The palm-lined avenue emerged as the center of Palm Beach life in 1918 with the construction of the exclusive Everglades Club. Promotional literature today bills the avenue as “the most distinctive, most exciting shopping street in the world” — home to Gucci, Sara Frederick’s and other exclusive shops.
The avenue was named in 1913 for Brig. Gen. William Jenkins Worth, whose battles against the Indians in the Seminole War also won him the honor in 1882 of having the lake west of the avenue named for him — Lake Worth.
Architect Addison Mizner, who gave Worth Avenue its shape and character, and Paris Singer, son of sewing-machine entrepreneur Isaac Merritt Singer, were the fathers of the avenue…