 |
LaFrance Hotel is a historic African American hotel that was opened in 1949 in Delray Beach, Florida.
| |
LaFrance Hotel is a historic African American hotel that was opened in 1949 in Delray Beach, Florida.
The LaFrance Hotel is an historic African American hotel that was founded and owned by an African American man named Charlie Patrick.
The LaFrance is located in Delray Beach, Florida in the historic West Settlers neighborhood which is an African-American neighborhood. It was the first black owned hotel located between Delray Beach and Fort Lauderdale in 1949.
During the era of legal segregation in America, the LaFrance provided much needed accommodations for African American travelers. Many of those hotel patrons were African Americans who worked seasonally in the Delray Beach area as maids, butlers, chauffeurs and waiters for the well-to-do seasonal white residents.
The LaFrance was named after the wife of Charlie Patrick whose name was Francenia Patrick. Charlie Patrick became very wealthy investing in real estate and he and his wife were among the black high society of the Delray Beach area.
The LaFrance hotel no longer operates as a hotel but is now a newly remodeled apartment complex for senior citizens.
Boca Raton is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The population was 97,422 in the 2020 census and it ranked as the 23rd-largest city in Florida in 2022. However, many people with a Boca Raton postal address live outside of municipal boundaries, such as in West Boca Raton. As a business center, the city also experiences significant daytime population increases. A part of South Florida, Boca Raton is 45 miles (72 km) north of Miami and is a principal city of the Miami metropolitan area, which had a population of 6,012,331 as of 2015.
Hendry County is a county in the Florida Heartland region of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 39,619, down from 42,022 at the 2010 census. Its county seat is LaBelle.
Palm Beach County is a county in the southeastern part of Florida, located in the Miami metropolitan area. It is Florida's third-most populous county after Miami-Dade County and Broward County and the 26th-most populous in the United States, with 1,492,191 residents as of the 2020 census. Its county seat and largest city is West Palm Beach, which had a population of 117,415 as of 2020. Named after one of its oldest settlements, Palm Beach, the county was established in 1909, after being split from Dade County. The county's modern-day boundaries were established in 1963.
Boynton Beach is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It is situated about 57 miles (92 km) north of Miami. The 2020 census recorded a population of 80,380. Boynton Beach is a principal city of the Miami metropolitan area, which was home to 6,138,333 people at the 2020 census. The city is named after Nathan Boynton, a Civil War major and Michigan politician who became one of the first settlers in the area in 1895. Boynton Beach is located north of Delray Beach, south of Hypoluxo and Lantana, and east of Golf, while the municipalities of Briny Breezes, Gulf Stream, Manalapan, and Ocean Ridge are situated to the east across the Intracoastal Waterway.
Gulf Stream is a town in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It is part of South Florida's Miami metropolitan area. The population of the town was at 954 as of the 2020 US Census.
Lake Worth Beach, previously named Lake Worth, is a city in east-central Palm Beach County, Florida, United States, located about 64 miles (103 km) north of Miami. The city's name is derived from the body of water along its eastern border known as the Lake Worth Lagoon, which was named for General William J. Worth, who led United States Army forces during the last part of the Second Seminole War. Lake Worth Beach is situated south of West Palm Beach, southeast of Lake Clarke Shores, east of Palm Springs, and north of Lantana, while a small section of the city also partitions the town of Palm Beach. The 2010 census recorded a population of 34,910, which increased to 42,219 in the 2020 census. Lake Worth Beach is within the Miami metropolitan area, which was home to an estimated 6,138,333 people in 2020.
West Palm Beach is a city in and the county seat of Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It is located immediately to the west of the adjacent Palm Beach, which is situated on a barrier island across the Lake Worth Lagoon.
Seatack, Virginia is a historic neighborhood and community borough of Virginia Beach, Virginia that was located in what used to be Princess Anne County, and is now part of the Oceanfront resort strip and adjacent area of the independent city of Virginia Beach. The Seatack community of Virginia Beach includes an area inland from the resort strip along present-day Virginia Beach Boulevard. Seatack Elementary School is located nearby on Birdneck Road. The 1903 Seatack Station of the United States Lifesaving Service is now the Virginia Beach Surf & Rescue Museum at 24th street adjacent to the oceanfront boardwalk.
Pleasant City is a neighborhood in West Palm Beach, Florida north of 15th Street, and east of Dunbar Village and the Florida East Coast Railway. Established in 1905 and incorporated into the city limits in 1912, it was developed for African-American workers who were employed at area hotels and other businesses.
The Delray Beach Seaboard Air Line Railway Station is a historic Seaboard Air Line Railway depot in Delray Beach, Florida, United States. The station is located at 1525 West Atlantic Avenue.
