Redefining Space: 1930s
The 1929 Plan of Palm Beach, prepared by the Garden Club of Palm Beach and approved by the Town Council, provides insight into how the Town made plans for its increasing population and businesses. The Plan correlated with the City Beautiful movement — one of the most important movements in American landscape architecture — it promoted the construction of public parks for improved public health and prestige. The Palm Beach Plan featured beautified streetscapes, a public bathhouse, and a botanical garden.
Overall, Palm Beach landscapes in the 1930s were distinctly formal and ornamental in design, often showcasing tropical or rare plants which could not be grown anywhere else in the United States. As opposed to the 1920s, the objective of many landscape designs throughout Palm Beach in the 1930s seems to have been one of experimentation and cultivation, and often for the purpose of greater public enjoyment.
Dedicated in 1929, the Memorial Fountain, designed by Addison Mizner, was surrounded by a formal public garden. It was designed by Charles Perrochet, a landscape architect who also worked for the Island Landscape Company and was a member of the Art Jury—which formed as a local commission in 1929 to approve building designs.
“Nowhere in Palm Beach are there such extensive gardens.”
- John L. Volk
