West Palm Beach Apartment Reviews

Read West Palm Beach apartment reviews. Renters share their first hand experiences from living in apartments you want to know about. These apartment reviews help you choose wisely before you rent.

West Palm Beach Information

The Coast Guard set up observation towers every 3 miles, at place like the Lake Worth Casino. Anyone crossing the bridges to Palm Beach encountered an armed sentry who shined his flashlight, demanded identification and sometimes searched cars. To get across, residents had to be fingerprinted and photographed for an I.D. card.

How simple it all seemed. But life in West Palm Beach wasn't really so uncomplicated. In the late '60s and the 70s, the city changed from a small town centered around downtown to a sprawling metropolis - with a host of new urban problems. Though the city's second boom had begun in the '50s, the city's new identity didn't emerge until a decade later. It was tied dramatically to one developer: Louis Perini.

Perini developed miles of swampland west of downtown, and by 1970, Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard and the Palm Beach mall were challenging Clematis Street for shopping supremacy. When Interstate 95 was built - conveniently right through Perini's property - West Palm Beach was changed forever. Big industry - Pratt & Whitney, IBM, RCA and others - helped put the city on the map. But now the focus was on the whole of Palm Beach County, not just West Palm Beach The city was loving its position as the county's hub and heart.

And so many other things were changing.Integration brought the end of Palm Beach and Roosevelt high schools and the beginning of a new high school, Twin Lakes.

The Vietnam War prompted young people to protest the conflict - and proclaim peace and free love. The Palm Beach International Raceway hosted a music festival to rival Woodstock. And soon, the last bastions of the carefree days - The Hut and the Campus Shop - would serve their final meals.