The 1949 Florida hurricane, also known as the Delray Beach hurricane, caused significant damage in the southern portions of the state late in the month of August. The second recorded tropical cyclone of the annual hurricane season, the system originated from a tropical wave near the northern Leeward Islands on August 23. Already a tropical storm upon initial observations, the cyclone curved west-northwestward and intensified, becoming a hurricane on August 25. Rapid intensification ensued as the storm approached the central Bahamas early on August 26, with the storm reaching Category 4 hurricane strength later that day and peaking with maximum sustained winds of 130 mph (210 km/h) shortly after striking Andros. Late on August 26, the storm made landfall near Lake Worth, Florida, at the same intensity. The cyclone initially weakened quickly after moving inland, falling to Category 1 status early the next day. Shortly thereafter, the system curved northward over the Nature Coast and entered Georgia on August 28, where it weakened to a tropical storm. The storm then accelerated northeastward and became extratropical over New England by August 29. The remnants traversed Atlantic Canada and much of the Atlantic Ocean before dissipating near Ireland on September 1.
Delray Beach is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The population of Delray Beach as of April 1, 2020 was 66,846 according to the 2020 United States Census. Located 52 miles north of Miami, Delray Beach is in the Miami metropolitan area.
Harvey and Clarke was an American architectural firm formed by Henry Stephen Harvey and L. Philips Clarke in West Palm Beach, Florida, in 1921. The firm was active in South Florida for only a few years, but in that time designed a number of distinctive homes, apartments, churches, and commercial buildings. Harvey was a member of the West Palm Beach Planning Commission. Firm member Gustav Maass designed several railroad stations, and became a noted South Florida architect in his own right.
Lillie Pierce Voss was an early South Florida pioneer, inducted into the Florida Women's Hall of Fame by the Florida Commission on the Status of Women in 2012/13.
Spady Cultural Heritage Museum is a museum of African-American history in Delray Beach, Palm Beach County, Florida. It is housed in the former home of the late Solomon David Spady, a prominent African-American educator and community leader in Delray Beach from 1922 to 1957. The museum opened in July 2001 and is funded by the Delray Beach Community Redevelopment Agency, Cultural Council of Palm Beach County, and the State of Florida. The museum is located at 170 NW Fifth Avenue in the historic West Settlers District of Delray Beach.
Isiah C. Smith (1922–2012) was a judge and civil rights attorney. He was Palm Beach County, Florida's third black lawyer. He and William Holland, Palm Beach County's first black attorney, fought successfully to integrate the county's schools, golf courses, department stores, airport taxi service, and the Florida Turnpike's restaurants and bathrooms through lawsuits and negotiations in the mid-1950s. While working with Holland at their practice, Smith also served part-time as Delray Beach City Prosecutor from 1970 to 1977. In 1986, he was appointed by Governor Bob Graham to become a circuit judge for Palm Beach County. He stepped down in 1992, having reached the age of 70, the mandatory retirement age in Florida for jurists.
The Village Beat is the second African-American newspaper in Palm Beach County, Florida, but the first African-American newspaper to cover news county-wide.
Palm Beach County is a county in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Florida. Its history dates back to about 12,000 years ago, shortly after when Native Americans migrated into Florida. Juan Ponce de León became the first European in the area, landing at the Jupiter Inlet in 1513. Diseases from Europe, enslavement, and warfare significantly diminished the indigenous population of Florida over the next few centuries. During the Second Seminole War, the Battles of the Loxahatchee occurred west of modern-day Jupiter in 1838. The Jupiter Lighthouse, the county's oldest surviving structure, was completed in 1860. The first homestead claims were filed around Lake Worth in 1873. The county's first hotel, schoolhouse, and railway, the Celestial Railroad, began operating in the 1880s, while the first settlers of modern-day Lake Worth Beach arrived in 1885. During the 1890s, Henry Flagler and his workers constructed the Royal Poinciana Hotel and The Breakers in Palm Beach and extended the Florida East Coast Railway southward to the area. They also developed a separate city for hotel workers, which in 1894 became West Palm Beach, the county's oldest incorporated municipality. Major Nathan Boynton, Congressman William S. Linton, and railroad surveyor Thomas Rickards also arrived in the 1890s and developed communities that became Boynton Beach, Delray Beach, and Boca Raton, respectively.
St. Paul African Methodist Episcopal Church, 3345 North Haverhill Road, West Palm Beach, Florida, is a historic church, founded in 1900 by Rev. Charles Long, Sr. It was founded when African-American families were "forced to move" from Palm Beach. Its first name was Gethsemane, and it was first located in the Pleasant City neighborhood.
The Colony Hotel & Cabaña Club, in Delray Beach, Florida, is a Spanish Colonial Revival-style hotel dating from 1926, plus a separate beach-side recreation area with pool and cabañas. The hotel features Florida Mediterranean architecture in a three-story building with two domed towers. It has been described as "the best known landmark" in Delray Beach.