Latest / Inside West Palm Beach / Photos and Memories: WPB History in Film
Transcript
- 15:09:29Welcome to the City Center podcast. I'm
- 15:09:31Jerry Marcello. Take a photo and you
- 15:09:34created a happy memory. And when that
- 15:09:36photo has turned to maybe 50, 75, or 100
- 15:09:39years old, that memory becomes something
- 15:09:42else altogether. Today we'll look at
- 15:09:45three photos that will unlock a part of
- 15:09:47West Palm Beach's history. A window into
- 15:09:50where our town was just a tropical
- 15:09:52frontier. Surprisingly different than
- 15:09:54what we see today. Join us for a trip
- 15:09:57through time, next on the City Center
- 15:09:59podcast.
- 15:10:06Joining us today is Rose Guerrero,
- 15:10:08currently Director of Research and
- 15:10:10Archives for the Historical Society of
- 15:10:12Palm Beach County.
- 15:10:13Rose, welcome. Thank you
- 15:10:15for having me. We have a city which is
- 15:10:17fairly young. I mean we've been around
- 15:10:20for what about 130, 140 years? Yeah 131
- 15:10:23next actually in November. In November.
- 15:10:26November is the birthday. November 3rd or
- 15:10:294th. Yeah so in spite of the fact that
- 15:10:31we've had a short period of time on this
- 15:10:33planet, a lot of stuff has happened here.
- 15:10:36Right. And it is wonderful that we also
- 15:10:38have a facility like where you work. I
- 15:10:41want you to tell everybody about it
- 15:10:43because I think a lot of people don't
- 15:10:44realize you're there and it's an amazing
- 15:10:47place. The Historical Society of Palm
- 15:10:49Beach County actually started in the
- 15:10:511930s, 1937, and we've been collecting
- 15:10:54materials and information about the
- 15:10:57county for over 88 years now. And our
- 15:11:01purpose is to provide access to our
- 15:11:04community so that they can learn more
- 15:11:05about where they live. And so we actually
- 15:11:07our house in the 1916 courthouse in
- 15:11:10downtown West Palm Beach. We have a
- 15:11:13museum there. It's very active. We're an
- 15:11:14active society. Lots of events always
- 15:11:17going on. We have exhibits that are going
- 15:11:20around year-round for people to enjoy. So
- 15:11:23you should check us out on our website
- 15:11:25pbchistory.org. You can find out all
- 15:11:27about all the great things that we do
- 15:11:30for our community. Now I've been there
- 15:11:31and I've had the opportunity to see it's
- 15:11:33really neat. There are collections that
- 15:11:35have been donated to you guys from
- 15:11:38people's homes or their attics, their
- 15:11:40photo archives, and it's a
- 15:11:42fascinating how that captures the
- 15:11:44history. Absolutely. Of what's going on
- 15:11:46there. It's a fantastic place to be.
- 15:11:47Really, really cool. Highly recommended
- 15:11:49that people go by and visit. Absolutely.
- 15:11:51If you're ever
- 15:11:52interested in learning where
- 15:11:53you're from, where you are at in Palm
- 15:11:56Beach County, reach out to us. We'll be
- 15:11:59able to at least show you some items that
- 15:12:01we have associated to the area so
- 15:12:03that you can learn more about us. We have
- 15:12:06so many transplants here that
- 15:12:08come here because of the weather. It's
- 15:12:09nice and all that good stuff.
- 15:12:11They are floored by when they learn about
- 15:12:14the things that have happened here and
- 15:12:15and how we got to be the city that we've
- 15:12:17become and the county that we are.
- 15:12:19Even though we think of West Palm Beach
- 15:12:22being 131 years old, we need to
- 15:12:25realize that people have been living here
- 15:12:27for over 13,000 years in Florida.
- 15:12:30Florida is old in general. That's a
- 15:12:34really vast part of our collection.
