2024. Prices and selections may vary and are updated frequently.
This is a private club, but The Everglades Club located in Palm Beach takes privacy to an absurd degree. The club doesn’t have a website, which is an anomaly. What’s more, cell phones aren’t allowed inside, and no one can take pictures.
It is known that the land covers 90 acres, mostly to accommodate the 18-hole golf course and the clubhouse itself. The private entrance can be found off the west end of Worth Avenue, but don’t ask if that’s the Everglades Club. They’ll just deny it, and they generally bar reporters from entering.
The official history of The Everglades Club says that it was founded way back in 1919. Even during its early years, its membership lists included some of the most important industrialists of the era. It was also famous for allowing female members, but then these were all socialites and heiresses, with names like Vanderbilt.
The membership is supposedly about 1,000 members, with an average age of in their 60s. The rules are quite conservative and strict, such as requiring men to wear a coat and tie at all times.
Unlike the other private clubs in the area, the members here are mostly extraordinarily rich. While the other clubs might have members who are lawyers, doctors, and real estate professionals, it’s different with The Everglades Club. The members here might own 3 or 4 homes, and they might only live in the area about 4 months out of the year. They usually have another home in the North (perhaps Rhode Island or Maine), and another one in Europe. They’re usually the heads of large companies.
To be a member, you have to wait for some of the older members to die off so there are vacancies. Then you can hope (or beg) for a current member who’s a friend to sponsor your application. But you need the votes of other members to get in, and that can be difficult if you aren’t mega-rich.
That means you don’t really have to know what the initiation fee or annual dues will cost you. If you have to ask, you probably can’t afford the fees and you’re not the type of candidate they’re looking for.