Did YOU make history?

Check out the dust-jacket of Palm Beach County’s official centennial scrapbook. (Click the image to see a larger version.)

Here’s a list of who’s who on the cover, and keep reading below to see a list of some of the hundreds of Palm Beach Post readers whose photos and memories are included in Palm Beach County at 100: Our History, Our Home. Click here to order your copy of the book.

Front cover, clockwise from top left:

Cornelia Anthony (her father ran the Anthony’s store) and her cousin Mary Anthony in West Palm Beach, late 1920s

The Breakers hotel

Vintage airplane, from a 1932 Palm Beach Life cover

President Kennedy, Jackie and Caroline in Palm Beach, 1963

Restored 1916 Courthouse, now home to the Richard and Pat Johnson Palm Beach County History Museum
Clematis Street, West Palm Beach, 1940s

Bathing beauties in Palm Beach, 1959: (from left) Mildred Smith Gruner, Patsy Hughes, Marsha DeSorro, Brenda Godwin, Nancy Ellis

Ethel Sterling Williams, Delray Beach pioneer

First schoolhouse for black students in West Palm Beach: Built at Tamarind Avenue and Datura Street in 1896

Kay and John Rybovich with sailfish at Inlet Dock in Palm Beach

Twins Greg (left) and John Rice fishing off Southern Boulevard, West Palm Beach, in 1960

Burt Reynolds, Palm Beach High School Class of 1954

Jupiter Inlet Lighthouse, oldest existing structure in Palm Beach County, built in 1860

Back cover, clockwise from top left:

Baby great egret in the Arthur R. Marshall Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, west of Boynton Beach

Ramon Blackburn (left) and his twin brother Royce water-ski on Lake Osborne, in central Palm Beach County, 1950

Ella Carver of Jupiter enjoys her ice cream at the 2007 SunFest in West Palm Beach

Horses graze at Palm Beach Point in Wellington, home to some of the world’s premier equestrian facilities

Miss Roosevelt High 1963, Gloria Fretwell (center), with her attendants Ramona Jenkins and Carolyn Harrington

Sundy House in Delray Beach, painted by Brennan M. King

Bill Watson, who grew up in Juno Beach, 1950s

Lincoln C. Holmes’ sailing party, 1903: Holmes was a pioneer boat-builder in West Palm Beach

Horse show: Georgina Bloomberg rides Mila during the $100,000 National Horse Show Grand Prix at the Palm Beach Polo Equestrian Club, 2007

Flier for the West Palm Beach Fishing Club

Two women at the Boynton Inlet: Gustine and Mae Geibel, late 1920s

Mishi, Rokuo and Masa Kamiya; Yamato Colony, 1915

Miss West Palm Beach, Carolyn Stroupe Stambaugh, 1955

Mar-a-Lago, now owned by Donald J. Trump

Majorette Billie Jo McFee Swilley of Delray Beach, 1950s

1927 issue of Palm Beach Life magazine, founded in 1906

Jackie Kennedy waves goodbye at Palm Beach International Airport on her way to Washington for her husband’s inauguration, 1961

Did you make history? Palm Beach County at 100: Our History, Our Home features photos and memories from hundreds of Palm Beach Post readers. Is your name listed here?

