Brothels, booze in Banyan Street’s past

 

 

BANYAN STREET   Twenty-five years ago.  West Palm Beach voted to switch the name of First Street back to Banyan, ending 64 years of exile for the city’s most notorious road. From 2002 and 2009:  From 1925 to 1989, it was First Street. Before that, it was Banyan Street. The reason for the change all those years: sin.

 

     Brothels, booze in Banyan Street’s past.   It was renamed First Street from 1925 to 1989, when the original name was restored.In the 1890s, if you wanted whiskey, women or trouble in the fledgling city, Banyan Street was the only place to go.  It was the only street in town where alcohol was permitted — at least officially — and it earned the notorious nickname “Whiskey Street.”

 

     Its saloons, gambling halls and brothels operated around the clock, luring the laborers building the Palm Beach resorts.Post Time:

 

Temptation often crosses class lines. West Palm Beach’s first mayor, John Earman, was nearly booted from office in 1895 when he was charged with being “in a state of intoxication” in the company of a lady of the evening who went by “Specks.” Earman denied the charges and they were dismissed a month later.

 

     In 1904, fed-up local women called in the “Kansas Cyclone”: Carry Nation, the 6-foot-tall, black-clad, Bible-clutching matron of temperance who smashed saloons across America with her holy hatchet.There’s no indication she smashed any bars on Banyan, but the city finally decided in 1925 to change the street’s name to First Street.

 

That backfired when locals began calling it “Thirst Street.”On Nov. 6, 1989, apparently satisfied that time had buried Banyan’s sordid reputation, West Palm Beach restored its name.