Palm Beach is an incorporated town in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. Located on a barrier island in east-central Palm Beach County, the town is separated from West Palm Beach and Lake Worth Beach by the Intracoastal Waterway to its west and a small section of the Intracoastal Waterway and South Palm Beach to its south. It is part of the South Florida metropolitan area. As of the 2020 census, Palm Beach had a year-round population of 9,245.

The Jaega arrived on the modern-day island of Palm Beach approximately 3,000 years ago. Between 1816 and 1858, the Seminoles were expelled from the area. Americans settlers began to inhabit the area as early as 1872, and opened a post office about five years later. Elisha Newton "Cap" Dimick, later the town's first mayor, established Palm Beach's first hotel, the Cocoanut Grove House, in 1880, but Standard Oil tycoon Henry Flagler became instrumental in transforming the island of jungles and swamps into a winter resort for the wealthy. Flagler and his workers constructed the Royal Poinciana Hotel in 1894, The Breakers in 1896, and Whitehall in 1902; extended the Florida East Coast Railway southward to the area by 1894; and developed a separate city to house the hotel workers and other laborers. This later became West Palm Beach. The town of Palm Beach was incorporated on April 17, 1911. Addison Mizner also contributed significantly to the town's history, designing 67 structures between 1919 and 1924, including El Mirasol, the Everglades Club, La Querida, the William Gray Warden House, and Via Mizner, which is a section of Worth Avenue.

Forbes reported in 2017 that Palm Beach had at least 30 billionaires, with the town ranking as the 27th-wealthiest place in the United States in 2016, according to Bloomberg News. Many famous and wealthy individuals have resided in the town, including United States presidents John F. Kennedy and Donald Trump. Palm Beach is known for upscale shopping districts, such as Worth Avenue, Royal Poinciana Plaza, and the Royal Poinciana Way Historic District.

History

Prior to Flagler, Palm Beach was sparsely populated, and was a part of Lake Worth.

Palm Beach was established as a resort by Henry Morrison Flagler, who made the Atlantic coast barrier island accessible via his Florida East Coast Railway. The nucleus of the community was established by Flagler's two luxury resort hotels, the Royal Poinciana Hotel and The Breakers Hotel. West Palm Beach was built across Lake Worth as a service town and has become a major city in its own right.

Flagler's house lots were bought by the beneficiaries of the Gilded Age, and in 1902 Flagler himself built a Beaux-Arts mansion, Whitehall, designed by the New York–based firm Carrère and Hastings and helped establish the Palm Beach winter "season" by constantly entertaining. The town was incorporated on 17 April 1911.

An area known as the Styx housed many of the servants, most of whom were black. The workers rented their small houses from the landowners. In the early 1900s the landowners agreed to evict all of the residents of the Styx (who moved to West Palm Beach, Florida) and Edward R. Bradley bought up much of this land. The houses were razed, according to the Palm Beach Daily News.

Geography

Palm Beach is the easternmost town in Florida, located on a 16-mile (26 km) long barrier island.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 10.4 square miles (27 square kilometres). 3.9 square miles (10 square kilometres) of it is land and 6.5 square miles (17 square kilometres) of it is water. The total area is 62.45% water.

Climate

Palm Beach has a tropical rainforest climate. This is a Köppen climate classification of "Af" where it is tropical and there is no dry season.

It is wetter in the summer, from May to October, when convective thunderstorms and tropical downpours are common, and weak tropical lows pass nearby. Average high temperatures in Palm Beach are 86 to 90 °F (30 to 32 °C) with lows of 70 to 75 °F (21 to 24 °C). During this period, more than half of the summer days bring occasional afternoon thunderstorms and seabreezes that somewhat cool the rest of the day.

