City - Palm Beach FL - Palm Beach Florida 1905 Tile

Colorized photo from 1905 Original title: The Beach, Palm Beach Fla. Photographer: Detroit Publishing Location: Near Worth Ave, Palm Beach, FL It seems totally normal to see beaches in Florida and go there on vacation. But originally parts of Florida was swamp land. It was all thanks to an oil tycoon by the name of Henry Flagler. He loved the area so much he built a railroad, and a number of hotels in the 1890's. He made the land livable and made this area a place where rich people can go on vacation. He had so many workers he created a small town just for them, that area is now called West Palm Beach. The town of Palm Beach was officially incorporated on April 17, 1911 You can see its pretty crowded by the water, but by today's standards, its not that crowded. Oddly people seem to be seeing it as a curiosity, only a few having bathing attire. Men have a tank top and shorts, but no bare chests. The ladies have what we today would be called a formal gown, complete with some kind of long socks and maybe ballet shoes. It was probably very useful to walk across the hot sand, as there was no bare skin. The wood planks helped those that weren't wearing shoes. Sunscreen wasn't invented till 1938, so my guess is, while it could be decency, it was probably to keep the sun from cooking their skin. It must have been a real pain to get the wet clothes off though. All those layers, fresh from the ocean they must have weighed 30 pounds heavier. Imagine how hard it is to remove a wet shirt... now quintuple that. You can see a guy holding his room key, and what looks like a trunk lock key, the keys used are gate keys. In the ocean near the pier (this may be Medley pier), there is a boy wearing a tie, swimming. And you just don't see velocipede-chairs all that often.