Northwood

The first thing to understand about Northwood is that the name covers several distinct places. Five separate City of West Palm Beach historic districts carry a Northwood name: Old Northwood, Northwood Harbor, West Northwood, Northwood Hills and Northwood Road. Only one of them, Old Northwood, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places — reference number 94000368, certified on 14 April 1994. Northwood Harbor, West Northwood, Northwood Hills and Northwood Road appear nowhere in the National Register dataset. Sources that treat "Northwood" as a single designated neighborhood are conflating five different things, and this guide keeps them apart.

Old Northwood is described in its nomination as a twenty-two block area north of the downtown commercial core, bounded by North Dixie Highway (formerly Palmetto) on the east, Broadway on the west, 26th Street on the south and 35th Street on the north. It lies in ZIP code 33407 and covers approximately 90 acres. The district holds 435 buildings, of which 320 are contributing and 115 non-contributing — a 74% contributing ratio — with a period of significance running from 1921 to 1944 and a significant date of 1921.

Its development was fast and well recorded. In early 1921 the Pinewood Development Company — David F. Dunkle, Orrin Randolph and G. W. Bingham — bought 400 acres from the Lake Worth Realty Company. Clearing began that September, the land was divided to create five lots per acre selling initially at $1,200 each, and by November 1921 some 125 lots had gone. Almost 100 homes stood by September 1924. The company was reformed in 1926 as the Northwood Investment Company with Dunkle as president, though a decline in the real estate market was already evident by August 1925, ending the most active phase. The historic district comprises the first three Northwood plats, filed between November 1921 and April 1923, plus part of the North Palm Beach Plat recorded in 1915. Some of that acreage had been the homestead of the pioneer settler the Reverend Elbridge Gale, who in November 1884 became the first to build a cabin on the west side of Lake Worth and named his 160-acre homestead "Mangonia" — at his request, the lot holding the mango tree he had planted was sold back to him.

Architecturally, Mediterranean Revival is the most prevalent style, with 126 residences exhibiting its features, followed by roughly 50 vernacular houses, nine bungalows and six Colonial Revival residences. Two buildings are one-offs: a single Neoclassical house — the 1922 one-storey stucco residence at 441 26th Street — and a single Art Moderne building, the 1938 Fire Station at 3601 North Dixie Highway, which is also the district’s only non-residential building. Three architects are named on the registration form: John Volk, William Manley King and Theodore Eissfeldt. Volk’s contribution is the most historically notable — in 1925 his Craig-Stevens-Volk Company began five speculative Mediterranean Revival houses at 440, 505, 511, 512 and 516 32nd Street, which the nomination says probably represent his earliest work in Florida. He moved to Palm Beach and opened his own practice two years later.

Old Northwood sits north of the downtown commercial core, bounded by North Dixie Highway on the east, Broadway on the west, 26th Street on the south and 35th Street on the north.

The other City districts sit around it. Working from the City’s own district polygons: Northwood Harbor lies to the north of Old Northwood, Northwood Hills to the west, West Northwood is a small district west of Old Northwood, and Northwood Road is a narrow east–west corridor immediately to the south — that last one being the historic district corresponding to the Northwood Village commercial street.

One caution worth stating plainly: we have not published any claim about Northwood’s proximity to Flagler Drive or the Intracoastal. Old Northwood’s eastern boundary is North Dixie Highway according to the National Park Service, and the frequently repeated line that the neighborhood is "a block from the Intracoastal" is unsourced. A commonly quoted boundary for Northwood Harbor running to Flagler Drive is also inconsistent with the City’s own polygon, which is considerably narrower.

Old Northwood is primarily residential and consists mainly of one- and two-storey single-family residences with outbuildings such as garages and garage/apartments. The majority of the contributing structures were built between 1921 and 1926, and the nomination records that a high degree of integrity has been maintained throughout the neighborhood.

The street and lot pattern is worth understanding before you view anything here, because it explains what you will see. The area was platted as rectangular blocks running east–west with an alley down the middle of each block; each block held nine lots facing north, nine facing south, five facing east and five facing west. Lots were primarily 50 by 125 feet with uniform setbacks of around 20 feet. Those alleyways — running east–west through the blocks and north–south behind the Broadway and North Dixie Highway frontages — are why so many properties carry a garage/apartment, typically with garage space on the ground floor and an apartment above.

City historic designation brings a review process that is broader than many buyers expect. All historically designated properties and those within historic districts undergo review for exterior modifications, including alterations, additions, demolition requests and new construction — and for both contributing and non-contributing properties, all sides of the building are reviewed, not just the street elevation. A Certificate of Appropriateness is required for work changing the exterior; interiors are not reviewed. Generally, additions visible from the front under 10% of the existing footprint, and those not visible from the front under 20%, need only staff-level review, with larger work going to the Historic Preservation Board, which meets on the fourth Tuesday of each month.

Some specifics matter more here than elsewhere. Paint colours are not regulated and landscaping is not reviewed, but site walls, fences, decks, patios, pergolas and sheds are. Vinyl and composite fencing is not permitted in historic districts; wood board, wood picket and aluminium are recommended. Driveways in brick paver, concrete ribbons or poured slab are treated as traditional, while loose gravel or crushed shell is only allowed for side yards beyond the front 25-foot setback. And one rule bites disproportionately in this district: the City states a metal roof is permitted "if the home is a Craftsman, bungalow, or frame vernacular" but "would not work on a midcentury, Ranch, or Spanish Revival (Mission, Mediterranean, or Colonial) style house" — and Mediterranean Revival is the dominant style in Old Northwood. Demolition is generally not supported, especially for contributing properties, and any demolition proposal must be accompanied by plans for compatible new construction.

Two provisions run the owner’s way. The City has operated an Ad Valorem Tax Exemption Program since 14 February 1994 that can exempt up to 100% of the assessed value of improvements — interior or exterior — from renovation, restoration or rehabilitation, for up to ten years against City and County ad valorem taxes, provided the owner applies before starting work. And contributing buildings are exempt from the energy requirements of the Existing Buildings section of the Florida Building Code. Property taxes are otherwise no different inside a historic district than outside it, any legal use permitted under the underlying zoning is still allowed, and there is no obligation to restore a house to its original condition.

On price, we publish nothing for Northwood, because nothing authoritative exists. The Palm Beach County Property Appraiser’s "What We Value" page publishes no market value, median sale price or taxable value figure, and the report it links to was unavailable. No neighborhood-level or ZIP-33407-level dollar figure met the sourcing standard. Christian works from verifiable comparables for the specific house and block, and will show you the source and date behind each figure.

The commercial heart of the area is Northwood Village, on the street the City designates as the Northwood Road historic district. We have kept this section deliberately short: the City’s parks pages were unreachable during research, so no park, waterfront access or cultural venue is listed here rather than published unverified. That is a gap to fill, not an indication that none exist.