- 15:12:36It comes from that part, our pioneer
- 15:12:38eras, people that traverse the wild
- 15:12:42wilderness of the coastline to make their
- 15:12:45way down here and to settle in an
- 15:12:47unknown area. A lot of our images
- 15:12:50showcase this barren land that ends up
- 15:12:53being Palm Beach. What we think of or we
- 15:12:55see today as Palm Beach really was a
- 15:12:56swamp land. Wow. You're right. At the
- 15:13:00very beginning, we were clearly an
- 15:13:02area that was truly frontier land. It's
- 15:13:08amazing to see how in a
- 15:13:09very short period of time between the
- 15:13:121890s and say the 1920s, which is not a
- 15:13:16whole lot of time, the landscape changed
- 15:13:19so quickly. Lots of things are happening
- 15:13:21within that very small amount of time.
- 15:13:24When you think about it being
- 15:13:25less than 30 years of a period of time,
- 15:13:29so much happens. So many people
- 15:13:32are coming through and developing this
- 15:13:34area and making it their home and
- 15:13:36turning it into the great place that we
- 15:13:38know it as today. That information is
- 15:13:40all available to Historical Society.
- 15:13:42Absolutely. Come find it. Yes, please.
- 15:13:45Let's go ahead and start taking a look.
- 15:13:46We talked about
- 15:13:46photographs being something
- 15:13:48where we capture a lot of the history and
- 15:13:51they can be markers for
- 15:13:52discussion. We're going to start taking a
- 15:13:54look at some photographs. We have
- 15:13:57them in front of us. For our audience
- 15:13:58that is listening in
- 15:14:00rather than watching,
- 15:14:01we'll do our best to describe them. The
- 15:14:03very first photograph we have, we're
- 15:14:05seeing what seems to be an old style two
- 15:14:08story building. It has a little balcony
- 15:14:11and it has on front of it a very
- 15:14:13important sign. The sign says, "The Curry
- 15:14:16Investment Company Real Estate in Huge
- 15:14:20Letters." Real estate is obviously a
- 15:14:23very big part of the very early days of
- 15:14:25West Palm Beach. Let's talk a little
- 15:14:27bit about that. Yeah, so the Curry
- 15:14:29Investment is actually George Curry. He
- 15:14:31came to West Palm Beach in the early
- 15:14:331900s. He was actually Canadian, so he
- 15:14:35comes down south and he makes West Palm
- 15:14:38Beach his home. He sees the wonderful
- 15:14:43opportunities here in the area, including
- 15:14:45the fact that there's so much land that
- 15:14:48people are seeking. Him being one of
- 15:14:51those people and he starts seeing the
- 15:14:52opportunity to be able to sell that. Like
- 15:14:55most pioneers of that era, he had
- 15:14:59multiple forms of businesses and the
- 15:15:02Curry Investments was one of those.
- 15:15:05This is actually pre- this is around
- 15:15:071905-1906 when this property is being
- 15:15:11developed. He actually has the office on
- 15:15:16the first floor. I see. Now,
- 15:15:19looking at this photograph and just to
- 15:15:22let you know, we sort of did the
- 15:15:25math here and sort of did a location
- 15:15:27here. This is at the corner of
- 15:15:30Klamadis and South Olive. We have a
- 15:15:32picture of what it looks like now and
- 15:15:35we're going to be showing that here. It's
- 15:15:37very familiar to those who
- 15:15:38wandered Klamadis and wandered the
- 15:15:40street. It's sort of fun to see what
- 15:15:43was clearly a frontier street and
- 15:15:46frontier town. You
- 15:15:47could almost- you could
- 15:15:48hear the clip-clop of horses and things
- 15:15:51running down the street. It becomes a
- 15:15:54place where- this was sort of the jumping
- 15:15:56off point- where a
- 15:15:57lot of the neighborhoods
- 15:15:58that we consider to be old neighborhoods
- 15:16:01in West Palm, the El Cid, and Grandview,
- 15:16:04and all those neighborhoods, they began
- 15:16:06by being sold by places like this.
- 15:16:10Absolutely. So, Curry Investments was a
- 15:16:13big real estate company in the early
- 15:16:151900s. Curry, who eventually becomes a
- 15:16:18mayor for West Palm Beach, was highly
- 15:16:20invested. So, he designs some of the
- 15:16:24first subdivisions in West Palm Beach,
- 15:16:27including Pleasant City, which was a
- 15:16:29designated black community. He
- 15:16:31wanted to name it the most beautiful town
- 15:16:33in West Palm Beach. He gives it all
- 15:16:35these pretty street names, so beautiful
- 15:16:37street and so forth. It's kind of the
- 15:16:39theme that he was going for because he
- 15:16:41was selling it as this pleasant area for
- 15:16:44people to live in. How about that? And of
- 15:16:46course, Curry Park, which is a beautiful,
- 15:16:49beautiful waterfront park on the
- 15:16:52intercoastal named after Curry. I would
- 15:16:54assume that he probably had something to
- 15:16:55do with the land that he originally sold.
