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Kelsey City, U.S.A. Waltz Song.
West Palm Beach, Florida: Kelsey City Sales Office, East Coast Finance Corporation, 1924. 8vo sheet music, printed covers, 12.25” x 9.5”. 5 pp. Rare sheet-music advertising a 1920s development in present-day Kelsey Park, Florida. Depicted on the cover is the Gateway to the World’s Winter Play Ground: an arch with the text, “Welcome to Kelsey City” under which a road leads to a homes by the sea. Off the coast a sailboat and vessel are depicted, and palm trees sway. In the foreground, Uncle Sam and a young girl with a Kelsey City sash hold hands. An inset image of a beach scene appears in the lower-left corner. The back-cover advertises this “Miracle City”and “summit of industry”; “towering eminence of happy homes”; “a city of inspiring and lasting beauty to the millions who pass”; “more than a symbolic subdivision,” and so forth. This development was undertaken by the East Coast Finance Corporation, headed by Harry S. Kelsey, who at the time was “carrying through many costly public enterprises which he dedicates to the fortunate owners and without cost to them.” These included pure water, tennis courts, lakeside paths, ocean drives, golf courses, beautified parks, and much more. Dedicated to Harry S. Kelsey, the sheet-music features words and music by Jeff Morgan in the style of a waltz, and features the following lyrics: “Now Kelsey City’s just a ‘baby’ growing prettier day by day. The gateway to worlds winter playground. Kelsey City, U.S.A. It’s Kelsey A.” Boston entrepreneur Harry Kelsey (1879–1957) plunged into the Florida land boom when he purchased some 30,000 acres north of West Palm Beach in 1919. In time he came to own over 100,000 acres—more land than anyone else in Palm Beach County. Kelsey planned agricultural industries for the area and hired the Massachusetts landscape architects, the Olmsted Brothers, as well as John Nolan of Boston, to design the development. Believed to be Florida’s first zoned community, Kelsey designed the city for working people, not retirees or the wealthy. At the time the first lots were offered at auction, Kelsey had invested some million dollars in the city. Not in OCLC. REFERENCES: Kelsey City (Lake Park) at pbchistoryonline.org CONDITION: A few short tears, light chipping and creasing at back-cover.
Item #5619
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