It
was 1894, one year after the last 'Barefoot Mailman' walked along
its sandy shores and two years before Henry Flagler built his
famous railroad, that a former Civil War major from Port Huron,
Michigan named Nathan S. Boynton first set eyes on the area that
now bears his name.
He was so impressed by the natural
beauty of what he saw, the year-round sunshine and pristine
beaches, that he returned a year later with a group of colonists
and built the famous Boynton Beach Hotel to serve as his family's
summer residence.
The first settlers soon realized
that an unlimited assortment of fruits and vegetables thrived in
the fertile climate. Cultivated pineapples, tomatoes, mangos,
oranges, lemons, grapefruits and limes were packed in crates and
shipped by the ton on the newly built Florida East Coast Railroad
to satisfy the appetites of hungry Americans across the country.
Boynton Beach remained a fairly
unknown tropical paradise known for its perfect weather and
delicious produce until the end of World War Two.
Soldiers returning home from the
war discovered that the small town located only fifty miles north
of Miami was an extraordinarily healthy place to raise a family.
In addition, Boynton's close proximity to the Atlantic's
Gulf stream soon yielded a bonanza of world-record catches and
guaranteed that the best kept secret on Florida's Gold Coast
would be a secret no longer.
Since that time, Boynton Beach has
grown steadily and never looked back. Motorola built their
worldwide paging headquarters here in 1983 and the city's
population has risen from 5,000 in 1958 to a present number of
approximately 50,000 residents. Most importantly, Boynton Beach
has expanded wisely, retaining the charm of her orange groves,
dairy farms, fishing marinas and sandy beaches.
Major Boynton and his colorful
hotel have long passed into the annals of history, but the
irresistible qualities that attracted him and the city's first
settlers remain as strong as ever to entice a new generation of
visitors and residents.
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