Armando Acosta family
Sherman Adler
Anthony family
Sue Van Dyke Bailey
Pat Baldwin
Diane Benedetto
Robert Bertische
Nancy Blaschke
Dudley Blossom III
Jerry Browning
Bowman family
Sam Budnyk
Burkhardt family
Rosanne Bush family
Walt Bylciw
Jane Ann Hadley Caruso
Savana Cary
Jeannette Buss Cearley
Cory J. Ciklin
Patricia Ferner Cobb
Collie family
Robert Corbitt
Jim “Jim Bob” Crabtree
Linda Cullen
T.J. Cunningham family
Cushman family
Bob and Babe Davidoff
Gillian Wimbourne Davis
Sue Day
Thomas Delbeck
Michael Dubiner
Dubois family
Duda family
Honey Duncan
Eckler family
Edward M. Eissey
Scott Eller
Erickson family
Fanjul family
Joe Farish
Katherine Fay
Mickey Foster
Mike Geibel family
Sherri Gilbert
Frank Gillette
Bert Gilmore family
Dr. Murray Gordon
M.E. Gruber family
Gunster law firm
Lauren Hand family
Linda Juretie Hess
Raleigh Hill
Robert Hill
Lincoln Holmes family
Robert Holt
Ray Howard
Ineria Hudnell
Barbara Starkey Hubbard
Carynn Jackson
Gladys Kimbro Smith Jenkins
Jeff Johansen
William E. Johnson
Harry Johnston Jr.
Don Jorden
Roxane F. Karr
Ed and Bob Kassatly
Bill Keeton
Kennedy family
Sharon Koskoff
Mark Lee
Art Leibovit
Curtis Lewis
Florence Lindros family
Lauren Llacera
Mary Lopez
Dr. Catherine Lowe
Kenny Lyman family
Lake Lytal family
Karen Tulino Marcus
Jack McDermott
Zenetta Ward Miller
William Glenn Mize
Kitty Carr Mollenberg
Alice Moore
Jacqueline Morrison
Marvin Mounts family
Martin E. Murphy family
Penny Greenberg Murphy
Mo Mustaine
Nancy Myers family
Chris Noel
Pat Watkins North
Sandy Oakley
Mary Diana Obst
Ginger Pedersen
Karen and Ileana Pentzke
Rebecca Frazier Peterson
Ruth Pompey
James Ponce
Raborn family
John and Joyce Raymond
Colin Raynor
Greg Rice
Michael “Corky” Roche
Judge Edward Rodgers
Kay Rybovich
Fred “Deadeye” Salmon
Lorraine P. Saunders
Alexandra “Sandy” Scavnicky
Shirley and George Schneider
Robert Shalhoub
Penny and Wally Sheltz
Jimmy L. Shirley Jr.
Ernest G. Simon
Mark and Robert Simpson
Carolyn Stroupe Stambaugh
Fritz Stein family
Roderick Stevens
Cynthia L. Stowe
Billie Jo McFee Swilley
Ruel P. Tafalla
Dr. Warren P. Tatoul
C. Pfeiffer Trowbridge
Tuppen family
Tami Valentine
Bill Wallace
Bill Watson
Wedgworth family
Elsie Clough Weeks
Greg and Rebecca Weiss
C. Deborah Welch
J.B. Wilson
Horace and Dorothy Wilson
Dorothy McDonald Wilson
Ted Winsberg
Eileen Dalton Wozneski

As always, we invite you to share your own stories and memories of Palm Beach County and Florida in the Your History section of historicpalmbeach.com

Tags: celebrities, schools, store

Window-shop like the pioneers did

Today, chic ladies shriek for Chanel. But back in 1905, the woman who peddled ‘the latest French novelties’ was named Madame Najla Mogabgab — and she featured kimonos and other exotic costumes in her store inside Henry Flagler’s Royal Poinciana Hotel. The hotel boasted Fifth-Avenue-quality shops, and their dazzling window displays prompted the Palm Beach Daily News to dub the hotel’s shopping corridor ‘The Broadway of the Hotel Royal Poinciana.’ Next door were several other retailers, including Anthony’s, founded in 1895.

Photo courtesy of the Historical Society of Palm Beach County. The shop inside the Royal Poinciana Hotel features kimonos hanging on the left, lamps for sale above the dress racks, and lace and hatpins in the cases on the right.

Want to know more about our fashionable history? Order your copy of Palm Beach County at 100: Our History, Our Home. The 304-page, full-color, hardcover book — by The Palm Beach Post and the Historical Society of Palm Beach County — is the county’s official centennial book. It will be available on Nov. 1 for $45, plus tax, shipping and handling. Order your limited-edition copy at gallerypalmbeach.com

Tags: Breakers, Palm Beach, store

Burseyville was place for groceries, beer

Readers: Some recent columns about downtown West Palm Beach prompted a letter from Jim Anderson, 80, of the pioneer Anderson Hardware.

Anderson wanted to tell us about Burseyville, near where he grew up. Here’s his essay, edited for space:

If you grew up in the south end of West Palm Beach in the ’30s, you knew about Burseyville. If your Mom needed bread and eggs or some fresh vegetables, or a cut of meat for dinner, or if someone needed a cold beer, Burseyville was the destination.

Burseyville was an older wooden structure, at the southeast corner of Puritan Road and South Dixie Highway. Bursey’s Grocery store was at the north end, there was a butcher shop in the middle and a neighborhood beer bar at the south end. Above the stores were living quarters, and apartments behind, as well.

Bursey’s was a sort of a place of organized chaos. It was the Depression, and most everything was pretty cheap. I recall when Holsum marketed a loaf of bread for a dime, but two halves were separately wrapped inside an outer wrapper, and if a nickel was all you could afford, you could buy a half-loaf.

