Civic time capsule: Jupiter officials urged to declare Old Town Hall property historic

JUPITER — The yellow, one-story, concrete-block, mid-century, modern-style building at Old Town Hall Park in Jupiter might not look like most people’s idea of a historic structure.

But it has a long history filled with important events and people, and physical ties going back to 1911.

Completed in 1952, the simple 2,000-square-foot Old Town Hall Building was the community's first purpose-built town hall and was constructed with locally made concrete blocks taken from the two-story school that had been built on the property in 1911.

For several years, there has been an effort to have it receive a local historic designation, and the Jupiter Town Council is expected to consider the issue once again at its meeting Tuesday, Aug. 19. In July, the town’s Historic Resources Board voted unanimously to recommend that the entire 2.4 acres be designated historic, not just the building.

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Old Town Hall is where Jupiter went from hamlet to town

The building, at 1000 Old Town Hall Ave. north of Center Street, occupies the southeast corner of Old Town Hall Park, where children play in a fenced playground under massive shade trees. It was used as a governmental workplace, meeting hall and police station from 1952 to 1978.

At its Aug. 15 meeting the council asked the town staff to provide more information about how such a designation might affect improvements to the Seminole Basin detention ponds that back up to the west side of the Old Town Hall property.

“There is an enormous amount of historical significance at that site,” senior planner Stephen Mayer told the council.

Mayor Jim Kuretski commented that the Historic Resources Board has recommended designating the entire property historic, as it did with the Suni Sands property. In July, the council voted to preserve 4 acres of the 10-acre Suni Sands shell midden along the Loxahatchee River near the Jupiter Inlet. That property's owner, Charles Modica, who is seeking to develop the entire property,  is appealing the council’s decision.

The difference is that the town owns the Old Town Hall Park and Old Town Hall.

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Based on a report from the town’s consultant, Joseph Mankowksi of Advanced Archaeology, the simplistic Masonry Vernacular-style building typical of those built in the post-World War II era and the property meet requirements to qualify as a local historic site.

Because of the many prominent people associated with the old Town Hall site, and the decisions that were made there, the Old Town Hall building acts as a time capsule for Jupiter’s civic past, Mankowski said in a July report. The building is a historic landmark that provides a sense of place amid the progress and change within Jupiter, and a historic designation is important for the preservation of the town’s historical heritage, he said.

Between 1950 and 1980 the town’s population grew to 9,868 from just 313. The Town Hall was where growth and policy decisions were made that set the course of Jupiter’s history.

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The property was historically known as Pennock Place. Herbert A. Pennock and Henry S. Pennock donated the land to be used for public education. The property was later deeded to the town by the Palm Beach County School Board.

Herbert Pennock was the half-brother of Abraham Pennock, who came to Jupiter in 1902 and developed and operated a fern-growing nursery. The Pennocks also operated a dairy farm known as Pennock Plantation.

The building and the park hold special memories for long-time residents, such as former Jupiter Mayor and Palm Beach County Commissioner Robert “Bob” Culpepper and his son, Michael.

“There’s 112 years of history there,” Robert Culpepper said.

The Culpeppers and other residents said they want the entire site to be officially recognized as historic. They are not happy with the town allowing an area of the park to the west of the building to be used as a construction staging site for at least the last year. Piles of gravel and dirt as well as pipes are inside a fenced-off area. Trucks have also been coming to and from the site.

Culpepper, who served as mayor from 1966-68 and as a Palm Beach County commissioner from 1968-76, told the Historic Resources Board, “It’s a real mess. The town has allowed it to be turned into an industrial dump. Take a look. It is right across the street from where people live. It is a nuisance.”

Town spokesman Shawn Reed said Tuesday that the town has notified the contractor, Municipal Contractors, that its contract is terminated. All construction materials must be removed by Sept. 22.

In 2022, the town awarded a $3.27 million contract to Municipal Contractors, headquartered in Boynton Beach, to construct stormwater and watermain infrastructure improvements to residential and commercial/industrial areas of Pine Gardens North. The job was to have been completed this fall. The town will now make other arrangements.

Pine Gardens North is in an older, low-lying section of the town, generally bordered by Indiantown Road, Old Dixie Highway, Center Street, North Perry Avenue, and the west ends of Fern Street and Kennedy Street.

Palm Beach County Engineer David Ricks recently told county commissioners that three south county projects awarded to Municipal Contractors have been on hold for several months after unpaid subcontractors walked off the jobs.

Michael Culpepper, who now lives in Jupiter Farms, said he grew up just steps from the Old Town Hall, and that when he was ages 10 to 12, he had a job mowing the grass at Town Hall and what was then known as the Jaycee Kiddie Park. He recalled placing his time card in a mail slot in the door. He and his sister played shuffleboard at the park.

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Susan Brandt, who lives across from the park and the staging site, said "it means a lot" if the hall is preserved. "It is one of the few places in Jupiter that is Old Florida. We would like it kept that way," Brandt said.

Brett Leone, vice president of the Jupiter Historical Society, said he grew up going to the park and takes his children  to there. He considers it a special place. “The Jupiter Historical Society supports the preservation of the whole site. It pays homage to Jupiter’s founders,” Leone said.

Historic Resources Board Chair Debi Murray said the entire site needs to be designated historic to keep the building in context. “The biggest thing we were concerned about was that the site be protected and remain as it is today. We do not want it built upon,”  Murray said.

Building also served as Jupiter's first police station and library

The town’s third schoolhouse, built in 1911, once stood 20 feet north of the Old Town Hall. Earlier schoolhouses were one or two rooms, but this was Jupiter’s most substantial and the first to include upper grades.

It was known as the Pennock School, and the Pitchford School, and also as Jupiter Junior High School. It offered classes up to the 10th grade, and opened with 70 students, according to the Loxahatchee River Historical Society.

Jupiter voters met at the school in 1925 to incorporate the town. The school building was abandoned in 1926 and demolished during the winter of 1950-51, according to the Loxahatchee River Historical Society.

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The Town Hall building completed in 1952 cost just $1,409.09 because members of the Rood-Williams American Legion Post 271 donated their time and resources.

It served as the town’s police station and its first library as the Jupiter branch of the Palm Beach County Library from 1983 to 1992. The town then rented a building on Old Dixie Highway until the current Town Hall was built and opened in 1980 at 210 Military Trail. It continued to be used as town offices between 1980 and 1992, and since then has been used to host civic events and meetings.

The Old Town Hall was used for a few years as a free community health clinic, directed by Dr. John Thomas Price.

Mankowski’s report lists a dozen influential Jupiter residents who served and worked in the Old Town Hall building, and added there are many more.

• R.E. “Pete” Damon, who was a town commissioner from 1931-32 and 1935-53, was one of those who worked at the building in its early years. He was the A1A bridgetender for 20 years, and the bridge is named in his honor. In 1924 Damon became postmaster and was a school bus driver. In 1932, he became town clerk, tax assessor and tax collector.

• Marie Cross, Jupiter’s first woman mayor, was a commissioner from 1949-51 and 1964-66 and mayor from 1951-57. She was instrumental in acquiring its first fire truck, its first Florida Power & Light utility ranches, its first direct-dial telephone exchange and what is now the Jupiter Civic Center at Carlin Park.

• Glynn Mayo, a lifelong Jupiter resident, was the first and sole pioneer constable for the town and surrounding area as well as Jupiter’s first official chief of police from 1958 to 1987.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Jupiter urged declare Old Town Hall property a historic Florida site