| | Thumbnail | | Creator | Date | Title / Author / Date / Location | Price | | | Description |
| 7903 |  | Details | Green, Lewis Henry | 1913 |
| Early Plat of Royal Park Palm Beach Florida |
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Green, Lewis Henry |
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| 1913 |
| LOC:500 |
| $450.00 | Green--Lewis-Henry | Early-Plat-of-Royal-Park-Palm-Beach-Florida | Brochure (9" x 8") with a detailed plat of the Royal Park addition in Palm Beach, Florida. The Royal Park addition was one of the earliest planned developments in Palm Beach, Florida, developed starting around 1908, three years before Palm Beach was incorporated, in 1911. Royal Park was developed by Elisha Newton "Cap" Dimick, Palm Beach's first mayor, and early developers who had previously worked on the development of the Palm Beach Inn (later known as The Breakers hotel).
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Dimick and his business partners marketed Royal Park as an exclusive residential community, featuring large lots, ocean to lake access, and Mediterranean Revival style architecture. In 1913, Lewis Henry Green, a wealthy Mexican-born real estate agent and investor from California, started working for the Royal Park subdivision in Palm Beach, Florida. He employed a game plan of splashy advertising, auctions, and prize giveaways for buyers. Green's dubbing of Royal Park as "the Millionaire's Playground" sparked significant interest in the development.
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Tours of the "playground" were handled by W.E. Watson, a businessman who helped promote the project with two 24-seat vehicles that made the rounds. Green offered prizes daily at afternoon auctions held three days a week on Royal Palm Way, opposite the new bridge. At the first auction, 600 to 800 people attended, buying lots at around $375 each.
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Royal Park sold out by 1917. Completed and settled a year later with eclectic bungalows, gabled Victorians, and front-porch cottages, the subdivision's burgeoning prominence would shift the town's center southward, paving the way for the 1920s dawn of Worth Avenue. |