West Palm Beach, Florida

**West Palm Beach** is a city of Florida in the United States. West Palm Beach is the county seat of Palm Beach County, Florida. As of 2020, the population of West Palm beach was 117,415.

## History

The city was founded by Henry Flagler as a community to house the servants working in the two grand hotels on the neighboring island of Palm Beach, across Lake Worth. The original spelling was "Westpalmbeach", but it was feared that the 13-letter word would be a bad omen for the new community. On November 5, 1894, 78 people met at the "Calaboose" (the first jail and police station located at Clematis St. and Poinsettia, now Dixie Hwy.) and passed the motion to incorporate the Town of West Palm Beach in what was then Dade County (now Miami-Dade County). This made West Palm Beach the oldest incorporated municipality in the county and in South Florida.  The town council quickly addressed the building codes and the tents and shanties were replaced by brick, brick veneer, and stone buildings. The city grew rapidly in the 1920s as part of the Florida land boom. Many of the city's landmark structures and old neighborhoods were built during this period. Dixie Highway at the time was the way of travel for native Americans to come from Georgia and North Florida. With West Palm Beach being so close to the Everglades this led to a huge population growth as West Palm was a place by the water they could go to and use for travel.

Originally, Flagler intended for his Florida East Coast Railway to end in West Palm but after the area experienced a deep freeze, he chose to extend the railroad to Miami instead.

In the 1960s, Palm Beach County's first enclosed shopping mall, the Palm Beach Mall, and an indoor arena were completed. They led to a short revival for the city, but crime continued to be a serious problem and by the early 1990s there were not many people living or working in downtown. Since the 1990s, developments such as CityPlace and renovation of 1920s architecture on Clematis Street have brought people back to downtown for the entertainment and shopping district.

## Notable area residents, past and present

<div style="-moz-column-count:2; column-count:2;">
- Hank Aaron, former all-time home run king.  A street is named for him
- Tori Amos, singer-songwriter
- Bob Barker, Entertainer/Gameshow Host
- Jason Bonham, drummer and son of Led Zeppelin's legendary drummer John Bonham
- Glenn Close, actress
- Celine Dion, singer
- Jeff Gordon, NASCAR driver
- Devin Hester, NFL Player with the Chicago Bears
- Hey Monday, alternative rock band
- Alan Jackson, Country singer
- Tommy Lee Jones, actor
- Rush Limbaugh, Radio talk show host
- Joe Namath, former NFL quarterback
- Olivia Newton-John, actress, singer
- Lilly Pulitzer, Fashion Designer
- Burt Reynolds, Actor, graduate of Palm Beach High School
- Adrian Rogers, former president Southern Baptist Convention and pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church
- Rod Stewart, singer
- Donald Trump, real estate mogul, TV host
- Serena Williams, former No.1 ranked Tennis Champion
- Venus Williams, former No.1 ranked Tennis Champion
- Tiger Woods, Professional Golfer on the PGA Tour
- Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook
 </div>

## Infobox (settlement)

- **name**: West Palm Beach, Florida
- **named for**: Palm Beach, Florida, Palm Beach
- **settlement type**: City
- **nickname**: Orchid City, West Palm, WPB
- **image skyline**: West Palm Beach Skyline.jpg
- **image size**: 300
- **image caption**: West Palm Beach skyline
- **image seal**: Seal of West Palm Beach, Florida.svg
- **image map**: Map of Florida highlighting West Palm Beach.svg
- **mapsize**: 250px
- **map caption**: Location in Palm Beach County, Florida, Palm Beach County and the state of Florida
- **subdivision type**: List of sovereign states, Country
- **subdivision type1**: U.S. state, State
- **subdivision type2**: List of counties in Florida, County
- **subdivision name2**:  Palm Beach County, Florida, Palm Beach
- **government type**: Mayor–council government, Mayor–Commission
- **established title**: Settled
- **established date**: c. 1884
- **established title1**: Municipal corporation, Incorporated (Town of West Palm Beach)
- **established date1**: November 5, 1894
- **unit pref**: Imperial
- **area total sq mi**: 57.98
- **area land sq mi**: 53.82
- **area water sq mi**: 4.17
- **area total km2**: 150.18
- **area land km2**: 139.39
- **area water km2**: 10.79
- **population as of**: 2020 United States Census, 2020
- **population total**: 117415
- **population rank**: List of United States cities by population, 239th in the United States
List of municipalities in Florida, 17th in Florida
- **population density km2**: 842.3
- **population density sq mi**: 2181.7
- **timezone**: Eastern Time Zone, EST
- **utc offset**: −5
- **timezone dst**: Eastern Time Zone, EDT
- **utc offset dst**: −4
- **elevation m**: 4
- **elevation ft**: 13
- **postal code type**: ZIP codes
- **postal code**: 33401–33422
- **area code**: Area code 561, 561
- **area code type**: North American Numbering Plan, Area code
- **blank name**: Federal Information Processing Standard, FIPS code
- **blank info**: 12-76600
- **blank1 name**: Geographic Names Information System, GNIS feature ID
- **blank1 info**: 0293097
- **website**: [http://wpb.org/ http://wpb.org]