Worth Ave. nominated in national “Iconic Street’ contest

Palm Beach’s most famous shopping district has been named to the national top 20 Iconic Streets, according to 10Best.com, a division of USA Today. Also included are two other famous Florida thoroughfares: Calle Ocho in Miami’s Little Havana and Ocean Drive in Miami Beach.

The web site is hosting a contest to name the American street that best combines history and a strong sense of place while reflecting its unique location in the country.

The Worth Avenue we know today sprang from the pen of architect Addison Mizner in the early 1920s, shortly after he designed several buildings on the street’s western end, including the private Everglades Club.

Mizner dotted the Avenue’s Mediterranean-style buildings with bougainvillea-draped pedestrian vias, leading to small enclaves of restaurants and shops. The architecture became known around the world as “the Palm Beach look.”

To win, Worth Avenue will have to beat back stiff competition from Broadway, Wall Street and Fifth Avenue in New York, as well as “birthplace of the blues” Beale Street in Memphis, San Francisco’s Lombard Street, whose eight turns in a quarter mile earned it the nickname “the world’s crookedest street,” and that post shopping street on the other coast, Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills.