In 1913, a Methodist minister and college professor was on his way to South Florida. Reverend Dr. John P. Morley of Indianola, Iowa, led a contingent who were searching for a site for a new Methodist liberal arts college in Florida. Morley taught several subjects at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa. The Lake Worth Herald first wrote of the story on November 20, 1913, that Dr. Morley was headed to Lake Worth with Rev. Homer P. Dudley of Des Moines, Iowa. The formal announcement was made December 25, 1913, in the Lake Worth Herald: “Growing Young City of Lake Worth Gets Great College.”
City residents gathered at the public clubhouse to hear the news. It would be the first liberal arts college south of Winter Park and the first in South Florida, more than a decade before the University of Miami would be founded in 1925. At the meeting, several residents spoke in favor of the college, and a board of trustees was formed, headed by Dr. Morley, with the mayor of Lake Worth, J. W. Means, and Rev. Dudley. The building of a college would be another booster for the fledgling city of Lake Worth, which had been carved from scrubland to the east and swamps to the west by the Palm Beach Farms Company.
Morley spent the summer of 1914 in Lake Worth with his family, scouting land for the college. The July 2, 1914, Lake Worth Herald announced “Men Begin Clearing Lands for the College.” The article called the tract of land “Lucerne Heights” and stated it was 160 acres in the northern part of Lake Worth. Based on the description, this was the land that today is between 15th Avenue North and 19th Avenue North, from Dixie Highway to “A” Street. It was pine scrub, white sugar sand dotted with sand pines, palmettos, and rolling hills. They also announced the name: Royal Palm College. The campus would have a grand 90-foot-wide entrance boulevard from Dixie Highway. There was talk of spending $50,000 just to beautify the property.
But by August, problems arose in the site they had originally selected for the college. Just as they were to sign the contract with Lyman and Geer (presumably from the pioneer Lyman and Geer families), the deal was off, according to the August 20, 1914, Lake Worth Herald. The trustees felt that the land and vicinity would be affected by the opening of the Palm Beach Canal that separates Lake Worth and West Palm Beach. Excavators were preparing to begin work, and the trustees sensed that the area would be overtaken by warehouses because a large port and train depot were planned. The canal was dug, but no port or train depot ever emerged. The land was later subdivided as “Lake Worth Heights” and became a residential and commercial area.
Another person offered land near the original site: “Mrs. [Fannie] James, former owner of the townsite of Lake Worth, has been much interested in the college and came forward with a generous offer of a location in Lake Worth.” (Lake Worth Herald, August 20, 1914, page 4). Fannie James and her husband Samuel James were the first settlers in what would become Lake Worth, claiming federal homestead land in two locations in the 1800s. Later, Fannie James bought 41 acres from Stephans estate at the north end of Lake Worth (Pioneers of Jewel, Ted Brownstein, 2013). This is the land Fannie James offered for the college, but it was deemed too small. The land was sold after her death in 1915 and became part of the College Park subdivision. Whether this explains the name “College Park” is unknown.
Dr. Morley proposed a new site for the college near Lake Osborne, on land that belonged to Mayor J. W. Means, one of the college trustees. He called it “Mean’s island,” but it wasn’t an island in the true sense. It did contain a high perch on the lake, a point with 35 feet of elevation above Lake Osborne. It was called “Sunset Park” in the newspaper article and was located at the end of the 6th Avenue South extension. I knew exactly where it was, because I grew up in that area.
Now they proposed naming the college Wesleyan College of Florida. The trustees filed a notice of incorporation, which was published in the Lake Worth Herald. “The question will be asked, ‘how soon will the college be built and open its doors to students?’ Manifestly it is impossible to set a date, but it cannot be in the immediate future. An eggplant or a squash may grow in a few weeks, but for the towering palm tree many years are required.” (Lake Worth Herald, August 20, 1914, page 4). On October 8, 1914, a Lake Worth Herald article stated, “College deal completed” and that surveying and platting of the land had started on the “Lake Worth College.”
After that, the college simply disappeared from the newspaper, and from reality, as many grand plans did at that time. Perhaps fundraising didn’t go well, or they just gave up on the idea. J. W. Means then subdivided the land as “Sunset Park” on October 16, 1916. There is no area on the plat designating a college or a reserve for one.
D. W. Boydston, an Iowa jeweler, bought large tracts and lots in the Sunset Park subdivision. He built his home on the highest point. The main road, Sunset Avenue (now Sunset Drive), meanders through the subdivision from 6th Avenue South. Boydston had extensive groves on the land of mango and grapefruit, and a few mango trees remain. Boydston’s house still stands, long abandoned and landlocked. Ten years ago, developers slated the land for townhouses that, like the college, never materialized.
I lived in that neighborhood off of Sunset Avenue in my teenage years. Most of the houses had been built in the 1950s and 1960s. When digging in the yard, we would sometimes hit old rotted mango roots, the only evidence that something had been there before. At that time someone was living in the old Boydston house, but we never entered the property. The proverbial “neighborhood recluse” lived there and would yell at anybody who entered the gate.
Decades would pass before Lake Worth would have a college. Palm Beach Junior College finally had its own campus, opening in 1957, about a mile west on 6th Avenue from Sunset Park. The county donated the land for the 115-acre campus that had been part of John Prince Park. The now Palm Beach State College continues to expand on the site.
Dr. Morley was wise to know Palm Beach County needed higher education. He was just a little too early. Morley ended up raising millions of dollars for California colleges. He passed away in 1964 at the age of 96.
