Bringing a 140-Year-Old ‘Jewell’ Back to Life in Bryant Park
City Commissioners on Tuesday will consider adding an open-air framed 'skeleton house' on the park's south end to mark the site of Lake Worth Beach’s earliest settlement.
LONG BEFORE Lake Worth Beach grew into a city of 45,000 residents spanning nearly 7 square miles, it started as a single wooden house and two people.
Fannie and Samuel James, the first recorded settlers within the current city limits, arrived on the south end of present-day Bryant Park in 1885. An African American couple, they established the community known as Jewell.
Samuel, a carpenter, constructed their simple home. In 1889, it started being used as the area’s first Post Office, serving the few households between Lantana and West Palm Beach. Fannie served as postmistress, receiving mail by boat and trains on the newly-opened Florida East Coast Railway.
The old building is long gone. But on Tuesday, a group of volunteers led by the Historical Society of Lake Worth will ask the City Commission to approve a proposal to bring the Post Office and homestead back to life — sort of.
