Located in West Palm Beach, the ongoing revitalization of the historic Northwest Neighborhood should serve as an example of what could happen in Jacksonville’s Historic Eastside as a result of Community Benefits Agreement funding.
Located just northwest of Downtown West Palm Beach, the Northwest Neighborhood is a historic Black community that was first settled in 1894 by laborers of Henry Flagler’s hotels and nearby Florida East Coast railroad. As Flagler’s real estate empire expanded, the neighborhood attracted Black settlers from Jacksonville, northern Florida, Georgia, and the Bahamas in search of work.
During segregation and the Chitlin’ Circuit era, the Northwest Neighborhood grew to become the social, cultural and economic center for West Palm Beach’s Black community. Like Historic Eastside and LaVilla, peer neighborhoods adjacent to Downtown Jacksonville, the Northwest Neighborhood economically declined after desegregation. Covering 700 acres, the Northwest Historic District was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 22, 1992. It became a local West Palm Beach historic district in 1993.
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