Flowery street names speak volumes in DowntownWPB

Whether I’m driving to work, walking to lunch or taking a run in the morning, I almost always end up on a street named after a flower or decorative plant. Why flowers, I always wonder? So I decided to look into Palm Beach County’s history and found that our street names aren’t just coincidence.

In 1892, Henry M. Flagler (he founded Standard Oil) wanted to turn this area into a resort town. With $45,000, he purchased properties that would become the nucleus of DowntownWPB.

The city was laid out in a gridiron pattern, like most cities, and the streets in the 48-block area were named alphabetically after native plants. Our streets that run east-west streets are (in order from north to south) Clematis, Datura, Evernia, Fern, Gardenia, Hibiscus and Iris. Streets that run north-south are (in order from east to west) Quadrille, Rosemary, Sapodilla and Tamarind.

It was still the Victorian Era when Flagler was creating the city and naming streets. I don’t doubt that Flagler wanted our streets to reflect the beautiful blooms we see throughout Downtown in the spring and summer, but I wonder: Did he also know what those flowers represented to people at the time?

For instance, Hibiscus Street is named after a flower that represented “delicate love” to the people of Flagler’s time. The flower that inspired Gardenia Street meant “secret love.” And the iris – for Iris Street, of course – signified “passion.” What we now know as Second Street originally was Althea Street, named for a flowering bush I really love, the Rose of Sharon. And Highway 1, aka Dixie Highway, started out as Poinsettia Avenue, a flower signifying purity!

Now when I stroll through DowntownWPB on and across these streets, I think of the gorgeous flowers they call to mind as well as their meanings. After all, West Palm Beach is a great place to find love and passion; or, better yet, those of us who live here love and are passionate about DowntownWPB!

So the next time we add new streets, may I suggest naming them Bouvardia Blvd. (“enthusiasm”) and White Acacia Way (“friendship”)? I think those traits, too, are what DowntownWPB is all about.