West Palm architect Gonzalez wins top award

WEST PALM BEACH — West Palm Beach architect and historic-preservation enthusiast Rick Gonzalez is the 2018 recipient of the Judge James R. Knott Award, the highest honor presented by the Historical Society of Palm Beach County.

Also, Wells Fargo Private Bank received the Fannie James Pioneer Achievement Award.

Both honors were presented Tuesday night at the historical society’s annual meeting, held at the Richard and Pat Johnson Palm Beach County History Museum in the restored original Palm Beach County Courthouse.

Gonzalez was honored for his efforts to preserve such structures as the courthouse, as well as Mar-a-Lago, the Harriet Himmel Theater, the Cultural Council of Palm Beach County’s historic headquarters, the Lake Worth Casino and the old Boynton Beach High School.

Wells Fargo was cited for restoring three 1920s-era buildings in Palm Beach that represent work by architects Marion Syms Wyeth, Maurice Fatio and John Volk.

The Knott award is named for the late judge who was president of the county historical society from 1957 to 1969 and who produced the “Brown Wrapper” series of historical vignettes, which appeared in The Palm Beach Post from 1977 to 1985.

Past recipients include Donald Trump, the Jupiter Lighthouse and Museum, the Henry Morrison Flagler Museum, Harvey E. Oyer III, Judge Marvin Mounts, Palm Beach County commissioners, The Palm Beach Post and Post staff writer and history columnist Eliot Kleinberg.

The Fannie James award honors people who preserve the history of Palm Beach County’s pioneering days. Established in 2003, it’s named for an African-American pioneer who served as the first postmistress in the settlement of Jewell, now Lake Worth, from 1889 until 1903.

Past recipients include Susan Oyer, Helen Vogt, Marjorie Watts Nelson, Ted Brownstein, Janet DeVries and Dr. Ginger Pedersen, Everee Jimerson Clarke and the Loxahatchee Guild.