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Lake Worth: 1908

Palm Beach, Florida, circa 1908. "Along the shore of Lake Worth." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

Palm Beach, Florida, circa 1908. "Along the shore of Lake Worth." 8x10 inch dry plate glass negative, Detroit Publishing Company. View full size.

 

On Shorpy:
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Palm Beach Lake Trail

The Palm Beach Lake Trail has changed very little in the past 100 years. At the time of the photo the building in the background was the Henry Morrison Flagler home. Today it is the Flagler Museum. The Lake Trail runs some 6 miles almost to the Palm Beach Inlet and is only for pedestrians and bicycles.

Favorite Bike Trail

When I lived in WPB I used to ride on the Lake Trail regularly. This is a section of the South Trail with the Flagler mansion in the background.

Landscape architect

I think Dr. Seuss must have been in charge of tending the trees on the left side of the walk.

"Intercosstal"

As in "between the ribs"?

Waterway Names

The reason for different names along the Intracoastal Waterway is that the different names were usually there first. The Waterway is a route - like a US Highway route on land, which might run over many roads with different names, but always the same route number. Many parts of the Waterway were originally separate bodies of water that have been linked by man-made canals and channels.

On a different note - why are the trees on the left side of the photo so twisted and the ones on the right side comparatively straighter?

Adult Perambulators


Farm Journal, November 1905.

No horses are allowed in Palm Beach, — only a lone mule pulling a light summer car along the famous palmetto avenue, from Jake to ocean, … The only other land conveyances are single and double bicycle chairs propelled by liveried colored men at a cost of $1 per hour. These can be seen going in every direction on the paved walks, the jungle trails, and over the long bridge across Lake Worth to West Palm Beach.


The American Scene, 1907,
by Henry James.

It is by means of a light perambulator, of "adult size," but constructed of wicker-work, and pendent from a bicycle propelled by a robust negro, that the jungle is thus visited; the bicycle follows the serpentine track, the secluded ranch is swiftly reached, the peaceful retirement of the cultivators multitudinously admired, the perambulator promptly re-entered, the darky restored to the saddle and his charge again to the hotel.

Geography

Palm Beach is a barrier island off the mainland from West Palm Beach. The body of water which separates West Palm Beach and Palm Beach is called Lake Worth; but it is really just part of the Intercoastal Waterway that runs down the length of the coast of Florida from Jacksonville to Miami.

Seems like each segment of the Intercoastal has been given a different name as it runs through different parts of the coast. For example: it's the Halifax River in Daytona Beach; Indian River down near Cape Canaveral; and eventually Biscayne Bay in Miami.

One assume the picture was taken on the grounds of the massive hotel in the background, but it's really hard to say which part of Lake Worth is pictured.

[You are no doubt thinking of the Intracoastal, not "Intercoastal," Waterway. - Dave]

Well, if you Google it, you find that both spelling are used to describe this passageway. I've always heard it called "Intercosstal."

[Google indeed reveals plenty of misspelled words. The waterway in question is the Intracoastal -- meaning along a single coast. Intercoastal would mean connecting two coasts. I was born in Miami and grew up in Florida, and so was well acquainted with the Intracoastal. - Dave]

Contrasts

A straight shoreline and crooked trees.

Whew!

Having lived in Florida for a spell, I just can't imagine HOW they dealt with the heat having only fans and no A/C. Yet somehow they survived!

[Palm Beach, and Florida in general, was a winter resort. People didn't visit when it was hot. - Dave]

I realize that, I was speaking of life in Florida in general, year-round. It can get to 90 in January :)

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