Palm Beach shipwreck cargo adds to Florida landscape

 

Provendencia by Eldred Clark Johnson
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

By Jane Feehan


Palm Beach might not be the place it is today without its coconut palms. Some say it was the palms that attracted Henry M. Flagler, the Florida East Coast Railway builder, to the island.

In January 9, 1878 (or 1876, depending on the account) the Spanish ship Providencia, en route from Havana to Spain with a cargo of about 20,000 coconuts, wrecked off the Florida coast. The crew and its cargo washed ashore near today’s historic Mar-a-Lago.

A few residents looking forward to salvaging what they could of the cargo (as many Floridians did to make a living) trekked to the beach where they encountered the crew with coconuts, wine and provisions aplenty. Another ship came to the sailors’ rescue but not before they sold the coconuts to the Floridians who knew could they generate a cash crop with them.

Providencia Park sits in West Palm Beach today, in commemoration of the ship, its coconuts, once "one of the city's "chief assets" and their contribution to the Palm Beach area landscape. Species of palm trees come and go with disease and time but they’ve become an iconic symbol of Florida and its tropical lifestyle.

Palm Trees Postcard 1913
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

                             
 

 All rights reserved. ©Copyright 2011 Jane Feehan.


Sources:

Palm Beach Post  Jan. 10, 1938

Historical Society of Palm Beach County
Flagler Museum

Tags: Palm Beach history, Florida palm trees, Mar-a-Lago

Palm Beach not first choice for town name

Palm Beach
Florida State Archives

By Jane Feehan

If not for the decisiveness of voters – all 35 of them - Palm Beach might have been part of West Palm Beach instead of celebrating its centennial in 2011.

West Palm Beach incorporated first as a town in 1894, then as a city in 1903. West Palm officials were moving to annex the island of Palm Beach in 1911 when voters gathered at the Palm Beach Hotel and decided to incorporate their own government. The town of Palm Beach celebrates April 16 as its birthday.

About that name …

The name Palm Beach was settled on in 1887 when the first choice, Palm City, was rejected by the U.S. Postal Service; the name was taken by another town.

Voters tapped Capt. E.N. Dimick as their first mayor. He was well known to locals and visitors. He built and operated the town's first hotel in 1885, the Cocoanut Grove House. Henry M. Flagler stayed at the hotel while building the nearby Royal Poinciana, the world's largest wooden hotel structure, and extending his railway into West Palm Beach in 1894.

Copyright © 2021. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan

Palm Beach 1890s
Florida State Archives/Florida Memory

Sources:

O’Sullivan, Maureen and  Shpritz, Dianna. Palm Beach: Then and Now. West Palm Beach: Lickle Publishing, 2004.

http://www.pbchistoryonline.org

Tags: Palm Beach Centennial, Florida history, Palm Beach County, Palm Beach history, Florida in the early 1900s

South Florida’s Christmas past: of mule parties, teacher surprises, film studios and …

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  Poinsettia hedge - Florida 1948
  Florida State Archives
  
  

  
  
• By Jane Feehan 
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  Christmas in South Florida of decades past was celebrated with parties and special community events much as it is today. But there were different situations, some that may draw a smile or surprise. The following may provide a little of both.
  
  
  1917 - West Palm Beach: Staffers of New Jersey-based World Film Corporation stayed at the Salt Air hotel in Palm Beach in order to attend a Christmas party Dec. 8 in West Palm Beach at Metcalf hall. They were on hand to obtain “natural scenes” at the Hawaiian-themed affair. The hall was decorated as a Hawaiian garden; guests followed suit in appropriate garb. Admission was charged to spectators and participating dancers.
  
  
  1921-Miami: A “unique” Christmas party was held Christmas day for every mule and work horse in Miami. School children in the city played host while Boy Scouts fed carrots, apples, sugar and bread to the “dumb animals” so they would have as enjoyable day as possible.

  

  Christmas caroling Christmas Eve 1935, Miami. 

  A Federal Emergency Recovery project

  State Archives of Florida
  1921-Miami: Teachers at “grammar schools” were given a “real Christmas surprise” … when they received pay checks for the month of December “right on the dot” as a result of a clerical arrangement. Checks were cut without waiting for reports from principals; if they had waited for those reports, checks would have been delayed a few days.
  
  
  1934-Miami: The Kiwanis Club of Coral Gables held a Christmas party atop the Alcazar Hotel for 100 children with one of the outcomes expected to be the establishment of a fund to bring children from “100 communities of the United States to enjoy the benefits of South Florida sunshine.”
  
  
  1944-Florida and the United States: There was no Christmas gift wrapping paper, boxes and other accessories produced because the US Government declared it a non-essential industry during World War II. The one bright spot was the production of greeting cards. Cards were made small and in lighter paper but there was no shortage. Reason? About 15 million people were away from home to work war plant jobs throughout the country; sending Yuletide greetings was critical in shoring up morale of the workforce.
  
  
  1953-Broward County: About 25,000 attended the fifth annual Broward County Community Christmas party and Circus at Gulfstream Park in Hallandale. Broadcast by WIOD, the party featured Santa Claus riding a truck, the South Broward High School band, circus impresario Bob Morton, Gulfstream Park President Jimmy Dean, and the Boy Scouts. Hundreds of disabled children attended as special guests.  Copyright © 2013. All rights reserved. Jane Feehan.
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• Sources:

Miami News, Dec. 8, 1917

Miami News, Dec. 24, 1921

Miami News, Dec. 23, 1934

Miami News, Oct. 01, 1944

Miami News, Dec. 20, 1953

Tags: Florida Christmas history, Miami Christmas 1920s, Palm Beach history, Christmas in South Florida history, Miami in 1930s, Miami in 1940s, South Florida history