Louis Semple Clarke - West Palm Beach

West Palm Beach

Charles John Clarke (1833-1899) was one of the pioneers of Palm Beach, where he established a winter residence in the early ‘80s. Louis’s father may have been a winter visitor to the Lake Worth area as early as 1885 when he appeared in a photo with hunting and fishing party near Jupiter lighthouse. He was from Pittsburgh, where he operated a fleet of boats providing transportation between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh with his partner and brother-in-law, William Thaw. Charles liked the area so much from his first visit that he and Louisa spent the winter of 1890 - 1891 at Elijah N. Dimick’s “Cocoanut Grove House” Palm Beach’s only hotel at the time. The following winter, Clarke bought the hotel along with about 50 acres (200,000 m2) of land from the Lake Trail to the ocean beach. He also bought 10 acres (40,000 m2) more on the South Lake Trail, where the Society of the Four Arts stands today. This estate he named “Primavera,” (Springtime). He then had constructed Palm Beach’s first non-wooden residence, the first to have a genuine tile roof instead of wooden shingles, with white stucco outer walls instead of the usual shingles or clapboard. When the house was completed and landscaped at No. 8 South Lake Trail, he and Louisa moved in.

Louis also bought property in Palm Beach in 1892. Located on his father’s estate, he named it “Dulciora", located on Lake Trail South, which is one of the most attractive estates at Palm Beach. His kept his summer home in Haverford, Pennsylvania. Additionally, his brother’s Thomas Shields Clarke a famous artist of the time, John and James also purchased property and helped to establish the new community of West Palm Beach where they entertained their affluent friends from Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. By the 1920s West Palm had become the oasis of the East for the wealthy including the Kennedy’s. Louis had two children, Winifred and L. Phillips. Winifred, married a West Palm Beach pioneer, Roscoe Tait Anthony and is credited with having started the first Sunday School in Palm Beach and L. Phillips Clarke was an architect and with his partner, Henry Stephen Harvey, they opened a West Palm Beach office in 1921 and designed many of the buildings in Palm Beach and West Palm Beach including the Comeau Building, the Murray Building, Guaranty Building, Gus’ Baths, Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, and the Palm Beach County Library all of which represent the style of an aspiring time and most are on the national register for Spanish Colonial/Mission Revival design.