The winter brings drier, sunnier, and much less humid weather. Average high temperatures of 75 to 82 °F (24 to 28 °C) and lows of 57 to 66 °F (14 to 19 °C). Although most winter days have highs in the 75 F range in Palm Beach, occasional cold fronts during this period can result in a few days of cooler weather with high temperatures in the upper 50s and 60s (10 to 20 °C) and lows of 40s and 50s (5 to 15 °C) while at other times high temperatures occasionally reach the middle 80s F.

The annual average precipitation is 61 in (1,500 mm), most of which occurs during the summer season from May through October. However, rainfall can occur in any month, primarily as short-lived heavy afternoon thunderstorms. Palm Beach reports more than 2900 hrs of sunshine annually. Although rare, tropical cyclones can impact Palm Beach, with the last direct hit in 1928.

Climate data for Palm Beach
Month	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec	Year
Record high °F (°C)	89 (32)	90 (32)	94 (34)	99 (37)	96 (36)	98 (37)	101 (38)	98 (37)	97 (36)	95 (35)	91 (33)	90 (32)	101 (38)
Mean daily maximum °F (°C)	75.1 (23.9)	76.3 (24.6)	79.2 (26.2)	82.1 (27.8)	85.9 (29.9)	88.5 (31.4)	90.1 (32.3)	90.1 (32.3)	88.7 (31.5)	85.0 (29.4)	80.4 (26.9)	76.4 (24.7)	83.1 (28.4)
Mean daily minimum °F (°C)	57.3 (14.1)	58.2 (14.6)	61.9 (16.6)	65.4 (18.6)	70.5 (21.4)	73.8 (23.2)	75.0 (23.9)	75.4 (24.1)	74.7 (23.7)	71.2 (21.8)	65.8 (18.8)	60.1 (15.6)	67.4 (19.7)
Record low °F (°C)	27 (−3)	32 (0)	30 (−1)	43 (6)	51 (11)	61 (16)	66 (19)	65 (18)	66 (19)	46 (8)	36 (2)	28 (−2)	27 (−3)
Average precipitation inches (mm)	3.75 (95)	2.55 (65)	3.68 (93)	3.57 (91)	5.39 (137)	7.58 (193)	5.97 (152)	6.65 (169)	8.10 (206)	5.46 (139)	5.55 (141)	3.14 (80)	61.39 (1,561)
Source: National Weather Service

Demographics

Historical population
Census	Pop.	%±
1920	1,135	—
1930	1,707	50.4%
1940	3,747	119.5%
1950	3,886	3.7%
1960	6,055	55.8%
1970	9,086	50.1%
1980	9,729	7.1%
1990	9,814	0.9%
2000	10,468	6.7%
2010	8,348	−20.3%
2020	9,245	10.7%
2023 (est.)	9,258	10.9%
U.S. Decennial Census 1920–1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 2023

The town's population peaked at 10,468 people in the 2000 census but fell by 20.3% to 8,348 people in 2010. However, during the "winter season", defined as November through April, the population of Palm Beach swells to around 25,000. The town's affluence and its recreational facilities, shops, restaurants, social scene, and "community-oriented sensibility" were cited when it was selected in June 2003 as America's "Best Place to Live" by Robb Report magazine.

Historical demographics	2020	2010	2000	1990	1980
White (non-Hispanic)	91.5%	94.0%	93.8%	96.4%	96.5%
Hispanic or Latino	4.6%	3.9%	2.6%	2.7%	2.5%
Black or African American (non-Hispanic)	0.5%	0.5%	2.5%	0.5%	0.7%
Asian and Pacific Islander (non-Hispanic)	1.5%	1.0%	0.5%	0.4%	0.4%
Native American (non-Hispanic)	0.0%	< 0.1%	< 0.1%	< 0.1%
Some other race (non-Hispanic)	0.3%	0.1%	0.1%	< 0.1%
Two or more races (non-Hispanic)	1.5%	0.3%	0.5%	N/A	N/A
Population	9,245	8,348	10,468	9,814	9,729