- 15:16:57Yeah, so it was deeded to the city by his
- 15:17:00family when he passed. So, what we're
- 15:17:02seeing here in the early 1900s, a small
- 15:17:07town that was growing
- 15:17:08exponentially based on the real estate,
- 15:17:11the land that we have. There was a huge
- 15:17:13boom going on in the early 1900s. We
- 15:17:15sometimes think of it as the 1920s boom,
- 15:17:17but really it started in the teens. In
- 15:17:20the 19 teens, this huge boom, people are
- 15:17:22starting to hear tales of this West Palm
- 15:17:25Beach that is really developing. It's got
- 15:17:27lots of farmland. It's got so much
- 15:17:30opportunity that, you
- 15:17:32know, developers are
- 15:17:33really selling it to outside
- 15:17:36stakeholders. So, it's
- 15:17:37hot, hot, hot, which sort of
- 15:17:39leads us to our next photograph. Our next
- 15:17:42photograph shows a building with
- 15:17:46many, many people. Again, I'm doing this
- 15:17:47for our audience who may not be able to
- 15:17:50watch the video, but we're seeing an
- 15:17:52elevated street, an intersection of a
- 15:17:55building in front with many, many people
- 15:17:58pouring into it, looking like they're
- 15:18:00trying to get into the building. Rose,
- 15:18:03what is this building? So, that is
- 15:18:05actually the Farmers Bank and Trust,
- 15:18:08which was built in 1926. So, it was
- 15:18:11actually in the same spot that we were
- 15:18:13just looking at in that image of
- 15:18:15the furry investments. And this bank,
- 15:18:19Farmers Bank and Trust, which had built
- 15:18:21their new location in West Palm Beach in
- 15:18:241926, this image that we're looking at is
- 15:18:27actually a run on the bank in 1927.
- 15:18:29That's exactly what a run on the bank is.
- 15:18:31So, when the community loses trust with
- 15:18:35the bank, they're afraid that their money
- 15:18:36is not going to become available to them.
- 15:18:38And so, they rush a whole group of people
- 15:18:41all at once, rush to a bank to get all
- 15:18:44their money out of a bank. And we
- 15:18:45understand that banks don't really work
- 15:18:47that way. They don't always hold all of
- 15:18:50everyone's single dollar that they
- 15:18:52invested into the bank that same day. So,
- 15:18:55there's so many newspaper articles about
- 15:18:57this exact date when this happens.
- 15:18:59Because when Farmers Bank and Trust was
- 15:19:04experiencing this, three banks
- 15:19:06prior a month ago had already gone out of
- 15:19:10business. And that was why there was
- 15:19:12this run on Farmers Bank and Trust, was
- 15:19:15that there was an overwhelming fear of
- 15:19:20banks not having their money available
- 15:19:22for them because banks were going out of
- 15:19:25business. Anybody who has watched the
- 15:19:28holiday classic,
- 15:19:30"It's a Wonderful Life" by
- 15:19:31Frank Capra will know exactly what this
- 15:19:33is about. It is exactly the moment when
- 15:19:36they had to shut the doors and they had
- 15:19:38like two dollars left. So, that was a
- 15:19:41happy story, but this was real and it was
- 15:19:44very tragic. People were truly
- 15:19:45frightened. They were, but what's so
- 15:19:47interesting about this story is that the
- 15:19:51newspapers discussing this experience
- 15:19:54talk about how the wealthy members of
- 15:19:58society would not let their community
- 15:20:01fail in this moment. And so, when there
- 15:20:03was this run on the banks, the community
- 15:20:07gathered and the wealthy
- 15:20:09people that lived in Palm Beach and West
- 15:20:11Palm Beach brought up the amount of
- 15:20:14money needed in order to pay out the
- 15:20:17deposits for the people that were coming
- 15:20:19out of the, you know, to gather their
- 15:20:22deposits from the bank. So, there was a
- 15:20:25list of all the residents, the wealthy
- 15:20:29residents in the area that were offering
- 15:20:31their own finances to support the bank.
