost
• 13:23:22
  in a 1948 house fire.
• 13:23:25
  So I was like, oh, oh, oh, I found them,
• 13:23:28
  but I didn't find them.
• 13:23:29
  So I often think it's like
• 13:23:30
  if she had left some things.
• 13:23:33
  I mean, we're not talking about cleaning
• 13:23:34
  out your garage, but things that are
• 13:23:37
  really photographs don't take that much.
• 13:23:38
  And sometimes we get donations that solve
• 13:23:42
  mysteries, like somebody is standing in
• 13:23:45
  front of a house that we've been trying
• 13:23:46
  to figure out where that house was or
• 13:23:48
  what it looked like.
• 13:23:49
  And that's really the thing of the
• 13:23:50
  interest is not necessarily the person,
• 13:23:52
  but maybe it's the house of the street so
• 13:23:55
  that can solve so
• 13:23:55
  many mysteries like that.
• 13:23:57
  Sure. I mean, it's what you're describing
• 13:23:59
  is so important, especially in a dynamic,
• 13:24:01
  changing town like West Palm Beach.
• 13:24:03
  The city is reinventing
• 13:24:06
  itself generation by generation.
• 13:24:08
  And it's important for us to do exactly
• 13:24:09
  what you're describing, reaching back and
• 13:24:11
  grabbing a hold of those artifacts and
• 13:24:14
  those memories and preserving them for
• 13:24:17
  future generations so that we remember
• 13:24:19
  where we've been as opposed
• 13:24:21
  to just where we're going.
• 13:24:22
  Yeah. I mean, I've seen some aerial
• 13:24:24
  photos and photos taken from tall
• 13:24:27
  buildings in West Palm Beach kind of
• 13:24:28
  looking out in the 50s and 60s.
• 13:24:31
  And it really takes my breath away
• 13:24:33
  because so much has been lost to
• 13:24:36
  development and to high rises and things
• 13:24:38
  where there were simple, beautiful white
• 13:24:40
  cottages that just aren't that big of a
• 13:24:44
  part of the city anymore.
• 13:24:46
  But it's evolution. And I get that.
• 13:24:49
  Or even Flagler Drive, people don't know
• 13:24:51
  that that was all filled in.
• 13:24:52
  In the early times when you went south of
• 13:24:56
  the city, all of their yards went
• 13:24:58
  straight into Lake Worth.
• 13:25:00
  Like a little beach.
• 13:25:01
  It was like a little beach. And then it
• 13:25:03
  was the time of coconut palms.
• 13:25:06
  It really looked like Tahiti.
• 13:25:08
  Then we had lethal yellowing in the
• 13:25:09
  1970s, which was a coconut disease that
• 13:25:12
  killed so many of the very
• 13:25:13
  old, tall Jamaican coconuts.
• 13:25:17
  And now we have the shorter coconuts and
• 13:25:20
  it looks nice again, but it was those
• 13:25:22
  things towered over everything.
• 13:25:24
  But they unfortunately all died of that
• 13:25:25
  terrible disease that hit the coconuts.
• 13:25:29
  We are. We're in a changing community.
• 13:25:31
  And what you're doing to preserve the
• 13:25:33
  past and to capture it so that we have it
• 13:25:36
  to share and to learn from is
• 13:25:38
  so valuable and so important.
• 13:25:39
  And so, you know, we thank you for
• 13:25:42
  everything that you're doing and creating
• 13:25:44
  these documents and creating these books
• 13:25:45
  so that there is always a way for us to
• 13:25:48
  reach back to the past and
• 13:25:50
  remember where our city came from.
• 13:25:52
  Yes, that's so important. And West Palm
• 13:25:54
  Beach has a very
• 13:25:55
  special place in my heart.
• 13:25:57
  So it's really like I said, it becomes
• 13:25:59
  the focal point of so much of what I do.
• 13:26:01
  Ginger, thank you. Thank you.
• 13:26:03
  And thank you for joining us.
• 13:26:03
  Remember, programs like the Woodlawn
• 13:26:06
  Cemetery Tour can only happen
• 13:26:08
  with the help of volunteers.
• 13:26:10
  There are many opportunities for
• 13:26:11
  volunteers to get
• 13:26:12
  involved in city programs.
• 13:26:14
  You can learn more by visiting the city's
• 13:26:16
  website at wpb.org or call 561-804-4906.
• 13:26:25
  The City Center podcast is a production
• 13:26:27
  of the City of West Palm Beach
• 13:26:28
  Department of Communications.
• 13:26:30
  I'm Jerry Marcello. We'll see you soon.