Demographic characteristics	2020	2010	2000	1990	1980
Households	9,256	9,091	9,948	5,421	5,141
Persons per household	1.00	0.92	1.05	1.81	1.89
Sex Ratio	84.0	81.3	79.3	76.5	77.9
Ages 0–17	6.6%	6.9%	9.4%	6.7%	8.2%
Ages 18–64	36.6%	37.4%	38.0%	40.7%	45.3%
Ages 65 +	56.8%	55.8%	52.6%	52.6%	46.6%
Median age	68.3	67.4	66.6	66.2	63.2
Population	9,245	8,348	10,468	9,814	9,729

Economic indicators
2017–21 American Community Survey	Palm Beach	Palm Beach County	Florida
Median income	$74,638	$36,431	$34,367
Median household income	$168,787	$68,874	$61,777
Poverty Rate	3.9%	11.6%	13.1%
High school diploma	97.9%	89.1%	89.0%
Bachelor's degree	68.6%	38.0%	31.5%
Advanced degree	35.0%	15.0%	11.7%

Language spoken at home	2015	2010	2000	1990	1980
English	89.2%	85.6%	84.0%	84.2%	86.9%
Spanish or Spanish Creole	3.7%	3.7%	3.8%	3.7%	3.5%
French or Haitian Creole	1.8%	4.7%	4.3%	N/A	2.7%
German	N/A	0.8%	2.3%	N/A	2.3%
Other Languages	5.3%	5.2%	5.6%	12.1%	4.7%

Nativity	2015	2010	2000	1990	1980
% population native-born	86.5%	83.1%	84.6%	86.3%	86.2%
... born in the United States	85.3%	81.2%	83.2%	N/A	85.8%
... born in Puerto Rico or Island Areas	0.7%	0.0%	0.1%	N/A	0.5%
... born to American parents abroad	0.5%	1.9%	1.3%	N/A	0.5%
% population foreign-born	13.5%	16.9%	15.4%	13.7%	13.8%
... born in other countries	10.8%	10.6%	10.7%	N/A	N/A

Palm Beach ranked as the 27th-wealthiest place in the United States in 2016 according to Bloomberg News. In the following year, Forbes reported the town had 30-plus billionaires.

Palm Beach had the 40th-highest percentage of Russian residents in the United States in 2000, with 10.30% of the populace – tied with Pomona, New York, and the township of Lower Merion, Pennsylvania. It also had the 26th highest percentage of Austrian residents in the United States, at 2.10% of the town's population, tied with 19 other municipalities in the United States.

In 2000, the town's household income was $109,219. Males had a median income of $71,685 versus $42,875 for females; 5.3% of the population and 2.4% of families were below the poverty line. About 4.6% of those under the age of 18 and 2.9% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line. Palm Beach had a median household income of $124,562 and a median family income of $137,867.

Economy

Worth Avenue

In 2018, the town of Palm Beach had an estimated labor force of 2,788 people. Palm Beach had an unemployment rate of just 2.3%, although 66% of the town's population was not in the labor force. The most common professions among the town's labor force are finance, insurance, real estate, rental, and leasing (24.1%); professional, scientific, management, administrative, and waste management services (23.6%); retail (12.2%); and educational services, health care, and social assistance (10.5%). However, as of 2017, only 4.1% of jobs in Palm Beach were held by residents of the town, with the most common other home destinations being West Palm Beach (15.4%), Palm Beach Gardens (3.9%), Lake Worth Beach (3.7%), Wellington (3.3%), and Greenacres (3.1%).

