Palm Beach County History Online
Palm Beach County History Online
Close

Expansion "I built Palm Beach Gardens without knocking one tree down, [and] I moved the biggest tree ever moved in Florida."

- John D. MacArthur
The start of the Cold War (1945) between the United States and the Soviet Union and the Korean War (1950-1953) resulted in expanison of the West Palm Beach Natioal Guard for local defense. A new airport was constructed at Morrison Field in 1947 and renamed Palm Beach International Airport; in 1952 part of the airport was reactivated as an air force base.
An era of prosperity arrived after World War II, and the mobile class that had emerged in the 1920s became considerably larger and even more mobile. During the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s, an average of a thousand retirees moved to Florida each week. Many of them came to Palm Beach County, where the population doubled during the 1950s. Servicemen and women who had been stationed in south Florida during World War II returned to vacation or set up permanent residence. West Palm Beach became the one of the nation’s fastest growing metropolitan area during the ’50s; the city’s borders spread west of Military Trail and south to Lake Clarke Shores. From 1970 to 1980, the West Palm Beach-Boca Raton are rose to second place in growth in the United States.

In central Palm Beach County, Louis R. Perini, Sr. turned a swamp into a commercial and residental center of West Palm Beach. Development spread to the unincorporated areas of the county, where a few men of vision purchased large amounts of vacant land that they subdivided, developed, and resold. In “North County,” John D. MacArthur, E. Llwyd Ecclestone, and Otto “Buz” DiVosta created residential subdivisions for the new arrivals and attracted big industry to the area. South County’s largest developer, Arthur Vining Davis, in Boca Raton and Samuel Friedlands’ land holdings in western Palm Beach County were the basis for new western communities. As in earlier periods, expansion of services and businesses were required to serve a growing population

Palm Beach County Population Growth

Year

Population

Rate

1940

79,989

——

1950

114,688

43%

1960

228,106

99%

1970

348,993

53%

1980

576,863

65%

Zoning Code

Because of the explosive growth experienced in the county, the first zoning regulations for Palm Beach County were approved by the Board of County Commissioners in 1957. The zoning code was greatly expanded in 1973 and the county rezoned to ensure consistency with the new code.

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Vestibulum tempor urna augue, id gravida sem auctor ac. Sed dapibus nisi sit amet libero ultricies vehicula. Vestibulum mollis gravida lorem. Nam venenatis nisi in purus bibendum, sed auctor eros rhoncus. Proin feugiat lectus turpis, sed ullamcorper felis posuere at. Morbi condimentum, mi id fringilla pulvinar, libero tortor scelerisque arcu, non convallis massa elit vitae libero. Fusce quis nibh quis neque imperdiet ornare.