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NPB Land of RossB*rt's Ey ew N P I.m.. Land Of Ross BY GEOFFREY BMT NORTH PALM BEACH -- This is a city which did not exist eight years ago. It was developed from raw coastal land r by a Vanderbilt, Tenn., graduate who majored in chemistry,' H. A. (Bob) Ross, and his brother Dick. If you are a Scot, you can CAU this the btd of C. Or, county Ross on the Gold Coast.' 1 Eight yean ago, the Palm Beach County Home Builders' Association was chartered. Bob Ross was its first president. fi That was theear 1 y 956 and the year of the county's first Parade of Homes which was staged in North Patin Beach. As we have said, North Palm Beach did not exist in 1956. The 17 home models in that year's Parade, on Anchorage Drive, Just inside the main entrance to the Village -- as it is called alled — were its only homes. l� The parking lot for the parade was the site '#of the present elementary school. The Ross brothers donated the school site -- it would be well if other developers copied this generosity! Subsequently there arose, from Chicago, John D. MacArthur who acquired many of the late Sir Harry's acres in this neck of the former palmetto scrub palm lands. In Sept. 1955 the Ross brothers paid MacArthur $3,700,000 for 1,350 acres of the raw land. They brought in equipment, and pushed and pulled and dug and dredged, drained and installed roads and utilities, till the land was ready for North Palm Beach — and the first Parade of Homes. Since the initial October 1956 Parade of 17 homes through February this year -- seven yearn and four months — building permits show there has been $37,142,856 worth of building construction in the Village. Total number of homes completed in that 88 month period is 1,523. Bob Ross is 46, married with five children. Where's nothing of the promoter or huckster about this chemist from Vandy, He smokes a pipe and is quiet almost to the point of aloofness. In the war he was in the Navy as captain of a minesweeper -- and no one can live much more dangerously than that! Take High Or Low Road His brother, Dick, was always a career man in construction and during the war Uncle Sam kept him on the job (he had also studied architecture at Pratt Institute, N. Y.) . Among his war time duties — helping build airfields in Georgia. He is married and has two children. At war's end, the two brothers teamed and came to Hollywood and Fort Lauderdale, where they met sales knowl- edgable Jack Schwenke, realtor, and the trio have stayed together. °} They all came to the West Palm Beach area in 1950 and built some 2,500 homes in those fast -paced pont-war years. At the decade moved towards the sixtim, Pratt & Whitney ., _..• the. 1� Line - . Ueg2l.h 1L�1i�i[!g �l�iltl'� W aVi,ci.+: l�aaa,.0 Yrs,aa►��. r,ar Highway. The Ross brohers bought the some 12 square mile area from MacArthur. Visitors to this year's exhibition of 22 builders in a dual Parade of Homes therefore, can either take the high road to the partly owned land of Ross, or the low road to their wholly owned North Palm Beach site at Yacht Club Point on the bonnie banks of Lake Worth. Sir Harry's Murder This year's Parade of Homes, which opens April 4, will again be partly in North Palm Beach, on Ross -developed land, and partly in nearby Cabana Colony East, on land in which , the Ross Construction Company has a stake together with investors from Palm Beach and Miami. Bob Ross holds a committee chairmanship in this year's promotion. Builders Henry D. Bogatin — this year's state president of the Florida Home Builders' Association — Robert C. Brown, C. W. Bendall, and Joseph N. Smelcer who all l� had homes in the original 17 unit 1956 Parade of Homes, again have models in this year's Parade. The wheel of history which turns fast in Florida, has, therefore, made a complete turn — so back to the beginning and some facts about the land of Ross. Originally, the area we call today North Palm Beach, was part of the estate of Sir Harry Oakes -- the chap who gained immortality in the annals of British history by being the corpus delicti in a very socialite unsolved murder 'neath a Nassau fitfully moonlit night, some 20 years ago. (Sir Harry's Palm Church home almost adjoined Bethesda -by -the -Sea Episcopal MacArthur From Chicago Subsequently there arose, from Chicago, John D. MacArthur who acquired many of the late Sir Harry's acres in this neck of the former palmetto scrub palm lands. In Sept. 1955 the Ross brothers paid MacArthur $3,700,000 for 1,350 acres of the raw land. They brought in equipment, and pushed and pulled and dug and dredged, drained and installed roads and utilities, till the land was ready for North Palm Beach — and the first Parade of Homes. Since the initial October 1956 Parade of 17 homes through February this year -- seven yearn and four months — building permits show there has been $37,142,856 worth of building construction in the Village. Total number of homes completed in that 88 month period is 1,523. Bob Ross is 46, married with five children. Where's nothing of the promoter or huckster about this chemist from Vandy, He smokes a pipe and is quiet almost to the point of aloofness. In the war he was in the Navy as captain of a minesweeper -- and no one can live much more dangerously than that! Take High Or Low Road His brother, Dick, was always a career man in construction and during the war Uncle Sam kept him on the job (he had also studied architecture at Pratt Institute, N. Y.) . Among his war time duties — helping build airfields in Georgia. He is married and has two children. At war's end, the two brothers teamed and came to Hollywood and Fort Lauderdale, where they met sales knowl- edgable Jack Schwenke, realtor, and the trio have stayed together. °} They all came to the West Palm Beach area in 1950 and built some 2,500 homes in those fast -paced pont-war years. At the decade moved towards the sixtim, Pratt & Whitney ., _..• the. 1� Line - . Ueg2l.h 1L�1i�i[!g �l�iltl'� W aVi,ci.+: l�aaa,.0 Yrs,aa►��. r,ar Highway. The Ross brohers bought the some 12 square mile area from MacArthur. Visitors to this year's exhibition of 22 builders in a dual Parade of Homes therefore, can either take the high road to the partly owned land of Ross, or the low road to their wholly owned North Palm Beach site at Yacht Club Point on the bonnie banks of Lake Worth.