A Talent Lost Too Soon — Hazel Augustus Died In 1926
Architect Hazel Augustus designed three of the boom-era’s most distinguished, most enduring buildings: The El Verano Hotel (now the Helen Wilkes Residence Hotel), Payne Chapel A.M.E. and Tabernacle Baptist churches in West Palm Beach.
Little is known of Augustus’ life. He was born in Florida and moved to Palm Beach County early in the century, according to an account given to The Post by his goddaughter, Hazel Augustus Driskell, in 1990. He served in World War I, then went to the University of Pennsylvania, said Preston Tillman, a leader of the Black Historical Preservation Society.
Augustus, the area’s first black architect, was a tall, lanky man who spoke softly, even when correcting a construction worker, Tillman recalled. He designed many of the grandest homes in the black neighborhood of West Palm Beach. His El Verano Hotel, designed in 1922 in the Spanish Colonial Revival style, has been drastically modernized and only glimpses of its original glamour can now be seen.
Augustus’ career was cut short in 1926, when he died in a traffic wreck. His home, an impressive columned structure on Division Street, was to have been restored as a centerpiece of African-American heritage, along with the Augustus-designed Gwen Cherry house next door, but it was so run down it had to be demolished in 1987.
- ELIOT KLEINBERG
The city 1920 directory lists Hazel Augustus’s occupation as carpenter. Augustus (standing on porch on the left) built his home at 615 Division Street. (Palm Beach Post file photo)
Hazel Augustus and colleagues during the construction of the Collie Building in West Palm Beach, which was built for Dr. Warren Collie in the early 20th century. (Photo courtesy of the Historical Society of Palm Beach County)
Tags: African Americans, black icons
