Latest news about the Blueway Trail (just in case you missed this from yesterday).

Please Note: The news blackout at The Palm Beach Post remains in place, not covering this very important regional topic here in Central Palm Beach County.

Fortunately, other news organizations such as
the Sun Sentinel are picking up the slack.

Use this link to read the article in the Sun Sentinel datelined October 6th (news report by reporter Brooke Baitinger and videographer/editors Jim Rassol and Cindy Choi; also included is a very good graphic produced by Yiran Zhu with information courtesy of the Palm Beach County Dept. of Environmental Resources Management).

Here’s an excerpt from the article in the
Sun Sentinel (with emphasis added):

     The project has garnered support from many entities, such as the Palm Beach County League of Cities, South Florida Water Management District and Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council.
     Fifteen municipalities had endorsed the concept, including Lake Worth, West Palm Beach and all the municipalities on the Chain of Lakes, according to Shalhoub [Lake Clarke Shores Councilman Robert Shalhoub]. Most recently, Boynton Beach commissioners unanimously endorsed the project.
     “Thanks for being No. 16,” Shalhoub said at the Tuesday [Oct. 3rd] commission meeting where the city passed a resolution supporting the plan.
     Boynton Mayor Steven Grant said the link would allow boaters to frequent Boynton’s waterway restaurants, such as Two Georges, Banana Boat and Prime Catch.

By the way, do the names Buddy Tuppen, Joseph “Jay” Fearnley, and Bill Murrelle sound familiar?

Below is history about the C-51 Canal that may surprise you. We’ve become accustomed to looking at the C-51 like a drain and nothing more. But that waterway you hardly notice was once a vibrant part of our economy here in the City of Lake Worth . . . until I-95 came through. We’ll save that history for another day, but suffice to say that was a wound we’re still recovering from to this day.

Do you have more questions about
the Blueway Trail Project?

For questions and more information, use this link to contact the office of Kim DeLaney, PhD, at the Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council.

Let’s take a stroll back in time. . .
First posted on this blog last year:

I had a very good conversation with Mr. Buddy Tuppen [in early 2016]. That would be Buddy Tuppen, the son of another Mr. Tuppen who founded Tuppen’s Marine and Tackle on Dixie Hwy. here in Lake Worth. It was an earlier conversation with Mr. Joseph “Jay” Fearnley at the Lake Worth Rotary that set all this in motion.

The Blueway Trail project on the C-51 Canal between the city’s of Lake Worth and West Palm Beach has been getting a tremendous amount of attention on this blog, as you know, but all this took an unexpected turn after speaking with Mr. Fearnley: the Blueway Trail in the context of history. There once was a marina on the C-51 Canal in Lake Worth.

More on that below; first some images

to put this in perspective:

Inside the hashed box: Spillway Park, C-51 Canal and the S-155 “Spillway” structure as it is today.
To see this for yourself take Maryland Ave. off
Federal Hwy in Lake Worth.

Note the change in orientation and C-51 Canal (on right). This image is from 1937. In the center you can see the early platted streets of what is now the College Park neighborhood in Lake Worth.

This image is from the 1950s. Compare with the first image above. See the marina on the Lake Worth
side of the C-51? How many businesses supported
this marina? Motels? Restaurants?
Fishing supply stores?

Buddy Tuppen is in his 80s now. His family used to live on 15th Ave. North and would ride his bike with other kids to fish around what is now Spillway Park. Doing the math that must have been around the late 1940s.

He remembers the era when the picture was taken (see image above from the 1950s). This was south and east of the previous Dixie Hwy. bridge. You can see that on the aerial. He said there was also a “lock” so that boats could pass through. He said the land was owned either by the City or the County (Jay Fearnley said the City owned that land). He remembered boats in slips that were perpendicular with the dock which ran parallel to the shoreline of the C-51.

The marina was run by a fellow named Bill Murrelle. After the City or County made him leave he set up shop in Lantana and had a place called Murrelle Marine which is still in business today. Murrelle sold that business but it kept the same name. He has since passed after moving to Sebastian.

Buddy Tuppen went on to give more interesting history: his Grandfather bought the land where Tuppen’s Marine is today. The business began in either 1936 or 1937. His grandfather bought the land for past due taxes, about $38. Buddy said his Grandfather had to borrow the money from friends to make the purchase and wondered how he was going to pay it back.

Prior to being Tuppen’s Marine, that lot had been a Ford dealership that was wiped out by the 1928 hurricane. The property sat idle after that hurricane until it was purchased by the Grandfather Tuppen in the mid 30s.

Do you have any more history and/or pictures of this area along the C-51 Canal is Lake Worth?

Please contact me at 561-308-0364;

email: WesBlackman@gmail.com

The showroom “Grand Opening” at Tuppen’s in
the 1950s. It’s still there at 1006 N. Dixie Hwy.

Will another marina open up on the C-51 Canal?
If so, customers will be heading to stores like
Tuppen’s, eating at our restaurants and looking for
local hotels and motels. . .

Just like it used to be in the
little City of Lake Worth.