Clematis Street & Waterfront

West Palm Beach's original main street, laid out by Henry Flagler in 1893 when he built the mainland city as workers' housing for Palm Beach across the lake — he named the streets after tropical plants. Clematis ran between the train station on the west end and the Palm Beach ferry landing on the east, and was the retail spine of downtown for a century. The west end went blighted in the 1970s until Rodney Mayo opened Respectable Street Cafe in an old Salvation Army in 1987, seeding a nightlife revival that pulled the whole street back. West Palm completed a $13.6 million rebuild in 2019, turning it into a shared pedestrian-first street ending at the waterfront amphitheater and Great Lawn on the Intracoastal.

What to order

Time your stop for a Thursday if you can — the free Clematis by Night concert on the Great Lawn (6p–9p, roster ranges from Motown to Latin to Bavarian oompah) is the definitive way to see the street working. Otherwise walk the length from the waterfront west to the 500 block for food and coffee, and confirm the concert schedule at wpb.org before you plan around it.

Hours

Public street, always open · Clematis by Night concerts typically Thursdays 6p–9p (verify seasonal schedule)