The Northwest Historic District is a U.S. historic district in West Palm Beach, Florida on the northwestern side of the downtown area. It was designated a historic district on January 22, 1992. Its first Non-Native American settlements date back to the late 19th Century. After Henry Flagler announced plans to extend the Florida East Coast Railway to Southeastern Florida, blacks from northern Florida, Georgia, and the Bahamas moved to this area in search of work. West Palm Beach became incorporated in 1894, making it the oldest municipality in Palm Beach County.
For many decades, the Northwest neighborhood hosted the local segregated black community that prospered and added their own identity and culture to the city.
The district is bounded by Tamarind Avenue, 11th Street, Rosemary Avenue, and 3rd Street. It contains 316 historic buildings, including churches and houses that represent a variety of styles from the late 19th- and early 20th- century in the South like the Bungalow Craftsman style, the Bahamian Vernacular style, the Shotgun, and American Foursquare style.
The West Palm Beach Community Development Agency has targeted the area, and is restructuring Tamarind Avenue and 7th Streets. They are also restoring the Sunset Lounge, called the "Cotton Club of the South", one of the few remaining venues on the Chitlin' Circuit.
Geography According to the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP)'s definition, the Northwest Historic District is bounded by 2nd Street, 11th Street, Rosemary Avenue, and Tamarind Avenue in West Palm Beach, Florida. Overall, the size of this area is roughly . The city of West Palm Beach defines the district differently, sometimes inverting the boundaries east of Tamarind Avenue and west of Rosemary Avenue, while the north end is located along Fifteenth Street. However, for the purpose of the downtown master plan, this section is known as the Northwest Neighborhood District, which includes all areas from Second Street to Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard and between the CSX Transportation and Florida East Coast railways.
History In 1894, the year that West Palm Beach, Florida, was incorporated as a town, African Americans began being forced out of the Styx, a section of Palm Beach. African Americans began settling in the Northwest Historic District that year. Initially an area west of the Florida East Coast Railway (FEC) that stretched to around First Street (now known as Banyan Street) and Tamarind Avenue, the area soon extended to as far south as Evernia Street and north to Fifth Avenue (present-day Seventh Avenue). Industrial High School opened on Eleventh Street in 1917, at the time the only secondary education facility in the county for African Americans. U. B. Kinsey/Palmview Elementary School of the Arts stands there today.
During the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane, a few churches in the Northwest Historic District suffered significant damage. Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church lost many bricks on its front facade and much of the metal grillwork around the entrances, while the building itself was deroofed. Payne Chapel AME Church, then located at Banyan Boulevard and Tamarind Avenue, was destroyed by the storm. St. Patrick's Catholic Church received about $40,000 in damage. Due to Jim Crow laws, the Northwest Historic District and Pleasant City served as the segregated neighborhoods for African Americans, with a 1929 ordinance officially defining their boundaries. According to the ordinance, the former stretched south to the alleyway between Clematis Street and First Street, north to Twenty-third Street, west to Clear Lake, and east to the FEC.
Notable residents of the Northwest Historic District included Gwen Cherry, the first African American today to serve in the Florida Legislature, and Dr. Alice Mickens, whose home is one of the oldest surviving (built in 1917) in West Palm Beach and served as a guest house and meeting places for some African American civil rights leaders. An individual listing on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP), the Mickens House accommodated guests such as Ralph Bunche, A. Philip Randolph, Mary McLeod Bethune, and Louis Armstrong. Another notable structure is the Sunset Lounge, a Chitlin' Circuit music venue where Armstrong, Count Basie, James Brown, Sam Cooke, and Ella Fitzgerald performed.
A 1951 study by the University of Miami led to additional housing being constructed for African Americans west of the neighborhood in 1957. However, the segregation ordinance was repealed in 1960. On January 22, 1992, the Northwest Historic District was added to the NRHP. About a year later, the city of West Palm Beach listed the neighborhood on its own historic places' registry. Incidents of arson between December 2000 and August 2001 impacted 14 homes in the district, with 11 of those destroyed or damaged beyond repairs. The Palm Beach Post noted that from the 1960s to 2001, fires and code violations led to the demolition of approximately 300 homes, most during the 1990s. In February 2026, a fire that started at 610 Douglass Avenue destroyed three homes. The neighborhood is still predominately African American.
Architecture Several styles of architecture are represented within the Northwest Historic District, including Bungalow Craftsman, Gothic Revival, Frame Vernacular, Masonry Vernacular, Mission Revival, and Romanesque. Additionally, there are some examples of a subtype of Frame Vernacular structures known as shotgun houses. According to Tulie W. Taylor of the Florida Bureau of Historic Preservation noted that, "the shotgun, a one story rectangular, front gabled frame structure with three to four rooms opening off the hall, is reputed to have received its name from the floor plan which features a hallway running the length of the structure with doors to the exterior on either end." Some of the buildings, including some of the churches, were designed by local firm Harvey and Clarke. Hazel Augustus, West Palm Beach's first African American architect, also designed a few of the churches and some homes.
Contributing structures The Historic Old Town Commercial District has 316 structures listed as contributing, including: