Selling beautiful Palm Beach in 1915

 

Early Palm Beach 1900s
Florida Archives/Florida Memory

An advertisement by Henry Flagler in 1915 would leave most of us chuckling today. Below are Palm Beach "selling points" expected to appeal to Americans at the time:

* Located 500 miles south of Jacksonville on the beautiful and healthful East Coast.

* Lowest death rate in America

*Tropical foliage in the heart of the pineapple growing section. Oranges cocoanuts, grape fruit, 
  vegetables, fish, oysters

*Unrivaled for aquatic sports, motor boat speeding, canoeing, boating, bathing, golf

*Smooth, firm roads for automobiling … cycle wheel chairs with attendants

* Excellent railway and steamship traveling facilities to and from all parts of the United States

Palm Beach late 1800s
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

Note: "Wheelchair cycles" mentioned were standard recreational travel around town then, similar to what is seen on Fort Lauderdale beach today: passengers in a chair being pulled by a bicycle rider.

Tags: Florida history, Palm Beach history, tourism history, Florida in the early 1900s, history of Palm Beach