Palm Beach Gardens Florida Information

On March 20, 1959, John D. MacArthur , multimillionaire insurance magnate and landowner, announced his plan to develop approximately 4,000 acres and provide homes for 55,000 people in a new community. This land would be developed under his careful supervision. Mr. MacArthur 's chosen name for the city was Palm Beach City. However, permission to use that name was denied, so MacArthur , in keeping with his "garden city" plan, decided to call the city Palm Beach Gardens. He wanted this new city to be a place to raise a family and make a living, to realize the American dream. With this in mind, he set to work carving the City of Palm Beach Gardens from empty miles of dairy cattle grazing land.

MacArthur envisioned the city streets lined with trees and flowers. Millions of dollars were wisely invested by MacArthur to create a Florida community with hundreds of waterways, rolling terrain, magnificent mature pine and shade trees, and rich foliage. Because Mr. MacArthur was a lover of trees and Mother Nature, he instructed that city streets and construction go around trees that had been growing there for many years. This made for an expensive proposition but he wanted to build a city that was entirely new and unblemished.