Tourism is a major industry in the town, bringing in around $5 billion in annual revenue. Palm Beach has several historical and luxurious hotels and lodgings, most notably The Brazilian Court, The Breakers, the Palm Beach Hotel (now the Palm Beach Hotel Condominium), the Tideline Ocean Resort & Spa, and the Vineta Hotel. The Breakers alone employs more than 2,200 people from around the world. The town of Palm Beach also contains Worth Avenue, an upscale shopping and dining district. Known for selling high-quality merchandise since the 1920s, Worth Avenue includes about 250 high-end shops, boutiques, restaurants, and art galleries. Other commercial districts of note include Royal Poinciana Plaza and Royal Poinciana Way Historic District, with the latter being listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2015 due to its status as "the town's original Main Street", as noted by the Palm Beach Daily News.

Arts and events

A botanical garden at the Society of the Four Arts

The Society of the Four Arts is a nonprofit charity organization established in 1936. Located on the north side of Royal Palm Way near the Royal Park Bridge, the Four Arts Plaza has an art gallery, a concert hall auditorium, two libraries, a botanical garden, and a sculpture garden. The two libraries serve as public libraries for the town of Palm Beach, one a children's library and the other a general public library. Officially named the Gioconda and Joseph King Library, the town's general public library has more than 70,000 items, including books, audiobooks, DVDs, and periodicals. The Dixon Education Building features art studio and classrooms, as well as an apartment for an artist visiting the Society of the Four Arts.

Royal Poinciana Playhouse, near Cocoanut Row and Royal Poinciana Way, formerly hosted ballets, Broadway plays, opera, and other cultural events. Although the venue has been closed since 2004, it remains structurally sound. Up Markets acquired control of the playhouse in 2014 via a long-term lease. In December 2022, extensive renovations began on the building's interior, which will have a capacity of about 400 people upon its expected completion in 2024.

Worth Avenue and its vicinity also has several art galleries, including DTR Modern Galleries, Evey Fine Art Gallery, Galeria of Sculpture, Gallerie Y, and the John H. Surovek Gallery. Additionally, the Norton Museum of Art and its sculpture gardens are just across the Intracoastal Waterway in West Palm Beach.

The Hope for Depression Research Foundation hosts an annual 5K run/walk known as the Race of Hope to Defeat Depression. In 2020, the event raised about $400,000 for depression research. The Palm Beach International Film Festival had been hosted in the town in the months of March and April since 1996. However, the festival has been on hiatus since 2018, following the resignation of CEO Jeff Davis. Various events are hosted on Worth Avenue, including historical walking tours held year-round. Once a year, the Palm Beach Charity Register magazine publishes a guide to charitable events held in the town and other nearby localities. The magazine promoted 186 charity galas, luncheons, and parties scheduled between the fall of 2019 and summer of 2020.

Attractions

Whitehall, also known as Flagler Museum

Whitehall reopened as the Flagler Museum on February 6, 1960, after Henry Flagler's granddaughter, Jean Flagler Matthews, purchased the property in 1959 to prevent its demolition. Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1972 and the National Historic Landmark list in 2000, the museum replicates the original appearance of the house and has exhibits about Flagler himself, Flagler's personal railcar (built in 1886), the Florida East Coast Railway, life in the Gilded Age, and the early history of Palm Beach. Almost 100,000 people visit the museum annually. Adjacent to the Flagler Museum and behind the Royal Poinciana Chapel is a giant, almost 200-year old kapok tree, which also attracts visitors.

The Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach established Pan's Garden in 1994 along Hibiscus Avenue between Chilean Avenue and Peruvian Avenue. The garden has a statue of Pan (originally designed in 1890 by Frederick William MacMonnies), the ancient Greek god who protects and guards flocks. Another significant feature is the Casa Apava wall, a 1920s tile wall from the remnants of the Casa Apava estate. Encompassing approximately 0.5 acres (0.20 ha), the garden also features many endangered species of native vegetation.

Bethesda-by-the-Sea, originally a mostly wooden structure built from lumber from the beach in April 1889, is the oldest church in Palm Beach. The church opened at its current location by Christmas 1926. Bethesda-by-the-Sea has hosted the weddings of a few notable individuals, including Donald and Melania Trump in 2005 and Michael Jordan and Yvette Prieto in 2013.

