Oakes Building Fix or Demolish (PBP Times) 3-18-79-Palm Beach Post -Times, Sunday, March 18, 1979
• in in North Pala Beach
Old Trees Shade the Front of the Harry Oakes Building Huge .
By ANN M. DOYLE
Post stafti Writer
NORTH PALM BEACH — It sits
on the west side of U.S. 1, like a
tired, old man waiting for time to
'seal his fate.
Many years have passed since it
was built by the Boston bakery own-
er turned Florida developer, Harry
Kelsey.
Some say it is regal.
wilding:
emolLsh�
They say the tile roof, stucco
base, gables, cornucopia, and sun -
deck bespeak history and elegance
in a community that's quite young.
"It's the most antiquish thing
; around ,Here," li IJY a iar. ���1�Sle....y
Moore said.
Others abhor it.
. They flinch at the decayed and
rotted roof tiles, the rickety shutters
with chipped paint and the cracked
window glass that sometimes makes
it a drafty, unpleasant place in
which to be.
Tuesday, about 7,000 voters will
determine the fate of the former
Palm Beach winter Club, known
also as the Oakes recreation build-
ing, in a nonbinding straw ballot
election.
"Over the years, the Oakes Build-
ing at 951 U.S. Highway 1, has been
permitted to deteriorate," states the
village newsletter. "we are at a
point in time where the village
should decide what to do with this
recreation facility — repairs or tear
it down."
The facts have been neatly laid
out for the voters.
It wi ! cost $291,645 to restore it
for re, °; -eational purposes, meeting
rooms, - )f f ices and storage space.
To repair the facility means to re-
move debris, clean surfaces, seal
cracks, install smoke/heat detec-
tors, fix the plumbing and electrici-
ty, paint, scrub and landscape.
There are a few possibilities for
funding the repair:
0 Increase utility taxes from 5 to
10 percent for a year.
0 Increase property tax 1 mill f or
a year.
*Finance the work with a small
bond issue.
® Seek financial assistance from a
grant foundation.
If the building is torn down, the
area could- be landscaped for $10,000
to $15,000.
Some persons have suggested re-
placing it with a handball court,
tennis court, or a rose garden. They
say it's an eyesore next to the
modern, spanky Country Club with
Staff photos by Russell Bronson
Cobwebs Spread on Ventilation Port Grating
its manicured golf course and Olym-
pic size swimming pool.
There also are those who say it
demands respect, and is functional,
by virtue of its age.
"It's the first. building that. came
to be," village h�l;,.�tr.-AxA �+. t anL w �_
Martlr-
1
Nadelman said. "we're, a compara-
tively young community with few as-
sets. S
"What a pity to tear it down. It
can still be something."
Kelsey built the winter Club with
an 18 -hole golf course for $500,000 in
1926. Palm Beach residents. often
ferried over for a day or night to use
it.
A few years later, most of it was
demolished in the hurricane and Kel-
sey's dream to make the area a re-
sort mecca and winter playground
was shattered.
In the early 1930s, Canadian gold
miner Sir Harry Oakes bought it,
built on a two-story addition on the
southwest corner and made it his
parttime home.
People say Oakes, a gregarious
and notoriously crooked character,
was denied membership to the
fashionable country clubs in Palm
Beach and sought recreational plea-
sure at his residence.
His unsolved murder 35 years ago
in- the Bahamas cast a gloomy and
mysterious air to the building, which
some people say still pervades.
"Rumor had it one time, that
Oakes was murdered right in the
place," Mrs. Moore says. "If you
don't think that made it eerie ..."
About 400 persons use the building
weekly for - ballet, gym and arts and
craft classes.
Recreation Director Stu Taber
said he'd like to see it restored.
"Maybe Oakes was a crusty old.
man, but it's still history."
"what . you see today is the end of
Kelsey's dreams," Mrs. Moore said.