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The History of Palms West

According to a memorial by the lake, over 1,600 pioneers died in the floods, but that number is considered conservative. In Loxahatchee Groves, 32 miles east of the lake, the storm caused severe damage, tearing up homes and a toll road.

It didn't leave but two houses on the block.
--Sam Allen

Those were the Nielson and Thorgeson homes. The rest were knocked off their foundations, and doors and windows were broken. The houses were set back on their foundations and repaired.
--Ellie Hope, Loxahatchee Groves - Up to Now

Canal construction continued, in part to provide drainage for floodwaters. Irrigation methods improved and water was back-pumped from canals into the groves. Tomato and citrus crops were shipped north by rail from West Palm Beach. Large cattle ranches were established west of Loxahatchee. The new schoolhouse was built, with 13 students in primary grades sharing one large room. Black families lived in the area, but, since this was pre-integration, sent their children to a separate school. All students had to travel to West Palm Beach to attend high school.

I was a teenager, just entering Palm Beach High School. We were picked up by bus and taken to State Road 7 and Southern Boulevard, to wait for another bus. It was a long day, made up of bumpy dirt roads, irregular bus schedules, and of course, no air conditioning.
--Jeanne Bensel Hinz, Memories of Loxahatchee Groves, 85th Anniversary

In the 1940s, electricity came to parts of the groves, making life easier, at least for some residents. Social activities were often religion-related. Many families attended Westside Baptist Church, in West Palm Beach. Children were bussed to Sunday school for morning and evening sessions. Some of the roads in the groves were not bus-worthy, so at night, the driver helped to guide the children safely home.

Virginia Yearty's father drove the Westside Sunday School bus. He would shine the bus lights up the road while three or four youngsters would scamper the few hundred feet to their homes.
--Ellie Hope

You could hear the panthers howl.
--Virgina Yearty, Loxahatchee Groves - Up to Now

The settlers wanted a church in the groves. George Bensel donated land and $3,000 to build the church and local people gave what they could. The Southern Baptist Association contributed $1,000. After years of planning and many hours of donated labor, people from the groves attended the opening service of Loxahatchee Baptist Church on Thanksgiving Day, 1949.

Signs that life was about to change began during the 1950s, when a grocery store, the Orange Blossom Restaurant, a Standard Oil filling station and a new post office opened in the groves. MacArthur Dairy, who employed residents of the groves,

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