Other points of interest

The Palm Beach Chamber of Commerce identifies several other points of interest in the town, including:

Major Alley - Located on Peruvian Avenue just one block north of the western terminus of Worth Avenue, Major Alley (named after architect Howard Major) has six Georgian revival-style cottages built in the 1920s.
Royal Poinciana Chapel - Built in 1897 by Henry Flagler, he intended for the interdenominational chapel to be used by guests at his hotels. The chapel expanded to 400 seats about a year later. It is adjacent to the Whitehall property.
Seagull Cottage - Situated between the Royal Poinciana Chapel and Whitehall, Seagull Cottage is the oldest surviving home in the Palm Beach, constructed in 1886 by R.R. McCormick, a railroad and land developer from Denver. Flagler purchased Seagull Cottage from McCormick in 1893 for $75,000, and it remained his winter residence until 1902, when Whitehall was completed.
Phipps Plaza Historic District - Described by the Palm Beach Daily News as a "picturesque ensemble" of buildings, the Phipps Plaza Historic District is a tight ring of structures built between the 1920s and the 1940s. Located just north of the intersection of Royal Palm Way and South County Road, the buildings at Phipps Plaza were mostly constructed by the Palm Beach Company, with the assistance of Addison Mizner and Marion Sims Wyeth.
The Colony Hotel Palm Beach - A British Colonial-style hotel at South County Road and Hammond Avenue, just one block south of Worth Avenue. Opened in 1947, the six floor hotel has eighty-nine rooms and three penthouses.
Addison Mizner Memorial Fountain - Erected by Mizner himself in 1929, the fountain is in the middle of South County Road directly north of the town hall and to the west of the police department headquarters. The fountain is constructed of double-bowl cast stone. In 2017, the restoration of the fountain was named the project of the year by the American Public Works Association's Florida chapter.

Parks and recreation

Clock tower at the municipal beach and east end of Worth Avenue

The Recreation Department of Palm Beach oversees several public recreation facilities, including the Morton and Barbara Mandel Recreation Center, Palm Beach Docks, Par 3 Golf Course, and many tennis centers. The only public marina in the town, the Palm Beach Docks opened in the 1940s and is along the Intracoastal Waterway between the Royal Palm Bridge and Worth Avenue. Palm Beach Docks has three main docks and eighty-eight boat slips, along with many accommodations for boaters.

There are three public beaches in the town, the Palm Beach Municipal Beach, Phipps Ocean Park, and R. G. Kreusler Park. The former, also known as Midtown Beach, has metered parking spots along South Ocean Boulevard from Royal Palm Way southward to Hammon Avenue. Phipps Ocean Park includes the Little Red Schoolhouse, the first school building in southeast Florida (built in 1886), restored and moved from its original location near where the Flagler Memorial Bridge stands today. The town also has many private beaches, while R. G. Kreusler Park (owned and operated by Palm Beach County) lies directly north of the Lake Worth Municipal Beach. In addition to Pan's Garden, the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach also owns the Ambassador Earl T. Smith Memorial Park and Fountain, a small, 0.24 acre (0.097 ha) park near the town hall.

The town has three bicycling and pedestrian paths. The Lake Trail is a 4.7 mile (7.6 km) path along the Intracoastal Waterway from Worth Avenue to near the Lake Worth Inlet. Another trail, the County Road Pedestrian Path/Bicycle Lane is around 1.1 miles (1.8 km) in length from Kawama Lane to Bahama Lane along North County Road. The third path is the Southern Pedestrian/Bicycle Path, running from Sloan's Curve to the town's southern boundaries along State Road A1A, a distance of roughly 3.5 miles (5.6 km).

