Royal Palm Park
Women’s Clubs Celebrate Role in
Creating Everglades National Park
The General Federation of Women’s Clubs Florida (GFWC Florida), which the Coral Gables Woman’s Club joined in 1924, celebrated the 100th anniversary of Royal Palm State Park and the reopening of the Anhinga Trail on Nov. 17, 2016.
Royal Palm, which was established in 1916 southeast of Homestead largely through the efforts of the GFWC Florida’s May Mann Jennings, became the nucleus of Everglades National Park in 1947.
The chair of the federation’s Preservation Committee, Jennings was determined to save Paradise Key, a unique hammock revered for its botanical diversity but threatened by Henry Flagler’s oncoming railroad.
To protect the environmental treasure, the federation campaigned for the hammock’s designation as a state park and, in 1916, Florida dedicated 960 acres for Royal Palm State Park to the federation.
That acreage was matched by Flagler’s widow and, by 1921, thanks to the completion of Ingraham Highway connecting Florida City to Paradise Key, and to the state’s donation of 2,080 additional acres, Royal Palm grew to a 4,000-acre state park.
As a result, the establishment of Royal Palm State Park sparked growing conservation efforts that led to the designation of the Everglades as a national park.
