Palm Coast Promotional Pop-Up Brochure – “Welcome to Florida’s Land of the Future”
[Published without imprint; printed in Colombia]: ITT Community Development Corporation, ca. 1973. First and only edition.
Elephant folio (17 × 11.5 inches closed; expands to approx. 17 × 23 × 5 inches when fully opened). Offset-printed in full color on heavyweight, gloss-coated paperboard stock. Stapled at fold. Features one large, layered pop-up scene with multiple die-cut elements and an original rotating slogan disc mounted on a curved wire armature. Includes printed scene captions and a directional signpost with distances to Daytona Beach, St. Augustine, and Disney World.
This Palm Coast piece sits at the intersection of real estate history, vintage 3D paper engineering, 1970s corporate culture, and American suburban utopianism. It’s not just rare—it’s possibly unique.
Condition:
Fine. Covers bright. Interior scene clean and complete; all die-cut pop-up components are intact and fully functional. The rare removable slogan wire disc is still present and functional.. No repairs or reinforcements. A well-preserved and unusually complete example of a nostalgic and ephemeral early 1970's promotional format. This item is extremely rare. Promotional pop-up books were expensive to produce and typically discarded after sales pitches. As of this writing, no other copies are recorded in OCLC, trade inventories, or institutional archives, and it appears to be unrecorded in the promotional literature of the period.
Description:
This Palm Coast oversized promotional pop-up brochure was created by ITT Community Development Corporation in the early 1970s. This wonderfully preserved pop-up is a rare survivor from a more optimistic time—evoking the bright, breezy spirit of a groovy, carefree era when the future felt sunny, families dreamed big, and the promise of a good life felt just within reach. Its unmistakably 1970s font and radiant citrus-hued color scheme capture the era’s bold design sensibility—where warm gradients, rounded lettering, and sunshine-inspired palettes conveyed a sense of joy, movement, and possibility.
More than just a brochure, it was a cleverly engineered dream-seller—designed to transport prospective buyers into a sun-drenched world of ease, recreation, and upward mobility, where modern living and playful promise sprang to life in three dimensions. It Includes slogans such as “A Better Place, A Better Life, A Better Way” and “Have a good life at Palm Coast.”
Remarkably, this example still retains its original wire-mounted slogan disc—“Have a good life at PalmCoast”—which secures under the center pop-up and floats above the scene like a buoyant sunburst of corporate optimism. When fully unfolded, the piece blossoms into a vibrant, multi-tiered diorama printed in bold, mid-'70s technicolor.
At center stands a low-slung model home with a brown-tiled roof, arched windows, and clipped hedges, flanked by three die-cut palm trees. In the left foreground, a backyard barbecue scene shows a chef in a white toque grilling beside a woman and two children. Just beyond, children run toward the beach, where families lounge under umbrellas and sunbathe beside stylized blue waters. The lagoon-like canal hosts a red-and-yellow speedboat pulling a blonde woman on water skis. To the right, another boat features a beaming fisherman hoisting a leaping green fish while a companion photographs the moment. Behind them, a sign for the Palm Coast Marina and Yacht Club rises above a dolphin graphic and a row of resort-style buildings.
A directional signpost in the rear center points to nearby attractions: Daytona Beach (24 miles), St. Augustine (26 miles), and Disney World (90 miles). The entire scene blends a glossy surface, layered construction, and crisp color registration—hallmarks of well-funded mid-century corporate print design.
