West Palm Beach Station
Introduction
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The West Palm Beach Station is a beautiful historic train station built in 1925. It is still a key transportation hub for the city.
Backstory and Context
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Architecture firm Harvey & Clarke designed the station for the Seaboard Air Line Railroad, which operated the luxury passenger line "Orange Blossom Special" which connected Miami to New York City. The line first reached the station on January 29, 1925. The station was built at a time when West Palm Beach and other cities were experiencing tremendous growth during the Florida land boom. Many who settled here were wealthy, including a few of the Seaboard Air Line Railroad stockholders who built homes in the area. These stockholders, in fact, played a large role in making the station as elaborate as it is. Another interesting aspect of the station's design is the use of a vaulted ceiling of the trackside canopy. While vaulted ceilings have been used for centuries, they started to be incorporated into railroad station design in the early 20th century and the West Palm Beach Station station is a good example of this.
Sources
Grunke, Roger H. "Seaboard Coast Line Railroad Passenger Station." National Park Service - National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form. June 19, 1973. https://npgallery.nps.gov/GetAsset/055b9b5d-9c74-4602-b6b8-462030cb5734.
"West Palm Beach, FL (WPB)." The Great American Stations. Accessed April 29, 2020. http://www.greatamericanstations.com/stations/west-palm-beach-fl-wpb.
Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:West_Palm_Beach_SAL_001.jpg