From the 1930s through the 70s, Black elders remember the Sunset Lounge in West Palm's Historic Northwest District as a place where jazz legends performed — Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, to name a few. And now the cultural gem has reopened after sitting idle for nearly two years.
It’s pure “nostalgia,” said Gregory Dillard, a West Palm Beach-based cinematographer and director, who was among the locals who grew up experiencing its history in different eras.
“What's great for me to see is some of the people that are older than me or that are my age, that used to come here all the time.” Dillard said. “And to see the expression on their face, how they're really surprised to see the renovations that are taking place here."
Grammy-nominated saxophonist Boney James serenaded nearly 500 guests at the Soul in the City grand opening of the Sunset Lounge last month. The legendary venue will host the second concert in the series in late December for those wanting to check out the new space.
READ MORE: The Sunset Lounge in West Palm Beach is trying to bring back its glory days
The renovated venue, on the corner of Eighth Street and Henrietta Avenue, just west of Rosemary and north of downtown West Palm Beach, now offers a two-story, 7,200-square-foot space with a restaurant, bar and rooftop — while also reserving history for a future generation, said Christopher Roog of the West Palm Beach Community Redevelopment Agency.
"You can live it and experience it,” Roog told WLRN. “And that just makes the historical preservation all that more important and all that more exciting.”
During Jim Crow, Black residents and its professional class — doctors, lawyers, teachers — in the Historic Northwest District, did all they could to thrive in a legally segregated society shaped by discriminatory policies. This premier venue, once dubbed the "cotton club of the South," felt like a safe haven for their excellence.
The Sunset was "the cultural equator for the City of West Palm Beach,“ said Isaac “Ike” Robinson Jr., a retired teacher and former city commissioner. Genia Baker, project manager for the West Palm Beach CRA, told WLRN she wanted to "revive that heritage."
When segregation ended in 1964, children were sent to different schools and Black middle- and upper-class families eventually moved elsewhere, disrupting the cohesion of the community.
Applied cultural anthropologist Dr. Alisha Winn, a West Palm Beach native, told WLRN the neighborhood had since struggled with "lost generational wealth" and declining Black homeownership.
The reopening, in large part, aims to spur interest back into the area.
The jazz venue, situated just across the new Heart & Soul park, was set to re-open in 2022 after years of planning delays and more than $16 million tax-funded renovation. And it was most recently sidelined by a complex legal dispute and stalled negotiations over which private company should run the venue.
In the meantime, the West Palm Beach CRA chose to run the Sunset itself, announcing the mid-November opening with a concert series. The city's CRA will handle the live programming, with monthly activations to help fine-tune operations, officials told WLRN.
“For generation after generation, for nearly a century, this place has evolved with the times,” West Palm Beach Mayor Keith James told the audiance during the grand opening.
“Yet its spirit, its soul, and its cultural significance has remained unchanged. It’s always been a cultural anchor.”
IF YOU GO
What: Soul in the City at the Sunset Lounge
When: Wednesday, December 17, 2025, from 7 to 9 p.m
Where: Sunset Lounge: 609 8th St, West Palm Beach, FL 33401