- 15:20:35Wow, so it is
- 15:20:37fascinating. So, to keep the
- 15:20:39bank solvent, those who had money, which
- 15:20:42I guess in Palm Beach and West Palm
- 15:20:44Beach, there was a substantial amount.
- 15:20:46One-fourth of the wealth in the United
- 15:20:48States had residency in Palm Beach in
- 15:20:511927. That's amazing.
- 15:20:54And so, these people
- 15:20:55stood up, took care of the community, and
- 15:20:59kept the bank solvent. I don't
- 15:21:01imagine that's something that we would
- 15:21:02see too much happening these days, but in
- 15:21:05those days, I guess there was a true
- 15:21:06sense of community. There really was.
- 15:21:08There really was. I had never heard that
- 15:21:11story that is fascinating, that there
- 15:21:12was a gathering and help during this
- 15:21:16financial crisis. But that was not the
- 15:21:19only difficult moment or difficult
- 15:21:22problem that the West Palm Beach and
- 15:21:25Palm Beach County had in that period of
- 15:21:27time. Just the year prior, there was, of
- 15:21:29course, the hurricane of 1928. Well, this
- 15:21:32is 27. This image that
- 15:21:33we're looking at is 27.
- 15:21:36So, but you are right. There were
- 15:21:37multiple crises that
- 15:21:39were occurring within that
- 15:21:40period of time. So, even prior to 27 in
- 15:21:43the run on that bank, multiple banks were
- 15:21:45going out of business. The boom we were
- 15:21:48seeing in the other images of
- 15:21:50Curry's investment, the bust was being
- 15:21:53felt. By 24, 25, 26, investment in South
- 15:21:57Florida was kind of waning. There were
- 15:22:00issues with people receiving the
- 15:22:04materials that they needed to build in
- 15:22:06South Florida. There was a hurricane in
- 15:22:09Miami that made people feel very
- 15:22:12uncomfortable with investing in an area
- 15:22:14that might experience disaster. And then
- 15:22:17again, there were several banks that
- 15:22:19were experiencing uncertainty. So, by 27,
- 15:22:22with the bank we see here
- 15:22:26experiencing a crisis, there was already
- 15:22:29this feeling of uncertainty in the
- 15:22:33financial aspect of South Florida. Wow.
- 15:22:35So, the warm glow of the early 1900s
- 15:22:39took a real hit with these unexpected
- 15:22:41difficulties. Yes. It made a
- 15:22:44great change in our community for decades
- 15:22:46to come. Let's talk a little bit
- 15:22:48about the photograph that sort of matches
- 15:22:50it. Jumping to modern day, there
- 15:22:53is the look, and that believe it or not
- 15:22:54is exactly the same building. If you look
- 15:22:56very closely, the arch at the front of
- 15:22:59the building there matches the sort of
- 15:23:02cool entryways that the old photograph
- 15:23:05has. It's interesting to see how
- 15:23:08these buildings survive. That the
- 15:23:10architecture, we're used to thinking of
- 15:23:13South Florida basically bulldozing
- 15:23:16everything down and starting over again.
- 15:23:19It's wild to walk along streets in
- 15:23:22downtown and you can find buildings that
- 15:23:24retain some of the architectural
- 15:23:26qualities of their original design, the
- 15:23:29fire station. Right. Those are almost
- 15:23:32identical to what they
- 15:23:33look like then and now. It's wonderful to
- 15:23:36see that there is a taste of a
- 15:23:40hundred-year-old architecture that still
- 15:23:42can be seen in downtown
- 15:23:44West Palm Beaches and on Klamadis. Yeah,
- 15:23:46it's beautiful when a community embraces
- 15:23:48the different aspects of their architect
- 15:23:51that really showcase the culture here.
- 15:23:53Well, we could talk about the courthouse.