Covers:
The fonts, color palette (sunset oranges, avocado greens, bright aquas), and overall illustration style are quintessentially 1970s. The front panel features retro illustrated artwork in a warm 1970s palette: a smiling couple dances barefoot beneath a windswept palm tree, with a cartoon sun, ocean spray, and a bounding terrier. The back panel presents a simplified map of Florida, showing Palm Coast’s proximity to major cities, overlaid with promotional photographs: a picnic scene, a family golf outing, a canal-view house, and the community’s modernist welcome center. A banner area reads “My Palm Coast Homesite Is:”—left blank for prospective buyers. Legal disclosure for New York State printed below; brochure code AD 6375 printed lower right. The blank lines beneath “My Palm Coast Homesite is” on the back cover were intentionally designed as a customizable field—likely for sales representatives or prospective buyers to write in the specific lot number, section, or address of the homesite being selected or considered. This brochure was almost certainly intended for use during in-person sales presentations, not mass mailings. In the 1970s, such personalized touches were common in high-touch real estate marketing campaigns. The act of physically writing down your future address wasn’t just practical—it was psychological, helping seal the emotional commitment to the dream of sun-filled, resort-style living in Florida’s newest planned paradise.
Collector’s Corner:
This Palm Coast pop-up promotional is an exceptionally rare survival from one of the most ambitious real estate marketing campaigns of the 20th century. Founded in the late 1960s as a division of International Telephone & Telegraph (ITT), the ITT Community Development Corporation was established to build and manage Palm Coast, one of the largest planned communities in the United States. Located in Flagler County, Florida, Palm Coast was promoted as a utopian “city of the future,” offering resort-style living with modern infrastructure, including underground utilities, yacht clubs, golf courses, and expansive recreational areas. The project was among the most ambitious real estate developments of its era. The original plan encompassed 48,000 homesites across approximately 42,000 acres—part of a vast 68,000-acre landholding—with a projected development cost of $2 billion and an anticipated population of 750,000 residents. Hard to imagine, but In 1969, what is now Palm Coast was largely an uninhabited swamp, thick with pine forests and known primarily as a rugged destination for hunters and fishermen. Virtually no one lived there. But ITT saw something few others could: the potential for a vibrant, master-planned community.
Marketed as a futuristic Florida destination with underground utilities, golf courses, marinas, and resort living. It was targeted toward retirees and families from New York, New Jersey, and the Midwest. This large and elaborate pop-up was part of a high-budget national marketing blitz by ITT to attract buyers. This brochure served as both promotional literature and visual persuasion. Distributed by mail and through in-person sales presentations, it invited prospective resident to imagine their future in a sun-filled, leisure-rich paradise.
Its use of interactive pop-up mechanics to sell real estate was highly unusual, making it a standout among American promotional print ephemera. The pavilion structure with tiered roof in the center photo is nearly identical to the Palm Coast Yacht Club and Sales Pavilion shown in ITT press from the early 1970s.
The first structure built in Palm Coast was the Welcome Center, which became the focal point for ITT’s sales operations in the early 1970s. Surrounded by model homes and walkways, it featured a striking 64-foot observation tower—clearly depicted in the pop-up brochure. From its summit, prospective buyers could view the undeveloped landscape of woods, canals, and coastline. Sales agents often pointed from the tower toward distant platted lots and closed deals for as little as $3,500, sometimes selling land sight unseen. For nearly two years, this Welcome Center remained the only public building in Palm Coast, serving as the symbolic gateway to a community marketed as “the perfect place to live.”
The fine print at the bottom contains a classic disclaimer that reads: “A statement and offering statement has been filed with the Department of State of the State of New York. This filing does not constitute approval of the sale or lease...” This tells us: The brochure was marketing real estate to New York residents, likely as part of a retirement or resort community push. This type of disclaimer is typically required for interstate land sales, suggesting it was created by a Florida developer marketing to out-of-state buyers, especially New Yorkers. It was likely produced under the U.S. Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act (1968), which aligns with a 1970s date.
To attract retirees and snowbirds from the Northeast and Midwest, ITT launched a high-budget multimedia campaign that included mailers, television ads, and colorful brochures. This pop-up promotional book is one of the most elaborate known surviving pieces from that campaign, blending the novelty of children’s books with real estate advertising—emblematic of the era’s fascination with futurism, leisure, and suburban escape.
