Boca Raton Facts
Fact 1: Exclusivity does have its drawbacks. Unfortunately, they're often at the general public's expense. The prestigious Boca Raton Resort and Club, the opulent, Mizner-designed resort, boasts incredible resident restaurants. Widely acknowledged for their excellence, the establishments are, however, sadly reserved for the pleasure of members and hotel guests. As a result, don't anticipate dining at 27 Ocean Blue, Nick's Fishmarket, Lucca, or the Club's other venues sans membership or room reservations.
Fact 2: In 1966, IBM bought acreage in Boca to construct a company facility, helping to institute the city's prominence as a center for technology industries. One of the items developed by the company's employees was the IBM PC, a little machine that in years since has changed the face of American society immeasurably.
Fact 3: He's in what? Addison Mizner, the visionary architect who developed Boca Raton and Palm Beach, was also inclined to eccentricity. Prone to wearing silk pajamas in public and walking about with a contingent of monkeys and chows, he was a figure for the ages, both for his personality and the impeccable style with which he endowed South Florida.
Fact 4: Boca, like so many South Florida locales, was once a major player in the theme park game. Back in the 1950s, the town was home to Africa U.S.A., a compound devoted to wildlife from the Dark Continent. On 300 acres, jungle vegetation and water features were installed, and native animals were collected from Africa and shipped to Florida to live in a natural, cageless environment. Political disagreements and the threat of African red ticks forced the eventual close of the park – one of the area's most popular attractions for years – and the land was developed afterwards as the Camino Gardens subdivision.
Fact 5: During the WWII era, the federal government established an army base at Boca, capitalizing on its prime location and convenient airfields. Officers attended radar training classes at the Boca Raton Club, which was co-opted to serve as barracks and classrooms during the conflict. Citizens also took an active role in the fight, keeping watch from a coastal tower for German submarines and ships.
Fact 6: It's fascinating to imagine the city that might have sprung up had economic conditions not thwarted Mizner's vision for Boca Raton. Although the Cloisters Inn, the Town Hall, and Camino Real were constructed, other flights of fancy will only ever exist in the imagination. Among them are Mizner's own home – a castle built on an island in a lake – and a cathedral erected to honor his mother.
Fact 7: The first home in Boca was built in 1895 by Thomas Moore Rickards, a civil engineer and surveyor for Henry Morrison Flagler's railroad. When the railway was completed, the area was opened to settlers from elsewhere in the Deep South. They were joined shortly afterwards by Japanese immigrants, who established a pineapple farming settlement that, although ultimately unsuccessful, gave rise to the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens in nearby Delray Beach.
Fact 8: The Boca Raton Municipal Cemetery. It started out in 1916 as a one-acre site away from the railroad, with sandy ground that, at the time anyway, wasn't deemed suitable for developing. Along came Addison Mizner. He wanted to build a posh new resort, the Boca Raton Resort and Club, but there was one little problem. The land he wanted to use had a cemetery in the middle of it. Mizner dug up all the remains and, at his own expense, moved the cemetery to a larger spot at the corner of 2nd Avenue and 16th Street. Then, during WWII, the Air Force decided to construct a top secret base in Boca Raton. Guess where? The remains were disinterred once again, and a new site was chosen – SW 4th Avenue, the highest point on the edge of town.
Fact 9: Although Addison Mizner was a skilled architect, his social skills and abilities of persuasion also worked in his favor. In his attempts to build Boca Raton into a world-class resort, he courted such esteemed figures as sewing machine heiress Paris Singer, cosmetics queen Elizabeth Arden, composer Irving Berlin, actress Marie Dressler, and a scattering of Vanderbilts and Du Ponts.
Fact 10: In the late 19th century, Boca – although largely unsettled – fell on a postal route served by the "barefoot mailmen." This group of 11 men covered the coastal territory between Palm Beach and Miami, often trudging along the beach with a loaded mail sack and as little clothing as possible. The 136-mile round-trip journey included both boat and foot travel and was tackled each week for a duration of approximately 7 years. The weekly trek brought in a salary of less than $60 a month.
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