Flagler Park

Flagler Park, formerly known as City Park, has been an important public space in West Palm Beach since the community's founding. When the town site was laid out in 1893 as a grid of north-south and east-west streets, the eastern end of Clematis Street was set apart by two short angled streets that created a triangular public common area. Over the years, downtown merchants used the park-like grounds for impromptu ball games when business was slow. In 1900, a donated two-story frame building was transported across Lake Worth from Palm Beach and placed on the southeastern portion of the parcel for use as a reading room. The Woman's Christian Temperance Union dedicated a drinking fountain there in 1907, and in 1915 a Woman's Club was placed on the parcel. Other amenities included a shuffleboard court and a bandstand for outdoor concerts. As the city's population expanded during the 1920's, the reading room facilities were outgrown, and a library built in 1923 opened in January 1924 as the Memorial Library, named to honor the dead of World War I. It too was eventually outgrown and replaced by another library in 1962. In 1994, the library was remodeled and the plaza in front of it was redesigned with a triangular in-ground fountain, and this forecourt became the center of downtown activities while continuing the site's traditional civic role.

West Palm Beach, Florida · United States