Harold Vanderbilt moved from Palm Beach and in 1930 built Eastover, along with its massive sea wall, that still stands today in Manalapan. Photo provided
By John Pacenti
Manalapan is known for waterfront homes, the Eau Palm Beach Resort & Spa and its ability to somehow, some way, maintain a small beachside town feel despite all the luxury.
Manalapan’s place in Palm Beach County history is sacrosanct, pivotal in the development of the Lake Worth area, once infamous for the 1955 murders of Judge Curtis
Chillingworth and his wife, Marjorie, and, of course, its American royal heritage of the Vanderbilt family.
But its ultimate roots lie in New Jersey. There is a town in the Garden State that took the Lenape Indian name of Manalapan, which means either “good land to settle upon,” “good bread” or “covered swamp with edible roots,” depending on the translation. Developers from the town landed in South Florida.
Florida towns named for other places are not unusual. Delray Beach is named after the Detroit neighborhood of Delray. Riviera Beach was named for the famed European vacation spot. Golf, the small village west of Boynton Beach, took its name from Golf, Illinois, home of the Western Golf Association.
On the other hand, Highland Beach shares its name with a Maryland community but it’s a coincidence rather than a historical tie.
Finding the truth about Manalapan’s New Jersey ties takes some sleuthing.
A good place to start is Eliot Kleinberg, the retired Palm Beach Post reporter who is a walking encyclopedia on Florida history — though he modestly says he “just worked the clips.” Asked through text messages if Manalapan was founded by railroad executive Harold Stirling Vanderbilt or the people of New Jersey, he gives a very Kleinberg answer: “Both right.”
Harvey Oyer III’s great-grandparents built the first home in the Manalapan portion of Hypoluxo Island in 1873. Photo provided
The next stop is Harvey Oyer III. He is a fifth-generation Floridian, former chairman of the Historical Society of Palm Beach County, and a man who turned his love of local history into a series of educational children’s books.
“My great-grandparents settled on and owned what was known as Hypoluxo Island, the southern half of which is now part of the town of Manalapan,” Oyer said. “So, we were the first people to ever build a house in what is today Manalapan, and that was in 1873.”
Kleinberg, in a 2021 story for The Coastal Star on the 90th anniversary of Manalapan, said the town started as part of a large coconut grove homesteaded by pioneer George H.K. Charter in 1882. Charter sold his 2½-mile stretch of property for $7,500 to Elnathan Field and a group of investors.
Manalapan stretches for 2.65 miles between the Boynton Inlet and Ocean Avenue and includes the southern third of Hypoluxo Island. Google Map image
And this is where New Jersey enters the picture.
Oyer said the person who knows about the New Jersey connection is real estate agent Michelle Donahue, whose hobby is local history. Oyer couldn’t be more right.
“In about 1892, this guy Field, as well as quite a few other people, created a company known as Hypoluxo Beach Corporation,” Donahue said. Hypoluxo was the original name for Lake Worth.
The group included Field and four others from New Jersey who named the area after Manalapan Township, New Jersey, founded in 1848, Donahue said. They transported lumber by train from the area to Stuart and then by boat from there, she added.
The wood was used to build a fishing hotel and Field’s home, which stood until early 2000 around the properties now at 1780 and 1790 on State Road A1A, Donahue said.
“It is a fascinating connection, I think for them coming down here, naming it Manalapan,” said Donahue, who lives on Hypoluxo Island in Lantana. “And they floated the name Manalapan around because a lot of that area was just more likely to be referred to as either Lantana Beach or Hypoluxo Beach.”
Field’s group called its resort Manalapan Estates, but the name didn’t get formalized until Vanderbilt and his crew took on the name when the town was incorporated in June 1931.
Manalapan Township, New Jersey, could not be more different. It is about 45 miles south-by-southwest of New York City. It is near the Revolutionary War battlefield Monmouth and is known for its rolling hills and suburbs — not multimillion-dollar homes with beachfront views.
Manalapan, New Jersey, has nearly 39,000 residents as opposed to its sister city’s 419, according to the 2020 census. The average home price in Manalapan, New Jersey, was $775,000. In Manalapan, Florida, a 22-acre property was purchased in 2022 by Oracle founder Larry Ellison for $173 million — a state record — and the average value is $4.2 million.
Barry Jacobson is a committeeman in Manalapan, New Jersey, a position akin to a commissioner.
“I heard some people who moved from Manalapan into Palm Beach County and named it after Manalapan, but I don’t know that for a fact that is a fact,” he said.
Asked to describe his town, Jacobson said it’s a pleasant mix of professionals, some who commute to New York City, and there is even still some farmland left from when agriculture was the main industry. One of the highlights of the year is the Feast of San Gennaro festival in September, he said, honoring the patron saint of Naples, Italy.
Donahue said she wished there was more common knowledge of the history of Palm Beach County’s coastline.
“I’m like, why wasn’t there more written about Manalapan and even Hypoluxo Island for that matter?” she said. “And so, I have, over the years, done extensive research, sitting days and hours at the archives, at the Palm Beach historical society and all this, just to make sure I can get the story right so I can share it.”
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