- 15:23:55The courthouse is an incredible
- 15:23:57example of original architecture being
- 15:24:00resurrected. It's probably beyond
- 15:24:02the scope of our discussion today, but
- 15:24:04that building was at one point in the
- 15:24:0760s and 70s encased. It was, yes. So the
- 15:24:10art building that we're in today, the
- 15:24:111916 courthouse, was the original that
- 15:24:15was built, you know,
- 15:24:16that's why we get our
- 15:24:16name, 1960. But then they built an
- 15:24:19additional building that mirrored that
- 15:24:22same structure behind it. And then as our
- 15:24:26community keeps growing and
- 15:24:28growing, we keep adding to that building.
- 15:24:32We see it quite often, you know, at
- 15:24:35that point it was more financially
- 15:24:36sustainable to just keep adding to a
- 15:24:39building versus to, you know, demolish
- 15:24:42and start over. And so by 1972, like you
- 15:24:46mentioned, there was a full expansion and
- 15:24:49they did a really wonderful job. I always
- 15:24:51say, you know, when you think about how
- 15:24:53in 1972 they actually were very
- 15:24:55thoughtful of how they constructed that
- 15:24:58addition because they actually
- 15:24:59protected the facade of that building by,
- 15:25:03you know, kind of creating a buffer. And
- 15:25:05then you see this very, you know,
- 15:25:08industrial looking construction that goes
- 15:25:11all the way out to what is today the
- 15:25:13street of Dixie and Third Street.
- 15:25:16Yeah. And you can find instances of these
- 15:25:20photographs on the web where
- 15:25:22you see this exactly that very industrial
- 15:25:25looking block kind of
- 15:25:26structure all the way out to the
- 15:25:28sidewalk. And then one day they start
- 15:25:30knocking parts of it down. And in the
- 15:25:33middle is this sort of being born,
- 15:25:35reborn, the original 1916 structure. And
- 15:25:39it's inspiring to see that something
- 15:25:41that was essentially buried underneath,
- 15:25:43it's the success of the town and the
- 15:25:46need for it to expand is then revealed.
- 15:25:49It's very fascinating to see that.
- 15:25:51So we've talked a little bit about a
- 15:25:54period of time that included, you know,
- 15:25:58some pretty, pretty big major things that
- 15:26:00happened here. We had the closure of
- 15:26:06banks and the slowdown in the economy,
- 15:26:08which obviously took a big hit. And then,
- 15:26:10you know, there was the earlier storm
- 15:26:12that hit Miami earlier in the 1920s. But
- 15:26:15then there was the storm of 28. And I
- 15:26:17mentioned it earlier. It is a storm
- 15:26:19which would everyone still talks about.
- 15:26:23It is the scope of the tragedy is
- 15:26:25amazing. Can you tell us
- 15:26:26a little bit about that?
- 15:26:27Yeah. So I think the image that you have
- 15:26:29here kind of depicts very well how the
- 15:26:34community experienced this storm. So then
- 15:26:37the image you have showing the
- 15:26:39Como building in the background and this,
- 15:26:41you know, shot looking east on
- 15:26:43Calamata Street with people picking up
- 15:26:45debris really highlights that storm.
- 15:26:48So the 1920 hurricane hits in September
- 15:26:51of 28. I mean, at that time, they didn't
- 15:26:55really give names to hurricanes and they
- 15:26:57really, you know, what signified them
- 15:27:00or what was significant about them was
- 15:27:03the damage and devastation that occurred
- 15:27:05because of them. And this 28 hurricane is
- 15:27:08considered one of the top deadly
- 15:27:10hurricanes in the United States. It was a
- 15:27:14disastrous storm. Over 4,000 people
- 15:27:18there wasn't 4,000 people in the eastern
- 15:27:21communities. Most of that was out west.
- 15:27:23Out west in Pahokee in Belgrade. They
- 15:27:25lost their lives. Lots of migrants,
- 15:27:27immigrants that had come in that were
- 15:27:29working in the fields in
- 15:27:30Belgrade and Pahokee in the
- 15:27:32other, you know, areas next to Lake
- 15:27:35Okeechobee. So there was we
- 15:27:37have such great, you know,
- 15:27:39warning systems today. And I think that
- 15:27:41was it's been developed
- 15:27:43because of these types of storms.