Today, Palm Coast is a city of over 90,000 residents, but its roots lie in these promotional efforts of the 1970s. For collectors of movable books, vintage real estate ephemera, or mid-century American marketing, this piece offers a rare convergence of design history and development culture.
Very few—if any—20th-century real estate developments produced anything as elaborate as this pop-up brochure for Palm Coast. It was an exceptional outlier in marketing history, and likely the only large-scale promotional pop-up of its kind ever created for a real estate development. Its existence was made possible by the immense corporate backing of ITT, which, in the early 1970s, poured tens of millions of dollars into promoting Palm Coast—the largest planned community in U.S. history at the time. Their nationwide campaign included television ads, full-page newspaper spreads, and high-budget collateral such as this.
Additional information - Historical Background: The ITT Vision for Palm Coast
This information comes from: Palm Coast Historical Society. “Palm Coast History Brief.” Palm Coast History. Accessed July 31, 2025. https://palmcoasthistory.org/palm-coast-history/. :
In the late 1960s, International Telephone & Telegraph Corporation (ITT)—a sprawling multinational conglomerate whose holdings ranged from telecommunications to hospitality—sought to redefine American suburban living with a bold new concept: Palm Coast. Backed by ITT’s vast financial resources, the project was among the most ambitious real estate developments of its era. The company acquired tens of thousands of acres of undeveloped land in Flagler County, Florida, and invested heavily in infrastructure with a master plan that included underground utilities, a man-made canal system, golf courses, and a yacht club—all designed to appeal to affluent retirees and families seeking leisure-oriented lifestyles in the Sunshine State.
Palm Coast was not merely a development; it was a corporate utopian experiment. Under the leadership of Dr. Norman Young, a marketing executive from Levitt & Sons, ITT launched a full-scale promotional campaign that included national advertising, mailers, model homes, and even whimsical pop-up brochures like the present example. The community’s Welcome Center—complete with a futuristic 64-foot-high observation tower—opened in 1970, symbolizing ITT’s high-tech aspirations. For more than a decade, ITT not only built homes but also funded highways, bridges, and public facilities in a rare public-private partnership model. When the company ultimately withdrew in the 1990s, Palm Coast had already become a functioning prototype for a self-sustaining planned city. ITT continued to shape Palm Coast’s infrastructure during its tenure, funding critical improvements such as the I-95 interchange and the Hammock Dunes Bridge. By the time ITT exited, Palm Coast was left to forge its own identity, culminating in its official incorporation as a city on December 31, 1999.
Today, Palm Coast’s origins are preserved and celebrated by the Palm Coast Historical Society and Museum, located in Holland Park. The museum houses artifacts, photographs, and ephemera from the early development period—including rare brochures, promotional items, and community memorabilia. It serves not only as a repository of the city’s planned-community legacy but also as a reminder of ITT’s sweeping vision to create a model American lifestyle from the ground up.
Watch this short historical overview of the Palm Coast development in the 1970s — featuring original ITT footage and insights into the vision behind this planned community.
Video courtesy of the Palm Coast Historical Society:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bacdoguIDfA
Additional References:
Palm Coast Historical Society. “About the Museum.” Palm Coast History. Accessed July 31, 2025. https://palmcoasthistory.org/about-the-museum/
Palm Coast Archives, Flagler County Historical Society.
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development: Interstate Land Sales Full Disclosure Act filings, 1970s.
“Palm Coast: The Early Years,” Florida Memory Project, State Archives of Florida.
No copy recorded in OCLC WorldCat as of July 2025.
Palm Coast, Florida.” Wikipedia. Last modified July 29, 2025. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palm_Coast,_Florida
City of Palm Coast. Annual Budget: Fiscal Year 2013. Palm Coast, FL: Department of Finance, 2012. Accessed August 1, 2025. https://docs.palmcoastgov.com/departments/finance/budgets/2013/introduction.pdf