Palm Beach has several social and golf clubs, most notably the Everglades Club and Mar-a-Lago. The former, built by Addison Mizner and Paris Singer in 1918, had the original purpose of being a hospital for soldiers injured in World War I. However, the war soon ended and the facilities were restructured into a private club which opened in January 1919. Some of the amenities include a golf course, tennis courts, and reception halls. Everglades Club has nearly 1,000 members. The club, which is very exclusive, does not have a website and prohibits cellphones. Mar-a-Lago is 126-room, 62,500-square-foot (5,810 m²) mansion that features many hotel-style amenities. Built between 1924 and 1927, General Foods and Post Cereals heiress Marjorie Merriweather Post originally owned the estate, but willed it to the United States government prior to her death in 1973 in hopes the residence would be used as a Winter White House. Mar-a-Lago was returned to the Post family in 1981, before being sold to future United States president Donald Trump in 1985 for approximately $10 million.

Education

The School District of Palm Beach County operates one school in the town, Palm Beach Public Elementary School, on Cocoanut Row between Seaview Avenue and Royal Palm Beach and directly east of the Society of the Four Arts. Opened in 1929, Palm Beach Public Elementary School has a school grade of A and an attendance of 362. Palm Beach Day Academy is a private school in the area. It was formed in 2006 from a merger between Palm Beach Day School and the Academy of the Palm Beaches. The school has one campus in Palm Beach and another in West Palm Beach. Most public middle school students attend Conniston Community Middle School in West Palm Beach, while students who live in the southern portions of the town attend Lake Worth Middle School. Public high school students in northern Palm Beach attend Palm Beach Gardens Community High School and students residing elsewhere in the town attend Forest Hill Community High School. Palm Beach is also near Dreyfoos School of the Arts, though that school has no attendance boundaries.

There are no colleges or universities in Palm Beach. However, the nearby cities of Lake Worth Beach and West Palm Beach have a few public and private higher education institutes, including Keiser University, Palm Beach Atlantic University, and Palm Beach State College.

Media

The building where the Palm Beach Daily News was published from 1925 to 1974

The town is served by the Palm Beach Daily News, with a daily circulation of approximately 4,500. The Palm Beach Daily News began publishing in 1897 under the name Daily Lake Worth News. Between 1925 and 1974, the newspaper was published in a building that has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1985. Owned by Cox Enterprises since 1969, GateHouse Media purchased the newspaper and The Palm Beach Post in May 2018. The Palm Beach Daily News is also known as "The Shiny Sheet" due to its former heavy, slick newsprint stock.

Residents of the town are also served by The Palm Beach Post, which is actually published in West Palm Beach. The Palm Beach Post had the 5th largest circulation for a newspaper in Florida as of November 2017 and is served to subscribers throughout Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast.

Palm Beach is part of the West Palm Beach–Fort Pierce television market, ranked as the 38th largest in the United States by Nielsen Media Research. The market is served by stations affiliated with major American networks including WPTV-TV/5 (NBC), WPEC/12 (CBS), WPBF/25 (ABC), WFLX/29 (FOX), WTVX/34 (CW), WXEL-TV/42 (PBS), WTCN-CD/43 (MYTV), WWHB-CD/48 (TBD), WHDT/59 (Court TV), WFGC/61 (CTN), WPXP-TV/67 (ION), as well as local channel WBWP-LD/57 (Ind.). Since 2017, the Palm Beach Civic Association has produced weekly video newscasts, known as Palm Beach TV, which have a weekly viewership of approximately 12,000.

Many radio stations are within range of the town. Radio stations WRMF (97.9 FM) and WPBV-LP (98.3 FM) are both based in the town of Palm Beach.

Historic preservation

The Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC), established by an ordinance approved by the town council in 1979, studies and protects historic structures in Palm Beach. The LPC has a list of 328 properties, sites, and vistas it works to protect under the 1979 ordinance. Similarly, the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach is "dedicated to preserving the architectural and cultural heritage and the unique scenic quality of the Town of Palm Beach", according to its mission statement. The town of Palm Beach also conducts historic sites surveys in collaboration with preservation organizations, historians, and local officials, with the most recent survey completed in December 2020. The 2010 survey identified 50 structures that had been demolished since the previous survey in 2004 and others that had been altered significantly.