- 15:27:45But no one was expecting the dike to fail
- 15:27:48and the dike failed. And
- 15:27:50a huge flood occurred in
- 15:27:52that area and it wiped the community
- 15:27:54clean. It's a terrible,
- 15:27:56terrible tragedy. And many of those
- 15:27:58victims of that tragedy are buried here
- 15:28:01in West Palm Beach over
- 15:28:02on 25th Street, I believe.
- 15:28:05Yes. Yeah. So that is it was a horrible
- 15:28:08moment for the county as were and
- 15:28:12and another sea change for the city.
- 15:28:15Because as you can see in the photograph,
- 15:28:18you know, there's a lot of open sky now.
- 15:28:20A lot of the older
- 15:28:21buildings, probably buildings dating
- 15:28:23back to those first 1900 buildings that
- 15:28:26were built of wood and they didn't
- 15:28:27survive. But as you can
- 15:28:29see here in the photograph, the Como
- 15:28:31building, which was what
- 15:28:32about 1925, it was of a modern,
- 15:28:35modern, a more modern construct survived.
- 15:28:38And I think we saw
- 15:28:39essentially a rebirth of the skyline
- 15:28:43of West Palm Beach with old buildings
- 15:28:45being taken out and obviously being
- 15:28:47replaced by more modern,
- 15:28:49more stable type buildings. Right. So
- 15:28:51from a destruction of
- 15:28:53rebirth took place. But at the
- 15:28:54same time, these tragedies, the damage
- 15:28:58created by the hurricanes of
- 15:29:00the 1920s and the depression
- 15:29:03sent the area into a quiet, quiet period.
- 15:29:06Wouldn't you say for the next few for
- 15:29:08Oh, absolutely. So this is twenty eight.
- 15:29:10Right. And we we've already seen, you
- 15:29:12know, the many crises
- 15:29:13that were occurring in South Florida with
- 15:29:16the banks failing with
- 15:29:17other storms, with the boom
- 15:29:19no longer existing and went bust. And
- 15:29:21then you get kind of a pin put in to
- 15:29:24South Florida development
- 15:29:25because of that twenty eight storm. It's
- 15:29:27kind of released a desire
- 15:29:31for people to really come down
- 15:29:32and build. But then by twenty nine,
- 15:29:34there's a greater view of,
- 15:29:36oh, the United States goes into
- 15:29:38a greater depression. So finances are
- 15:29:41really tight. People are not building.
- 15:29:44They are not developing
- 15:29:45the same way that they used to. But they
- 15:29:48actually are developing in
- 15:29:50a different way. So we think
- 15:29:52about like what we see is Palm Beach
- 15:29:54State College today actually gets
- 15:29:56developed in the 1930s. So
- 15:29:58buildings are being built, but they're
- 15:30:00actually being refitted from old
- 15:30:03buildings. So Palm Beach
- 15:30:06State College gets developed into older
- 15:30:08buildings where one of those buildings
- 15:30:11that the college was
- 15:30:12actually developed in is a building that
- 15:30:14is now part of the Dreyfus
- 15:30:15campus. So it was a Meisner
- 15:30:18building that was actually refitted into
- 15:30:20a state college. So it was
- 15:30:22a period of time where there
- 15:30:23was an evolution taking place, but the
- 15:30:26evolution was a little bit more with
- 15:30:28slower. Right. And I
- 15:30:29should actually correct myself because I
- 15:30:30was actually a
- 15:30:31community college at that point.
- 15:30:33It wasn't a state college until much
- 15:30:34later. There you go. OK, so once again,
- 15:30:37we see we see a community
- 15:30:38who is sort of limping through a
- 15:30:40depression, limping through a very
- 15:30:42difficult period of time
- 15:30:44as far as imaging is concerned. But it's
- 15:30:46same at the same time still
- 15:30:47growing. It took until probably
- 15:30:49like the mid 40s after the war that
- 15:30:51things really started to
- 15:30:52perk up. Would that be correct?
