Located
at the extreme south of Palm Beach County, the earliest known
inhabitants of Boca Raton were the Tekesta Indians who lived along
the shores of what is now the Intracoastal Waterway. Spanish
explorers and buccaneers were sailing off these shores in the 1500s
and found the natural harbor of Lake Boca Raton a safe refuge. The
Spanish are responsible for giving the City its name -- Boca de
Ratones (the "de" and the "es" in Ratones were dropped over the
years.
By the early 1900s Boca Raton was a tiny agricultural community with
many planters specializing in pineapple cultivation, the brainchild
of a young Japanese student from New York named Joseph Sakai. With
promises of land and the approval of the United States Commissioner
of Immigration, Joseph traveled to Japan to recruit farmers for his
Florida project. They named their community Yamato, an ancient name
for Japan. One of those early immigrants from Japan was George
Sukeji Morikami, who donated the land for the Morikami Park and
Museum of Japanese Culture which is located in nearby Delray Beach.
In
May of 1925 the Town of Boca Raton was created and an architect
named Addison Mizner decided to build a dream city of his own. He
bought 17,000 acres of land and designed what was to be a new world
resort, a utopia of architectural beauty, centering around an
exclusive resort hotel. Boca Raton became a playground for the
wealthy who enjoyed staying at The Boca Raton Resort and Club (photo
upper right). Mizner's influence is evidenced today in much of Boca
Raton's architecture as well as the world class shops, restaurants
and boutiques located inside Mizner Park.
Until the early 1960s Boca Raton remained an upscale small Palm
Beach County town with the usual additional winter population. Like
the rest of South Florida, Boca Raton experienced a fantastic
building boom during the 1970s. It was the strict zoning standards
that were adopted during that time, and continue to be strongly
enforced today, that are responsible for preserving the beauty of
Boca Raton Hotel.;;