Federally, thirteen structures and one historic district have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. However, two of the designated buildings have since been destroyed. A fire and subsequent burglaries at the Bingham-Blossom House likely contributed to the owner's decision to have it demolished in 1974, while construction crews razed the Brelsford House in 1975 after trustees at the Royal Poinciana Chapel (the property where the building was located) believed "the aging structure was more of a liability than an asset" and also cited its high costs of renovation for public use, according to The Palm Beach Post.

Infrastructure

Transportation

Lake Trail along the Intracoastal Waterway

Three bridges traverse the Intracoastal Waterway, linking Palm Beach and West Palm Beach by roadway. The northernmost bridge, the Flagler Memorial Bridge, is along State Road A1A, which is locally known as Royal Poinciana Way in Palm Beach and Quadrille Boulevard in West Palm Beach. First opening in 1938, the bridge underwent a 5-year reconstruction and renovation between 2012 and 2017 at a cost of $106 million. State Road 704, also known as Royal Palm Way in Palm Beach and Lakeview Avenue and Okeechobee Boulevard in West Palm Beach is the location of the middle bridge. Named the Royal Park Bridge, it first opened in 1911 and was most recently replaced in 2005. The Southern Boulevard Bridge at the conjunction of U.S. Route 98 and State Road 80 (locally known as Southern Boulevard) is the southernmost bridge. First completed in 1950, the bridge underwent a $97 million replacement project between April 2017 and September 2022.

State Road A1A also runs northward through much of Palm Beach, beginning at the southern limits of the town as South Ocean Boulevard until being redirected onto South County Road, which later becomes North County Road. At Royal Poinciana Way, A1A turns westward onto that road and across the Flagler Memorial Bridge. State Roads 80 and 704 and U.S. Route 98 all terminate shortly after entering the town after intersecting with A1A. The town has no interstate highways, though Interstate 95 passes through the nearby city of West Palm Beach. Private vehicles and taxis are the predominant means of transport in Palm Beach. Incidents of profiling of lower-cost cars and minorities have occurred, sometimes resulting in tense relations between visitors and the town.

The nearby city of West Palm Beach has two train stations. Tri-Rail and Amtrak serve the Tamarind Avenue station, while the higher speed Brightline serves the Evernia Street station. Palm Beach is about 4.5 miles (7.2 km) east of the Palm Beach International Airport. The northern and central portions of Palm Beach are served by Palm Tran Route 41, which travels to places in the town such as the Lake Worth Inlet, North County Road and Wells Road, Publix (Bradley Place and Sunrise Avenue), Royal Palm Way (State Road 704) and South County Road (State Road A1A), and various points between. The route returns to the Intermodal Transit Center in West Palm Beach, which connects to several other bus routes and is adjacent to the train station on Tamarind Avenue.

Police

The town has its own police department, established on October 17, 1922. Prior to then, town marshal Joseph Borman served in the capacity of chief law enforcer as outlined in the 1911 charter. The department employed 61 officers in 2018. With a population of 8,295 people in 2018 according to the Florida Bureau of Economic and Business Research, this translated to 7.35 officers per 1,000 people, compared to the Florida average of 2.49 officers per 1,000 people. In the same year, the department made 2,039 arrests – equal to about 24,581 arrests per 100,000 people, the highest arrest rate in Florida and over sevenfold the state average. However, many arrests were in relation to non-violent crimes, such as those involving auto theft, criminal traffic citations, fraud, and scams. .....

