Amid the Rubble, The Hermitage is Found

In the ten years since Byrd Spilman Dewey (https://www.byrdspilmandewey.com) was rediscovered as an important author and journalist in early South Florida, I have made it a quest to find the exact locations of all of her homes in Palm Beach County. There was the grand estate Ben Trovato, where the… Continue reading

Boca Raton’s Forgotten Pioneer John Henry Moore

My last blog (click here) chronicled the newly discovered photographs of the Lofthus wreck and how Thomas Moore Rickards removed and transported much of the wood from the shipwreck. But who was the photographer of the revealing photographs? John Henry Moore was born in 1860 in Macoupin County, Illinois, near… Continue reading

Hidden Shipwreck Photos discovered in Local Library Archives

Shipwreck Photo

February 4, 1898 was a stormy evening on the Florida east coast. A large ship, a three-masted barque, is sailing from Pensacola to Buenos Aires with a load of Southern pine. The captain had ventured too close to shore in the feisty storm and the ship hit the reef, just… Continue reading

The Mystery of the Lonely Delray Beekeeper – UPDATE

UPDATE # 1 – March 23, 2018 – See below for new information on the Beekeeper saga. UPDATE # 2 – April 4, 2018 – We have found Elsie! UPDATE # 3 – June 1, 2019 – A new picture of George has been found. As I was searching in… Continue reading

Deliverance – West Palm Beach’s Post Office History

The postal service’s role in our everyday lives has changed so much that it is hard to imagine how important the postal service was to people years ago. With email, digital publications, and online bill pay, we simply do not “get the mail” as we used to. But imagine a small community emerging… Continue reading

What’s in a Name? The Curious Case of Deweese Road

This blog has so many twists and turns it is really difficult to know where to start. While researching how Palm Beach County acquired the land that would become Palm Beach State College, John Prince Park, and Lantana Airport, I found an article that stated the western border of the… Continue reading