Black history: Nine Palm Beach County sites, venues with significance to Black community

Palm Beach Post
·3 min read
The newly renovated Sunset Lounge, where jazz legends like Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, James Brown, Lena Horne and Louis Armstrong performed.
The newly renovated Sunset Lounge, where jazz legends like Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, James Brown, Lena Horne and Louis Armstrong performed.

Black history is intricately woven into Palm Beach County's past. Here are just some of the sites and venues with historic significance to the Black community.

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The Sunset Lounge

The Sunset Lounge, 609 8th St., West Palm Beach. Currently undergoing renovation, the venue hosted iconic Black entertainers such as Ella Fitzerald, Count Basie and Louie Armstrong in the 1940s and 1950s.

More on Sunset Lounge:Sunset Lounge debacle: A bidding process dissolves into acrimonious mess with more delays, costs

Hurricane of 1928 Mass Burial Site

The marker at the Hurricane of 1928 mass burial site at the corner of Tamarind Avenue and 25th Street in West Palm Beach.
The marker at the Hurricane of 1928 mass burial site at the corner of Tamarind Avenue and 25th Street in West Palm Beach.

Hurricane of 1928 Mass Burial Site, southwest corner of Tamarind Avenue and 25th Street. This is the gravesite of 674 Black agriculture workers who were killed when one of the deadliest hurricanes on record destroyed the mud dike around Lake Okeechobee. Their bodies were buried en masse at this site, also called Pauper's Cemetery, while white victims were interred at the city's Woodlawn Cemetery.

More on the site:On 91st anniversary of storm of ’28, nonprofit makes push for memorial, museum

La France Hotel

A copy of an undated post card of the La France Hotel. The hotel was built in 1949 and was one of the only places available for traveling Blacks, seasonal labor and A.A. musicians and entertainers who performed in the city during the '50s and '60s.
A copy of an undated post card of the La France Hotel. The hotel was built in 1949 and was one of the only places available for traveling Blacks, seasonal labor and A.A. musicians and entertainers who performed in the city during the '50s and '60s.

La France Hotel, 140 NW 4th Street, Delray Beach. This Black-owned hotel in the West Settler’s Historic District rented rooms during the segregation era in the 1950s and 1960s. It is now an apartment building for low-income seniors.

More:Finding Black history in Palm Beach County is daunting, but rewarding

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, 2200 N. Flagler Dr., West Palm Beach. One of the city’s iconic landmarks and situated along the Intracoastal Waterway, this memorial features cascading water on a curved granite wall behind the bronze sculpture of Dr. King.

Industrial High School

Industrial High School, 800 11th Street, West Palm Beach. Now named Palmview Elementary, this site was the first Black high school in Palm Beach County. Archives are unclear about opening day, though according to research quoted in the Palm Beach Post, various sources put the date in the fall of 1916 through the end of 1918.

More on Industrial High's legacy:After decades of neglect, Roosevelt High revival finally underway with cost reaching beyond $40M

Jenkins House

Jenkins House, 815 Palm Beach Lakes Blvd., West Palm Beach. It's the 1946-built home of Black pharmacist Joseph Wiley Jenkins. For years it was used as an art space to showcase artists of color.

Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church

From 1894 to 1896, it housed the first public school for Blacks. The current building was erected in 1925.
From 1894 to 1896, it housed the first public school for Blacks. The current building was erected in 1925.

Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church, 801 8th St., West Palm Beach. Founded in 1893 on the island of Palm Beach in the shantytown of the Styx, it relocated to West Palm Beach and was the first Black school in the area at the turn of the 20th century.

The Spady Cultural Heritage Museum

Spady Cultural Heritage Museum is the only dedicated Black history museum and cultural center in the county.
Spady Cultural Heritage Museum is the only dedicated Black history museum and cultural center in the county.

The Spady Cultural Heritage Museum, 170 NW Fifth Ave., Delray Beach. The only museum in Palm Beach County dedicated to Black history, it is located in the circa-1926 home of Solomon D. Spady, a prominent Black educator and community leader.

Evergreen Cemetery

Evergreen Cemetery, 2825 Rosemary Ave, West Palm Beach. Opened in June 1916, these grounds are the final resting place of some of West Palm Beach’s most influential Black citizens, such Dr. T. Leroy Jefferson, the city’s first Black physician and J.W. Mickens, an early educator. The cemetery was created in reaction to the City Commission passing a law requiring Blacks and whites to be buried separately. The law remained in place until Woodlawn Cemetery was integrated in 1966.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Bars, hotels, high schools: Find Black history in Palm Beach County