- 15:30:54I would agree with you. War is a time
- 15:30:57when, you know,
- 15:30:58development and building is really
- 15:31:00slowing down because you are really
- 15:31:02focusing your energy into your, you know,
- 15:31:05your stakeholders of
- 15:31:06making sure that their community is not
- 15:31:10fully affected by what's
- 15:31:11occurring overseas. World War
- 15:31:13two was very much on the forefront in
- 15:31:17Palm Beach County. We have
- 15:31:18war actually on our door because
- 15:31:20of the coastline being accessible to
- 15:31:23German U-boats and our allied ships
- 15:31:25actually get bombed in the
- 15:31:26mid in the early 1940s from these German
- 15:31:29U-boats. They are, you know, sending out
- 15:31:31torpedoes, you know,
- 15:31:33and laying waste to a lot of our allied
- 15:31:36ships actually was one of
- 15:31:37the most dangerous periods
- 15:31:38of time in the United States, especially
- 15:31:41on the East Coast because of
- 15:31:43that. Wow, I didn't realize
- 15:31:45that there were that we had the enemy
- 15:31:47that close to the coast. Oh,
- 15:31:49you could be watching from your
- 15:31:51window as a ship is burning in front of
- 15:31:53you. So that was very much
- 15:31:55here. And so while we're not
- 15:31:57developing in the same again in the same
- 15:31:59manner that we were seeing
- 15:31:59in the early 1900s, we are
- 15:32:01still developing in many different
- 15:32:03instances. And during that period of time
- 15:32:05there was a constant
- 15:32:06flow of young men and women who were
- 15:32:09going to be going into the
- 15:32:10service coming through the area.
- 15:32:12So even when we talk about the 1930s
- 15:32:14also, there was the development of the
- 15:32:16first airport in West
- 15:32:19Palm Beach. So at that point it was
- 15:32:21called Morrison Field. It
- 15:32:22was named after Grace Morrison,
- 15:32:24the female developer that invested in
- 15:32:28airplanes into the airport.
- 15:32:32It was one of her dreams. She
- 15:32:33was really pushing for it. And she
- 15:32:35unfortunately passed away before the
- 15:32:36airport opened. And so
- 15:32:38they kind of changed the trajectory of
- 15:32:39what they were going to name
- 15:32:40it and they named it after her
- 15:32:41after her passing. And then some Morrison
- 15:32:44Field opens up as a
- 15:32:46public airport, but then gets
- 15:32:51rented out by the US government to become
- 15:32:54a military base. So it
- 15:32:56became an army base and
- 15:32:57in fact was like a very important army
- 15:32:59base during World War II.
- 15:33:01So yes, lots of soldiers
- 15:33:02coming through. It was one of the last
- 15:33:04places on US soil that they would
- 15:33:07experience before they
- 15:33:09headed off to the multiple war fronts. So
- 15:33:12they got here and they said,
- 15:33:14"Wow, this West Palm Beach is
- 15:33:15pretty cool." And then after the war, we
- 15:33:18found a lot of them coming back.
- 15:33:20Absolutely. So then you
- 15:33:21see a boom again. Okay, so we are now
- 15:33:25moving into yet another phase of the
- 15:33:28growth of West Palm Beach,
- 15:33:29which probably should be reserved for
- 15:33:31another segment of our
- 15:33:33show. But what we've discovered
- 15:33:34here is that simply a few photographs can
- 15:33:37unlock untold stories.
- 15:33:40Absolutely. And you guys have a
- 15:33:41lot of photographs. We have over 4
- 15:33:44million photographs in
- 15:33:45our collection and we would
- 15:33:47love to share them with you. That is
- 15:33:48fantastic. Well, first of
- 15:33:51all, I want to thank you for what
- 15:33:52you did here for us talking with us
- 15:33:56today. But also, what all
- 15:33:59of you do over at the Historical Society,
- 15:34:01it is fantastic what you
- 15:34:03provide us with and it is a
- 15:34:05treasure of our past. And so I want to
- 15:34:07thank you for everything you do. Well,
- 15:34:09thank you. Thank you
- 15:34:10for having me today. And thank you for
- 15:34:12joining us. The City Center podcast is
- 15:34:15launching its second
- 15:34:16full year of video podcasts and we've got
- 15:34:18a lot in store for 2026.
- 15:34:21So feel free to follow or
- 15:34:22subscribe to get the latest from the City
- 15:34:24of West Palm Beach. This
- 15:34:26has been a production of
- 15:34:27the City of West Palm Beach
- 15:34:28Communications Department. I'm Jerry
- 15:34:31Marcello. We'll see you next time.