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Home My WebLink About1985-05-12 The Miracle City That The Wind Blew Away Part 2 (Palm Beach Post)SUNRAY BROWN WRAPPER Supplement to The Post, Sunday, May 12, 19 INSIDE: THE BIG FIRST Comes to Jupite Grand Opening Celebration See page 3. THE BIG FIRST brings you "The Sunday Brown Wrapper" each and every Sunday. THE BIG FIRST — FIRST FEDERAL SAVINGS OF THE PALM BEACHES — is celebrating 50 YEARS OF SERVICE. The Miracle City That the Wind Blew Away Part II The Dream Becomes Reality TENT MEETINGS in Kelsey City were for the purpose of selling lots. Auctions, characterized by mellifluent oratory, were held near the shores of Lake Worth. By G. Keith Bailey The South Florida land New England magnate, Harry boom of the twenties spawned Kelsey sold his restaurant numerous planned communi- chain and invested his millions ties, but many of these never in South Florida real estate. came to fruition. The word He dreamed of a beautiful, "proposed" so often used i well planned community for both plans and promotion liter- eoplewhoworked.Hisdream ature, degenerated into a ventually became the town of meaningless cliche. Harry Kel- ake Park. sey's development was differ- ent not only because of the na- ture and design of the proposals but because so many of them were fully realized. In an article from November of 1977, Bill McGoun quoted native Byron Poston (born in Kelsey City in 1928) who re- called that "Kelsey City had everything ... There was a THE BIG FIRST "S so-called "free they cost you. .est AND it's ipe ar ac xten :ount. sion of your �LIC by the Federal an Insurance Corp. he U.S. Government BEACHES ballroom, brick factory, an ice house and ice cream plant, automobile showrooms on Park Avenue, a lumber yard cutting 200,000 feet of pine and cypress a day, banks, theatres, restau- rants, playgrounds, and parks." As with most of Kelsey's business dealings, the details were handled by others. The actual planning was done by the Olmsted Brothers of Bos- ton. (Kelsey lived in Boston at the time.) Interestingly, these same Olmstead Brothers are also noted as having started the first school of landscape archi- tecture in the country at Har- vard University. Besides detailed plans for both residential and industrial areas, the city also had a char- ter forbidding air and water pollution. One example of the clean air standards was that the building of a leather tannery was outlawed because of the notorious odor of such tanner- ies. Thus, the concept of "clean industry" came to Palm Beach County quite early. Even with such stan- dards, Kelsey City had an im- pressive industrial area, prag- matically located near the Florida East (oast Railway in the west end of town. The con- trolling concept seemed to be self-sufficiency. The town con- tained its own nursery, decora- tive stone and tile work, lime and brick plants, and rubber factory, and a dairy farm. The blocks for City Hall were made at Kelsey's own cement plant. The use of these blocks was a progressive idea for that time as one block replaced six- teen standard clay bricks and greatly expedited construction. Equally progressive were tech- niques used at the Kelsey dairy, which produced some 200 gallons of milk per day. Newspaper accounts from that day tell of playing waltz music for the cows, as well as other practices forhealth and sanita- tion which were ahead of their time. T he practicality of Kel- sey's development was also evi- dent in techniques for the sale of residences. Fagg Lumber Company, one of the original nine firms in the town, con- structed a small development on Park Avenue. These were the first tourist cottages in the town and afforded comfortable lodging for visitors interested in purchasing land. In his real estate dealings, Kelsey was noted for his hones- ty. One aspect of this was his insistence that prospective buyers actually see the land be- fore purchasing it. During the day of the land boom this was hardly the industry standard. Quite often real estate was sold sight unseen by newspaper ad- vertisement. The romanticised verbal descriptions of South Florida found in these ads were often an exercise in literary 1 • 1. F F . . . . . FIRS] e; 4—Supplement to The Post, Sunday, dlay 12, 1985 THE BIG FIRST "SUNDRY BROW WRAPP WE DON'T CARE IF BUR LOANS FLYAWAY! The BIG FIRST has general aviation loans with rates and terms designed especially for you! Call our Aviation Department today.. Fly away with a BIG FIRS' General Aviation Loan! 0°' FSLIC Insured by the Federal Savings & Loan Insurance Corp. An agency of the U.S. Government IRST FEDERAL SAVINGS OF THE PALM BEACHES 655-8511 Jupiter -Boynton 428-0900 Delray -Boca Cr WEST PALM BEACH Main Office 215 S. Olive Avenue 655-8511 *WESTWARD 2701 Okeechobee Boulevard 683-3133 *SOUTHERN 301 Southern Boulevard 833-5523 flourishes wherein the truth could easily be lost somewhere in the dream of Caribbean breezes, singing their sultry song through the softly swaying coconut palms. Kelsey himself did not completely eschew such flowered elocution, but he also insisted that prospects view his land before signing a contract. In the midst of a land boom, this in itself was commendable. Pragmatism and honesty were not Kelsey's only con- cerns. He also wished that his community be beautiful. In 1922 he sent for his friend and business associate, Samuel Bla- kely of Egypt, Massachusetts to come and assist him with landscaping the city. At the outset, the area was little more than a "barren stretch of sand." The Kelsey City Nursery was originally built to provide ma- terial for landscaping the park and city. Kelsey Park (as it was later named) on U.S. 1 was one of Blakely's first landscape projects in the area. (to be continued) This article is based on doc- uments kept on file at the His- torical Society of Palm Beach County. GOLDEN LAKES 1950 Golden Lakes Boulevard 683-9300 PALM BEACH 165 Bradley Place 655-1485 280 S. County Road 655-6446 *STUART 2285 S.E. Federal Highway 286-7300 *PALM SPRINGS loth Ave. & S. Congress 964-2212 *LAKE WORTH 531 Lucerne Avenue 582-3511 DELRAY BEACH *95 N.E. 5th Avenue 278-6261 *14828 S. Military Trail 498-4447 BOCA RATON 2400 N. Federal Highway 395-6811 *9033 Glades Road 483-5110 For current rates call toll free: Jupiter to Boynton 833-FUND, Delrayto Boca 483-5161 *LAKE PARK 500 Federal Highway 844-6366 *BOYNTON BEACH 280 N. Congress Avenue 737-5777 *JUPITER 825 U.S. Highway One 747-6552 *24-Hour Teller at these locations