SIDE ONE: The Pioneers of Pleasant City consisted of migrant workers and their families from Georgia, Florida, and the Caribbean. Hired by Henry Morrison Flagler in the 1890s, they extended the Florida East Coast Railway from Juno to West Palm Beach and built a railroad bridge to Palm Beach Island. Notably they built the Royal Poinciana Hotel, the Palm Beach Inn - later known as The Breakers, and Whitehall Mansion. For 20 years, workers were housed in segregated camps on the island. Hundreds of Black workers were able to rent ramshackle housing in a 12-acre area along N. County Road & Sunset Avenue called “The Styx”. In 1904, the State Health Department found their living conditions hazardous and unsanitary, yet the white landlord, Dr. James Munyon, refused to make necessary improvements. In 1910, Munyon sold the Styx to developers expanding the Bradley Beach Club. The new owners evicted residents, however, due to zoning restrictions, those residents who could afford to buy land and build their own homes could only buy on the mainland. In 1912, the remaining residents were ordered to deconstruct their homes, which were placed into a pile and burned after they crossed the bridge to West Palm Beach in a mass exodus. SIDE TWO: In early 1900s, developer George Currie (Mayor of West Palm Beach from 1901-1904), purchased land in northeast West Palm Beach and sold 100x50ft. lots to the displaced families. In 1905, he called the development “Pleasant City”, referring to it as “the high-class colored subdivision”. To erase the negative stigma attached to The Styx, streets and avenues bounded by Dixie Highway & Florida East Coast Railway, 23rd Street & 17th Street and gave them pleasant-sounding names like Merry, Happy, Cheerful, Contentment, Comfort, Beautiful, etc. Businesses, fraternal orders, and churches that began in The Styx moved to Pleasant City and the surrounding areas. In 1914, Hazel Augustus, renowned African American architect, built the Odd Fellows Hall, which became the first Pleasant City Elementary School in 1926. The Pioneers of Pleasant City created a religious, family-oriented community of progressive home and business owners. Pleasant City was included in a 1929 city ordinance that mandated residential and commercial segregation until the Fair Housing Act of 1968 overruled it. In 1996, Everee Clarke established the Pleasant City Heritage Gallery to celebrate the legacy of this historic African American neighborhood.
Slide toward Today to fade the historical sheet and see the modern map underneath.