Firefighting

In its early days, the town of Palm Beach depended heavily on the city of West Palm Beach for firefighting efforts. The Flagler Alerts, a volunteer firefighting group which later became the West Palm Beach Fire Department, responded to fires in Palm Beach by traversing the Intracoastal Waterway via ferry or railroad. Delayed response times and high insurance rates eventually led Palm Beach to establish its own fire-rescue department in December 1921. Today, the Palm Beach Fire Rescue has three stations, retains 82 employees – 75 full-time and 7 part-time, and annually responds to approximately 2,600 calls.

Utilities

Florida Power & Light (FPL) provides electricity to the town of Palm Beach, along with much of the state's east coast. As of December 31, 2019, FPL serves 5 million customers statewide, which is approximately 10 million people. Much of the electricity supplied by FPL is sourced from natural gas, followed by nuclear energy. The nearest FPL power plant is in Riviera Beach, while the closest nuclear power station is the St. Lucie Nuclear Power Plant, on Hutchinson Island. Palm Beach officials have considered undergrounding at least since commissioning a 2006 study on the burial of electrical lines. In the subsequent years, undergrounding projects were initially performed by neighborhood on a "as requested" basis. However, following a 2014 town council meeting with FPL workers and a related voter-approved ballot question in 2016, it was decided a town-wide undergrounding project would be undertaken at a cost of approximately $90 million. The project is ongoing as of March 2020.

The town government provides and oversees sewage systems and wastewater treatment. Sewage is collected via 41 miles (66 km) of mainline pipes at the more than 40 pumping stations, which are capable of transporting over 100,000 US gallons (380,000 L; 83,000 imp gal) of water each minute. The sewage is then pumped into a regional wastewater treatment facility in West Palm Beach. Tap water has been supplied by the city of West Palm Beach since 1955, when the city purchased Palm Beach's water system, then owned by the Flagler Water Company. West Palm Beach provided tap water services to the town at no cost until the beginning of 1995.

Recycling and garbage collection services are also provided by the town of Palm Beach. The former is taken to a transfer station, where the Palm Beach County Solid Waste Authority transports the garbage to a landfill in West Palm Beach. Vegetative yard trash is taken to two different sites in West Palm Beach.

Notable people

Mar-a-Lago, the residence of former president Donald Trump

The town of Palm Beach is also known for its many famous part-time and full-time residents. Prior to the arrival of Henry Flagler in the 1890s, a few wealthy or otherwise notable people already resided in Palm Beach, including businessman and Autocar Company founder Louis Semple Clarke and scientist Thomas Adams, a pioneer of the chewing gum industry. Earl E. T. Smith and Paul Ilyinsky, both of whom formerly held the office of Mayor of Palm Beach, were notable for other reasons. Smith previously served as an Ambassador of the United States to Cuba, while Ilyinsky was the son of Grand Duke Dmitri Pavlovich of Russia and heiress Audrey Emery.

Two United States Presidents have been part-time residents, John F. Kennedy and Donald Trump, with both designating their respective Palm Beach properties as a Winter White House. Kennedy's Winter White House, La Querida, was built by Addison Mizner in 1923 and previously owned by department store magnate Rodman Wanamaker of Philadelphia before Joseph P. Kennedy Sr. purchased the property in 1933. Trump has owned Mar-a-Lago since 1985, purchasing the property from the family of the late Marjorie Merriweather Post, heiress of Post cereal. In October 2019, Trump and first lady Melania Trump filed to switch their primary domicile from New York City to Mar-a-Lago, officially establishing residency in Palm Beach. Since the conclusion of his presidency in January 2021, Donald and Melania Trump are residing at Mar-a-Lago amidst a dispute from some neighbors about the legality of them taking up permanent residence at the club. Additionally, former Canadian prime minister Brian Mulroney was a resident of Palm Beach from 1997 until his death in 2024.

In popular culture

In Dr. Seuss's classic children's book Horton Hatches the Egg, Palm Beach is the vacation destination for Mayzie the bird.

Palm Beach is the setting of the 2024 American period comedy-drama television miniseries Palm Royale.

Palm Beach, Florida facts for kids

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