The oldest landmark in Palm Beach had a drainage problem. The Little Red Schoolhouse held its first school day in 1886, and its first teacher was Hattie Gale. Since the Preservation Foundation restored it in 1990, it has spent decades on a spot in Phipps Ocean Park that, as Gold Coast Wave reported, flooded too often. As part of the rebuild, the schoolhouse was refurbished and moved to higher ground near the dune. Its new neighbor is the park's newest structure, a nursery built to grow native plants for dunes.
That move sums up the project. Phipps Ocean Park, at 2185 South Ocean Boulevard, north of the Atriums, is reopening with a shoreline that both shows and supplies the plants that hold sand on the South End. The Town of Palm Beach and the Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach have scheduled the ribbon-cutting for Thursday, November 19, at 10:30 a.m.
A 1948 Gift That Spent Years as a Place to Park
The Phipps family gave this land to the public in 1948. It is shaped unlike anything else on an island of mostly private shoreline. According to the Preservation Foundation, the park runs from the Atlantic all the way across to the Intracoastal Waterway and includes about 1,200 feet of oceanfront. The Town owns the land. The Foundation paid for and led the remake in partnership with the Town.
The Foundation has been open about why it took on the project. Its own page calls Phipps a "long-underutilized space." In Gold Coast Wave's summary, the goal was a beach and park for everyone rather than a parking lot with sand at the end of it. The park closed for construction on May 1, 2025, and the Town's estimated schedule kept it closed through November 18, 2026.
On the Foundation's project page, Chairman Betsy Shiverick describes the work this way:
"We're proud to help bring the Phipps family's vision to life, this project celebrates Palm Beach's natural heritage and creates exciting opportunities for outdoor learning and leisure."
"Natural heritage" is the key phrase in that quote, because most of the redesign is about plants.
The Plants Came First, and the Park Grows More of Them
The Palm Beach Daily News reported that Miami-based designer Raymond Jungles drew up the grounds and the master plan for the $31 million redevelopment. He set out to recreate the coastal environment that existed on the site before development. The park will showcase the native plants that once grew along the South End.
The reason is practical as well as visual. Gold Coast Wave noted that native dune plants hold sand and stand up to storms far better than lawn and ornamentals.
The new Coastal Restoration Center is what lets the park reach beyond its own fence line. The Foundation describes it as a nursery and propagation facility for native plants. It is meant to support healthy dune ecosystems inside the park and throughout the town. The Atriums, at 3400 South Ocean Boulevard, sits in the Town of Palm Beach, on the same barrier island and the same South End coast. So the nursery up the road is meant to grow stock for the kind of shoreline outside the pool deck.
Gold Coast Wave framed the payoff this way. Anyone who has watched the dunes take a beating in recent storm seasons now gets a working example of how a native shoreline is supposed to look.
The Foundation's earlier plans lay out how that example is arranged on the ground. They show a Great Lawn and a wildflower garden west of the schoolhouse, with an outdoor classroom just north of it. The center of the park is built around learning how this coast works.
The Schoolhouse Got the High Ground for a Reason
The Foundation calls the Little Red Schoolhouse Southeast Florida's first schoolhouse and the oldest landmark in Palm Beach. The move to higher ground near the dune was meant to protect it from frequent flooding and high winds. It also keeps the Foundation's living history program going without interruption. That program serves fourth graders from Palm Beach, Broward and Martin counties. For one day, the students attend school as if it were the 1890s:
- Practicing Spencerian handwriting
- Reading from McGuffey's Readers
- Holding spelling bees
- Playing period games at recess
The Town posted video of the move on its Phipps Ocean Park Transformation page. The Foundation has kept a live construction camera running through the final weeks. The schoolhouse now sits right beside the Coastal Restoration Center, putting the park's history and its dune work in the same corner.
What a Regular Beach Morning Looks Like Now
The redesign is built around native plants, but it also fixes the basics. Here is how the Town's project list breaks down, as Gold Coast Wave summarized it.
| Part of the park | What's new |
|---|---|
| Beach | New beach pavilions, lifeguard towers and bathrooms |
| Grounds | Native barrier-island plantings, educational walking paths with stops along the way |
| Kids | Outdoor classroom, schoolyard garden, new playground |
| Landmarks | Relocated and refurbished Little Red Schoolhouse, new Coastal Restoration Center |
| Courts | Rebuilt racquet center with two added pickleball courts |
The courts are the one part of Phipps you can already use. The tennis center and its parking area reopened on November 1, 2025, in the project's first phase. The Town Recreation Department lists the Phipps Ocean Park Racquet Center at 2201 South Ocean Boulevard. You can book the outdoor pickleball courts in 1.5-hour slots through the PlaybyPoint app. Pickleball reservations run Monday through Saturday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
Here's what the Town's recreation fee page lists for the racquet center:
- Pickleball is $10 per resident and $13 per nonresident. Rates are per person, sales tax is extra, and resident rates require proof of residency.
- Daily tennis court fees are $21 for residents and $28 for nonresidents.
- Tennis Happy Hour runs daily from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. at $16 for residents and $22 for nonresidents.
- The same memberships cover both Phipps and the Seaview Park Tennis Center. A resident adult annual pass is $785.
For a South End resident, that makes a Phipps morning easy to put together. You can book a court, walk across to the beach afterward and come back past the schoolhouse on the new paths. Construction schedules can slip, so check the Town's project page before you go, as Gold Coast Wave advised. The Foundation has also said it plans a grand opening celebration for Palm Beach residents.
The Rest of the South End Calendar Around the Ribbon-Cutting
The reopening lands in a busy stretch for the south half of the island and the mainland just across the Lake Avenue bridge. Here's what's on the calendar from the ribbon-cutting through mid-December:
- Thursday, November 19, 10:30 a.m. The Town and the Preservation Foundation hold the Phipps Ocean Park ribbon-cutting ceremony.
- Friday, November 20, 6 to 9 p.m. The free Bonfires & Night Market at the Lake Worth Beach Casino & Beach Complex, with Sekond Nature on stage and local vendors.
- Thursday, November 26, 7:30 a.m. The Town of Palm Beach United Way's 18th Annual Turkey Trot 5K and Kids Drumstick Dash. Registration is already closed, so this one is for spectators.
- Monday, November 30, 6:30 p.m. Lake Worth Beach's tree lighting at the Cultural Plaza.
- Friday, December 4, 6 to 9 p.m. Another beach bonfire night, this time with Night Jar.
- Saturday, December 5, 6 p.m. Downtown Lake Worth Beach's Holiday Parade, the event's 60th celebration.
- Friday, December 18, 6 to 9 p.m. The last bonfire of the year, with Matt Brown & AZ Music Academy and photos with Santa.
Phipps is the stop on this list that stays after the season ends. Once the ribbon is cut, the South End has its largest stretch of public oceanfront back, with lifeguards, shade and bathrooms, and a nursery growing the plants meant to hold dunes along the rest of town.
Here at The South Ocean Group, we keep track of the South End beaches, parks and dune work close to every Atriums unit, because the public shoreline up and down South Ocean Boulevard is part of what makes owning here worthwhile. If you're curious how changes like the new Phipps show up in the value of your Atriums condo, ask us for a free home value estimate and we'll go through the numbers with you.
