Phipps Ocean Park, the public beach park on the south end of Palm Beach, has been fenced off since May 1 while crews rebuilt it from the dune line back. It opens again on Thursday, Nov. 19, when the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach holds a ribbon cutting and grand opening at 11 a.m. The ceremony at 2201 South Ocean Boulevard is free and open to the public, with registration through the foundation.

The Town of Palm Beach lists the park as closed through Nov. 18, so the ceremony is also the first day residents get back onto that stretch of beach since spring. Only the racquet center and its parking lot reopened early, for tennis and pickleball players.

A 1948 gift, rebuilt

The Phipps family gave the land to the town in 1948 as a public beach and oceanfront park. The foundation describes the finished design as a park running from the Atlantic Ocean to the Intracoastal Waterway, with 1,200 feet of oceanfront. The foundation funded and developed the project in partnership with the town, through a $30 million fundraising campaign it calls Extraordinary Spaces @Phipps Ocean Park.

According to the town's project page, the work covers five areas:

  • Replanting the park with species historically native to the barrier island, to rebuild its coastal ecosystems
  • Moving and rehabilitating the Little Red Schoolhouse to get it out of the way of flooding
  • A new Coastal Restoration Center, an outdoor classroom, a schoolyard garden and a playground
  • New beach pavilions, lifeguard towers, restrooms and educational walking paths
  • A renovated tennis center with two added pickleball courts

The schoolhouse moved uphill

One piece of the job was relocating a building from 1886. The Little Red Schoolhouse opened that year as a community project and was the first schoolhouse in Southeast Florida; the foundation also calls it the oldest landmark in Palm Beach. Its first seven students were taught by Hattie Gale, the 16-year-old daughter of the Rev. Elbridge Gale, and by the 1890s the single room held 35 children who came by boat, bicycle or on foot.

The school closed in 1901. The building spent years as a tool shed on John S. Phipps's property, was rescued in 1960 by the Gardeners Society of Palm Beach and moved to Phipps Ocean Park, then sat unused until 1990, when the foundation restored it and started its Living History program. That program brings fourth graders from around Palm Beach County in for a day of 1890s school: Spencerian script, McGuffey's Readers, lessons recited aloud, spelling bees and old-fashioned recess games.

Its old spot flooded often. As part of the rebuild, the schoolhouse was moved to higher ground near the dune, where it is better protected from high water and wind, and it is being refurbished. Its new neighbor is the Coastal Restoration Center, a nursery and propagation facility for native plants that the foundation will use to support dune ecosystems inside the park and elsewhere on the island.

What to do once it is open

The foundation already has its first public program scheduled in the new park. On Tuesday, Dec. 1, from 8 to 10 a.m., the Williams/Forsyth Winter BioBlitz invites people of any age or experience to walk the park's dune, coastal strand, maritime hammock, coastal berm and mangrove areas with foundation staff and local experts. Participants log plants, birds and other wildlife on the iNaturalist and eBird apps, and the observations go into global conservation databases and feed the restoration work at the park. It is free; meet at the Phipps Ocean Park Entry Plaza, arrive whenever you like and bring a smartphone.

Courts at the renovated tennis center are booked through the town's Recreation Department on its Play by Point portal. Visits to the Little Red Schoolhouse are by appointment through the foundation, which can be reached at (561) 832-0731.

What: Phipps Ocean Park ribbon cutting and grand opening
When: Thursday, Nov. 19, 11 a.m.
Where: Phipps Ocean Park, 2201 South Ocean Boulevard, Palm Beach
Cost: Free; register with the Preservation Foundation at [email protected] or (561) 832-0731
Next: Winter BioBlitz, Tuesday, Dec. 1, 8 to 10 a.m., free

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