What to See in West Palm Beach - Top Sights and Attractions

Resort in Palm Beach, Florida. Mar-a-Lago is a resort and national historic landmark in Palm Beach, Florida, built from 1924 to 1927 by cereal-company heiress and socialite Marjorie Merriweather Post. The 126-room, 62,500-square-foot mansion since 1994 contains the Mar-a-Lago Club, a members-only club with guest rooms, a spa, and other hotel-style amenities. It is located in Palm Beach County on the Palm Beach barrier island, with the Atlantic Ocean to the east and Florida's Intracoastal Waterway to the west.

At the time of her death in 1973, Post bequeathed the property to the National Park Service, hoping it could be used for state visits or as a Winter White House, but because the costs of maintaining the property exceeded the funds provided by Post, and because it was difficult to secure the facility (as it is located in the flight path of Palm Beach Airport), the property was returned to the Post Foundation by an act of Congress in 1981.

In 1985, Mar-a-Lago was purchased by Donald J. Trump for around $10 million. He used the mansion as a residence for eight years, before converting it into the Mar-a-Lago Club. His family maintains private quarters in a separate, closed-off area of the house and grounds. Trump frequently visited there during his tenure as president of the United States, referring to it as the Winter White House and his "Southern White House". After Trump became president in January 2017, Mar-a-Lago was used to host meetings for international leaders, including Japanese prime minister Shinzō Abe and Chinese president Xi Jinping. In September 2019, Mar-a-Lago became the primary residence for Donald and Melania Trump, who previously held primary residence in New York City, in spite of a legal agreement Trump signed in 1993 that converted the estate from a private residence to a private club.

It is the second-largest mansion in the state of Florida (after Versailles in Windermere) and the 20th largest mansion in the United States. In 2018, Forbes estimated the value of the estate at around $160 million, having appreciated since Trump's purchase.^[2]

Community-based organization. The Cox Science Center and Aquarium is located in West Palm Beach, Florida. Founded in 1959, the goal of the organization is to open every mind to science through the strategic programming of interactive exhibits and engaging community-based camps and events. The Cox Center has expanded since its creation and now houses over 50 hands-on exhibits, a planetarium, a 3000 square foot aquarium, a miniature golf course, and a large exhibit space that displays a temporary travelling exhibit. The Cox Center is a member of the Association of Science-Technology Centers program, which offers a membership that is redeemable at other ASTC science and technology centers around the world. The Cox Center occupies Dreher Park alongside the Palm Beach Zoo and offers deals for entrance to both facilities.

The museum was previously known as the South Florida Science Center and Aquarium.^[5]

State park in Palm Beach County, Florida. John D. MacArthur Beach State Park, named for John D. MacArthur whose Foundation donated a portion of the land for its construction in the 1970s, is located on and just north of Singer Island, Florida in North Palm Beach, Florida. The park was first opened to the public in 1989. It covers 438 acres on land and underwater, including an Estuary crossed by a 1,600-foot boardwalk, and Munyon Island, a wilderness isle in the Intracoastal Waterway that was home to the lavish Hygeia Hotel at the turn of the Twentieth century. The hotel burned to the ground in 1917. Hiking trails and pavilions are open for public use on Munyon Island, which is accessible only by kayak or boat.

One section of the park was popularly known as Air Force Beach from the early 1940s until the renaming of the park because it was used by Palm Beach Air Force Base personnel. Nude bathing officially ended with the state's takeover of the park in 1982.

MacArthur Beach is a nesting ground for rare sea turtles, including the threatened loggerhead, the endangered green sea turtle, and occasionally the rare leatherback. Many species of birds also visit the park, including peregrine falcons, wood storks, and least terns. In addition to state funds and gate fees, the park receives community support through a local organization, Friends of MacArthur Beach State Park.

The William T. Kirby Nature Center features exhibits about the park's natural history, and includes live animal exhibits such as two loggerhead sea turtles.

Beach Outfitters Gift Shop and Kayak Rentals, operated by Friends of MacArthur Beach State Park, offers a variety of gifts and provides rentals of kayaks, dive flags, lockers and binoculars.^[7]

The Via Mizner is a historic site in Palm Beach, Florida. It is located at 337–339 Worth Avenue. On April 1, 1993, it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

A “via” is derived from the Latin word meaning “way” or “path” and is defined by the World English Dictionary as a “way, road, channel, course of uncertain origin.”

Via Mizner meanders approximately 85 yards (78 m) and connects Palm Beach's premier shopping street, Worth Avenue, to Peruvian Avenue, one city block to the north. The Via was created by the eccentric, visionary architect, Addison Mizner in 1923 after he had completed the Everglades Club (1918), his first major project in Palm Beach, Florida. Via Mizner is located across Worth Avenue from the-still exclusive club. Caroline Seebohm, author of Boca Rococo, How Addison Mizner Invented Florida's Gold Coast, explains a via as follows: "Medieval Spanish castles had contained within their fortified walls what might be called 'inner cities,' where the soldiers and castle employees lived and worked. These walled urban areas were later transformed into commercial spaces." Addison Mizner added: "They (the commercial spaces) usually faced on small winding streets and were entirely open to the people who traversed the narrow pathways."

It was in this spirit that Mizner set out to create Via Mizner. The result is a European-type, pedestrian village with complex, charming and irregular buildings that house shops, offices and residences. Via Mizner (and adjacent Via Parigi) is an interesting combination of Mediterranean Revival and Spanish Colonial Revival architecture mixed with a touch of old Venice, adapted to South Florida's tropical climate. The roofs are terracotta barrel tiles while the white stucco walls are punctuated with numerous, irregular shaped windows, wooden balconies, pecky-cypress accents and balustrades, many with decorative ironwork details. The staircases leading up to the residential units have risers made of colorful ceramic tiles while occasional palm trees reminds us of the tropical setting.

In a pre-mall era, Via Mizner became a unique experience in America, where one could get fresh air while walking and shopping in small stores and galleries that were welcoming in a non-commercial atmosphere.

Via Mizner's combination of architectural styles and decorative detail quickly became Palm Beach's signature look. As the decades passed, countless architects, city planners and designers have copied Mizner's unique design, which can be identified throughout Florida today.

Via Mizner houses twenty well-known shops and businesses as well as a small number of residential apartments. The most famed address is 1, Via Mizner, the architect's own majestic, five-story, tower-like residence called Villa Mizner. The history of this residence is chronicled in Richard René Silvin's book Villa Mizner: The House that Changed Palm Beach (2014). The architect designed the top floor as a single room, which he used as his office. Sixteen windows span the four sides of his office-floor and overlook the entire island of Palm Beach. Mizner's pet monkey, Johnny Brown, is buried at the foot of the home's 35-by-40 foot living room.

Via Mizner remains today exactly as Addison Mizner envisioned it to be.^[17]