Photo by Roy B. Dame.

The Police Department in early 1935. R to L: Chief R. W. Milburn, Lt. C.B. Ewing, Officer Jack Wadlington, Sgt. Charles Wentworth, Officers Claude Mathis, Dick Allshire, Claude Turnbull, Roy Hull, Walter C. Denney, Detectives Emory Wall, and R.C. McGriff.

During the depression, all but the basic services of Police, Fire, and Utilities ended in the City of West Palm Beach. City employees were paid in scrip, which was accepted in lieu of currency at local stores because the City had no money. Even with the wealth of Palm Beach nearby, the area suffered along with the rest of the country.

Recreational activities and sports were two of the many ways people spent their time. West Palm Beach had one of the best-known small club boxing centers in the nation. Strong interest in boxing was led by the wealthy of Palm Beach, which included E. F. Hutton, former husband of Mrs. Marjorie Merriweather Post. The rich developed "fight stables," one of whom was Phil O'Connell, who became a prominent lawyer and political figure in West Palm Beach. Another was Trapper Nelson, a hermit who lived on the Loxahatchee River in Jonathan Dickinson State Park for many years.

The first boxing arena was outdoors, located on the north side of Banyan Street just west of the present day First Union Bank. The fights were later held in an indoor arena on the north side of Clematis Street at the F.E.C. railroad crossing, which eventually was enlarged to hold more than 2,000 spectators. Many of the spectators at the Clematis Street arena were the Palm Beach crowd who would fill private boxes around ringside.

With the diamond and fur clothed Palm Beachers came diamond and fur thieves. Gangsters from the northern mobs traveled through the area. Moonshiners and smugglers worked up and down the coast.

Some said that what made the "Roaring Twenties" roar was the Thompson submachine gun in the hands of the gangsters. In the 1930's, the police department decided it was outgunned by the bad guys and purchased their own "Tommygun." Sixty years later, that Thompson still resides in our armory, a permanent part of the department's historical collection.

Officer Jack G. Wadlington escorted the Anheuser-Bush Clydesdales to Whitehall,
Henry Flagler's former home in Palm Beach, circa 1932

Robert W. "Bob" Milburn was elected Chief of Police in 1932. It was during his tenure that tragedy came to the West Palm Beach Police Department with the loss of our first two officers killed in the line of duty. Jack Grace Wadlington was killed while working traffic at Butler Street and Dixie Highway during the Sun Dance Festival on March 31, 1935. Lewis Allen Conner was shot and killed by an armed robbery suspect at 1322 Henrietta Ave. on August 7, 1937.

During the mid 30's, Grace K. Morrison became convinced the Palm Beaches needed a larger airport to accommodate regularly scheduled passenger and airmail flights. Just west of the city limits between Belvedere Road and Southern Boulevard, a small airfield became an airport named after it's founder, Morrison Field.

Continue on: 1940's