EL CID NEIGHBORHOOD

In 1876, Benjamin Lanehart homesteaded land that is now the north end of El Cid. Soon afterward, Elizabeth Wilder Moore settled on the shores of Lake Worth, just south of Lanehart. Lanehart started the first commercial pineapple operation in the area, and this fruit soon dominated the local agriculture. But by the turn of the century, competition and pant diseases ruined the pineapple business. However, the population of West Palm Beach continued to grow. The El Cid Neighborhood was a product of the 1920’s Florida Land Boom era. Pittsburgh socialite John Phipps (1874-1958), the son of Andrew Carnegie’s partner in U.S. Steel, assembled these old pineapple fields to develop the district. Beginning in 1921, independent builders sold expensive Mediterranean Revival and Mission-style homes on most of he available lots. Its proximity to downtown and the shore of Lake Worth attracted affluent business, political, and social leaders who dominated the city’s development in the 1920’s and 1930’s. Phipps named his development El Cid after the celebrated medieval Spanish hero, Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar. His Moorish enemies called him Cid, an Arabic word meaning lord. The El Cid District is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.