Someone finally opened up another grocery, right across the Dixie from Bursey’s. It had an open front, with baskets of fresh vegetables on the sidewalk But it never had the ambiance or that stinky cigar aroma of Bursey’s.

Near the end of the ’30s, a stand-alone building was built on the west side, just north of Pilgrim Road. It was a sundries shop, a place where you could get aspirin, cough medicine, magazines and other items of that sort. It also had a soda fountain, with stools and several small tables with chairs.

On the south side of Pilgrim, there was another beer bar. It’s still there and has been remodeled a number of times.

At the corner of Plymouth and Dixie, there were two filling stations, a Gulf and a Standard Oil. South of Plymouth there was the Hatfield Rug Cleaners, still there, still operating.

Tags: store, West Palm Beach

Readers Remember Their Woolworth’s

Readers: On April 23, we told of the old downtown West Palm Beach Woolworth’s and asked for readers’ memories of other Woolworth’s.

We got several responses, some from outside Florida but all universal in their love for the store:

Ruth E. Dickinson, Lake Worth: “In the ’70s, my friend, Peggy Atkinson, and I would walk from her house on 10th Street downtown to Woolworth’s on Clematis for a piece of luscious peanut butter custard pie made by our server… Those were the days.”

Diane Davis, Okeechobee (Hialeah, 1957): “My position was sales clerk on the record and candy counter. For a teenage girl, this was heaven on earth. To this day, when I hear Jingle Bell Rock by Bobby Helms, I think about that time in my life.”

Sylvia Wortman, suburban Delray Beach (Chicago): “After my husband and I were married on June 24, 1949, not being able to afford a honeymoon, after the festivities, we went to a two-room (Murphy Bed) apartment that my dad had rented for us. The next day we went shopping on Lawrence Avenue to Woolworth’s for some kitchen items and some odds and ends. I am 94 years old and can’t remember everything, but some things do stay in my memories.”

Ole Olson, Port St. Lucie (Long Island, 1950s): I learned a lot while I was at Woolworth’s and it helped me when I went with the Navy. I started out as a buyer of hardware and garden supplies and when I retired in August of 1989, I was a divisional merchandise manager and had eight departments under me which did over $175 million.”

Pat Thorne, Atlantis (Greenville, S.C., 1950s): They were a big part of small-town living… Woolworth was still going strong when I left in the early 50s. While the building is still there, it is now broken up into several businesses, which seem to change yearly, but the big Woolworth sign that went almost across the whole front of the store has been kept.”

Tags: store

Woolworth Lunch Counter An Oasis For Shoppers

Readers: Do you remember Woolworth’s?

Frank W. Woolworth founded America’s original five-and-dime in 1879.

Think wooden floors, penny toys, bobby pins, pet goldfish. An endless aisle of loose candy behind glass that a clerk scooped and poured onto a scale.

The latest 45s (ask your parents) from Bill Haley, Elvis and Fats Domino, for a whopping 88 cents.

Many especially remember the lunch counters.

The chrome finish, grilled hot dogs, cold silver ice-cream cups. Pop the balloon and the price inside is what you pay.

A menu believed to be from the 1950s provided by Mary Smith of the Lantana Historical Society shows apple pie for 15 cents a slice, a milkshake for a quarter, and a triple-decker bacon and tomato sandwich for all of a half dollar.

In 2006, now-retired columnist Ron Wiggins talked to Harriette Herbert Ross of Lake Clarke Shores, whose father, Harry Herbert, ran the Clematis store for four decades.

She recalled walking from nearby Rosarian Academy to lunch with him at the counter.

“He kept that store spotless,” Harriette said. “He wouldn’t tolerate a box cluttering the aisle while customers were there.”

He retired in 1989 and died in 1994, a year after the Clematis store closed.

In March 2006, we wrote about Harvest House, a restaurant inside many Woolworth’s stores, and next door at Palm Beach Mall.

Woolworth’s could not keep up with changing times. In 1997 it closed its 400 remaining five-and-dime stores. It later morphed into Foot Locker.

We know of Woolworth’s stores on Clematis Street in West Palm Beach, on U.S. 1 in Riviera Beach and in Lake Worth.

Stores later operated at the Palm Beach Mall and the Palm Coast Plaza, north of the West Palm Beach-Lake Worth line on South Dixie Highway, as well as where Lantana Road now meets Interstate 95.

Stores probably stood as well in southern Palm Beach County, the Treasure Coast and perhaps the Glades.
Readers: Let us know. And send your memories!

Palm Beach Post file photo: Old F. W. Woolworth menu from Lantana Shopping Center at what is today Lantana Road and I-95.

Tags: store