How Riviera Beach Got to Be (Modern Era)

The area of Riviera Beach, of course, pre-dates European settlement. yet very little is found online or in local histories of that period. We are looking for source materials to share with you.

The "modern" story of Riviera Beach starts in the 1920's.

According to a 2012 Anne Arundel Patch article, "In 1924, vacationers flocked to Riveria Beach to live in an 'environment of refinement,' but mostly for the summer".

From "Discovering Our School Community" - By Grade 5 (1955 - 1956) - Mrs. Alice Tyson & Mr. A. J. Reed; Riviera Beach School:

"Until World War II the area was chiefly a summer resort area with very few people living here in the winter but several hundred moving down for the summer months. With the great

influx of defense workers to Baltimore from 1941 on, the summer homes were converted to year round dwelling and now permanent homes were built.

Today, in these beaches, there are very few summer “Shore” homes left and the house-building boom has never been equaled".

Stephen Howell, a Coldwell Banker agent, wrote an article in 2010 describing pictures and recollections he received from a former resident when she was driven to see where she grew up:

".....They drove down Chelsea Road and were not surprised when they came across the house at 216. She saw at first the Holly tree that her dad had planted in front of the house many years ago. As they drove closed, she knew that it was the house that her father had built in the early 1930's. Of course Riviera Beach was very different back then. There were not many houses and it was a "summer" community - a place to go and get away from the heat of the city and enjoy the beach and the river and the Chesapeake Bay....."

Image credit: activerain.com