North Palm Beach

The Village of North Palm Beach is located on the sunny east coast of Florida, 9 miles north of West Palm Beach in Palm Beach County. The Village is a residential community with a population of 12,582 and has won an award from the National Association of Home Builders as best planned community of 1956, and is home to a Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course.

With such assets as warm weather, sunshine, golf, ocean fishing, boating, sandy beaches and balmy breezes. The Village has much to offer enthusiastic people who are raising families or are looking to retire. The Village features several beautiful parks, such as Anchorage Park, with playgrounds, docks, volleyball courts, tennis courts and even a dog park. The Village is also home for the North Palm Beach Country Club, featuring an Olympic swimming pool, A Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course, and a full featured Tennis Facility with Har Tru courts.

In 1954 for $5.5 million John D. MacArthur bought 2,600 acres of land in northern Palm Beach County that was previously owned by Harry Seymour Kelsey and later by Sir Harry Oakes. The land included most of today's North Palm Beach. MacArthur then began developing what is now North Palm Beach, which sat on former mangrove swamps and farm land. The area was punctuated only by Monet Road and Johnson Dairy Road to the north and south and US 1 and Prosperity Farms Road to the east and west.

Major development and incorporation as a village occurred in 1956, with extensive dredging creating waterfront cul-de-sacs, and the development of a new east-west artery, Lighthouse Drive, connecting Old Dixie Highway and the newly aligned US 1. US 1 was widened and became the main office and civic corridor. Sir Harry Oakes' castle-like home on US 1 became the clubhouse for the village golf course.

Lake Park West Road was also extended from Old Dixie Highway to US-1 and was renamed Northlake Boulevard, becoming the village's main commercial corridor. Twin City Mall, an enclosed shopping center, opened in 1970 at the corner of Northlake Boulevard and US-1 as Palm Beach County's second enclosed shopping mall. This Mall built onto the previous grocery store/strip mall completed in 1959. The mall contained a Sears, Jeffersons and GC Murphy's department stores, as well as the locally popular Karmelcorn and Orange Bowl eateries. The mall also sported one of the few movie theaters in the vicinity. The enclosed mall was demolished in the mid-1990s and has gradually been replaced by a mid-sized strip mall anchored by Publix. The village has maintained relative prosperity due to the many waterfront homes with Atlantic Ocean access as well as the overall jump in development in northern Palm Beach County in the last 10 years.

In 2006, village resident Jack Nicklaus redesigned the town's golf course and it reopened in late 2006 to rave reviews. Nicklaus charged the Village of North Palm Beach $1 for his services.

* John D. MacArthur Beach State Park is located nearby.

Notable residents, past and present

* Jeff Atwater State Senator; 25th district

* Gene Bates Notable Golf Course Architect with Fred Couples (PGA Golfer)

* Gardner Dickinson PGA golfer

* Mike Douglas Famous American entertainer

* Ryan Klesko Retired Major League Baseball first baseman

* Jack Nicklaus Golf legend and course architect

* Sir Harry Oakes, early developer of the area

* Gary Wiren PGA Hall of Famer; famous golf instructor and collector