Historic walking tours of Palm Beach's Worth Avenue resume for the season

Debuting two weeks early because of high demand, the Worth Avenue Association's popular Worth Avenue Historic Walking Tour resumed the day before Thanksgiving.

Conducted by Rick Rose, a historian for the Worth Avenue Association and author of a local travel blog and Palm Beach tourism guide, the sold-out, 75-minute excursion included multiple stops along a three-block stretch of the famed fashion retail district.

At each stop, Rose shared the history of Worth Avenue's architecture, fashion and landmarks, and also talked about the famous residents who have worked, lived and shopped there.

The tours will continue each Wednesday through the end of April.

"The purpose of these tours is to share the rich historical, architectural and cultural heritage of Worth Avenue with locals and visitors alike," said Rose, a native Palm Beacher who has been conducting the tours for more than a decade.

Related: Cartoonistry: Time and turbulence forged the Worth Avenue of today

Established in 2001 by Jim Ponce, a Florida historian who died in 2015, the Worth Avenue Historic Walking Tours draw large groups of history enthusiasts to Worth Avenue each week during the winter season.

Ponce, who focused on architecture along the Avenue, conducted the tours for 10 years before retiring at age 94.

Rose took over in 2011 after three years as Ponce's understudy, and said he expanded the tours to include a broader scope of information about fashion, retail history, anecdotes, and the town.

"Worth Avenue really is one of the most historic locations in the Palm Beach area," Rose said.

During the tours, which typically get underway in early December but started early because of increased interest, Rose focuses on three areas.

The first is Worth Avenue's history and architectural significance, particularly relating to the popular Mediterranean Revival styles created by noted Palm Beach architect Addison Mizner.

The second area is the history of Worth Avenue and how it became such an important fashion retail district.

Rose also likes to share fun and interesting anecdotes about the people who have shopped, lived and worked on Worth Avenue.

"Rick makes it phenomenal because he's such a great storyteller," said Faith Spencer, an administrator with the Worth Avenue Association. "He has a true passion for it."

Rose began the pre-Thanksgiving walking tour in Via Amore and proceeded to stops at the Everglades Club, Via Parigi, Via Mizner and other famous landmarks before wrapping things up at the Esplanade.

During a stop at the Everglades Club, which was designed by Mizner and opened in 1919 as a social club, he told guests that the building originally was intended to serve as a convalescent home for officers returning home from World War I.

However, Rose said, those officers didn't want to go to a resort in South Florida for rest and recovery.

"They wanted to go home," Rose said. "There wasn't a lot of interest."

Instead of a convalescent home, Mizner converted the Mediterranean Revival-style building into a club, and it opened with great fanfare in January 1919.

During another stop at Via Mizner, a historic site which Addison Mizner also designed and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Rose discussed Mizner's rising celebrity in the 1920s and his support of the progressive movement.

Rose also told anecdotes about Mizner's pet monkey, Johnnie Brown.

A spider monkey who was Mizner's constant companion, Johnnie Brown became a favorite of society photographers in the 1920s, Rose said, and he often appeared on newspaper and magazine covers.

"The monkey created interest and sold newspapers," Rose said. "This monkey took on epic proportions of celebrity and status. Mizner and Johnnie Brown were in Broadway plays, short stories and novels, and in particular, a lot of political satire."

Johnnie Brown is buried in Via Mizner, Rose said.

Additional stops on the season's first walking tour included Villa Mizner, a five-story apartment designed by Mizner in 1924; Kassatly's, the oldest shop on Worth Avenue (it opened in 1923); and various other retail stores and landmarks along the Avenue.

"Worth Avenue is such a unique destination," Spencer said. "It's like nowhere else in the world."

Rose conducts the same tour each week, though private tours that are arranged separately through the Worth Avenue Association are more customized, Spencer said.

Tours are held Wednesdays at 10:30 a.m. through April 26. Cost is $25 per person. Register online at www.eventbrite.com/e/worth-avenue-historic-walking-tour-tickets-431867125197. Registration is capped at 40 guests per tour.

Tours begin at 256 Worth Ave., across from Tiffany & Co. and Chanel. Parking is available on the street or at the Apollo parking lot.

A portion of the proceeds from each tour this season will go to the Palm Beach Police & Fire Foundation. The Worth Avenue Association picked the nonprofit public safety organization as its 2022-2023 "Charity of Choice" recipient.

For information on the Worth Avenue Association, visit the organization's website at https://worth-avenue.com/ or call 561-659-6909.

Jodie Wagner is a journalist at the Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach her at jwagner@pbdailynews.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: Guided tours of Palm Beach's historic Worth Avenue resume for the season