El Cid Neighborhood

El Cid Neighborhood. . In 1876, Benjamin Lanehart homesteaded land that is now the north end of El Cid. He started the first commercial pineapple operation in the area, and this fruit soon dominated the local agriculture. Soon afterward, Elizabeth Wilder Moore settled just south of Lanehart. By the turn of the century, competition and plant disease ruined the pineapple business., The El Cid Neighborhood was a product of the 1920's Florida Land Boom era. Pittsburgh socialite John Phipps (1874-1958), the son of Andrew Carnegie's partner in U.S. steel, assembled these old pineapple fields to develop the district. Beginning in 1921, independent builders sold expensive Mediterranean Revival and Mission-style homes on most of the available lots. It's proximity to downtown and the shore of Lake Worth attracted affluent business, political and social leaders who dominated the city's development in the 1920's and 1930's. Phipps named his development El Cid after the celebrated medieval Spanish hero, Rodrigo Diaz de Vivar. His Moorish enemies called him "Cid", an Arabic word meaning lord. The El Cid District is listed on The National Register of Historic Places.