Lavender house, also known as Hermann V. Von Holst House is a private residence on the U.S…read more National Register of Historic Places in the historic old Floresta neighborhood in Boca Raton. It is located on 875 Alamanda Street. The neighborhood the house is in was initially designed by Addison Mizner but he went broke in 1926. Chicago Prairie School architect Hermann V. Von Holst along with partners purchased the development and he finished building the houses. Lavender House was the residence Holst built for himself. He went on to serve on the Boca Raton City Council from 1934 to 1948 and the planning board from 1940 to 1953. Although you can't tour this house it's worth driving through this beautiful historic neighborhood. It looks like the current owners embrace the history of their home as it is beautifully kept. They occasionally post pictures of the interior on their Facebook page dedicated to the home.

This neighborhood was designed by Addison Mizner in a Mediterranean style that you can see…read morethroughout the city of Boca Raton. It is located off of Palmetto Rd behind the Boca Raton Art Museum art school. The houses were designed for the executives of Mizner's company and one was for his brother the Reverend Henry Mizner who retired to Boca Raton. The Robinson Company were contracted to construct 29 homes in the neighborhood but they went bankrupt before they could finish. Architect Herman Von Holst from Chicago who owned the land foreclosed and along with investors he finished designing the subdivision and named it Old Floreresta meaning "a delightful rural place" in Spanish. The houses have certain characteristics in common, barrel tile roofs, wrought iron balconies, and Spanish style architecture. The homes are on narrow tree lines streets. Some of the notable homes in the subdivision are 888 Oleander St owned by Henry Mizner who lived in Acacia, 875 Alamanda St. was the home of Herman Von Holst and he named his home Lavender House. He went on to serve on both the Boca Raton town council and planning boards. The house is now on the National Register of Historic Places as is 801 Hibiscus St, it was owned by film producer and mayor of Boca Raton Fred Aiken. Other well known residents of the neighborhood were Thomas Fleming who founded Florida Atlantic University, Don Estridge who worked on the IMB personal computer, and Nathaniel Weyl who authored the book "Red Star Over Cuba" In 1990 Boca Raton named Old Floresta it's first historic district. The homes in the neighborhood are privately owned so you are not able to tour them. You are free however to drive through the beautiful neighborhood or even better bike it if you are able to do so. Although the homes I mentioned are not for sale a lot of other ones are. I saw quite a few for sale signs in the neighborhood. I am sure they are way out of my price range but it's free to dream.

Imagine my surprise to find a listing for the Old Floresta Historic District in Yelp. Like wow,…read morewhoever wrote this did a great service for helpers who seek out historic areas in Palm Beach county, areas which may be close to where they live or work. And this is OUR neighborhood. It's where we drive into and out of daily. It's where we walk our sato Bori. And where we drive friends around to show them the authentic ORIGINAL Mizner designed homes, as well as those which mimic the Mizner look. The streets are narrow, some cannot accommodate two cars going in either direction without riding up into someone's lawn. The foliage is heavy, very heavy. People who visit us or do work for us always comment that it reminds them of Coral Gables. As a historic district the City monitors carefully all renovations which affect the exterior in any manner at all, as plans must be reviewed by Historic division as well as City Code Compliance. Things like roof materials and colors, driveway design and materials, alterations to windows and doors or subtle things like the removal of a tree and its replacement. And that's all good! I love Old Floresta. I don't love the drivers who try through our area on the way to Boca Regional Hospital or anywhere else and roll through stop signs. I hope they get tickets when police set up traps. Our neighborhood is quiet, well preserved and a place where families walk with their children and their dogs and just chill. While not a gated community it is tucked away off Palmetto Park Road, east of 95 and west of Dixie, on the north side of the street. If you find the old Art School on the north side of Palmetto, you access Old Floresta on either Paloma or Cardinal (NW9). Drive slow when in our community. Or better yet, walk around. Oh by the way, on Halloween the homeowners really go craycray decorating their homes and thousands go trick treating.

The Raulerson House is the oldest standing home in Boca Raton. It is a Boca Raton designated…read morehistoric site. The two story home is 1,911 square feet and it was built in 1905. It used to sit on Palmetto Park Blvd where a shopping center now sits and it was moved to it's current location. The house is named for Boca pioneers Bert and Annie Raulerson who came to the area in 1903. They built the home and grew oranges and worked in a fruit packing house. When they constructed the house a lot of windows added to keep it cool since there was no air conditioning. The house also sits on pilings to keep air moving underneath it and to prevent rot. Wood used to build homes in this time period were pecky cypress and Dade county pine. Another nice feature of the home is a beautiful front porch. Diane DeMarco restored it when she was the owner. Diane has served as president of the Delray Beach Historical Preservation Board and as a member of the Boca Raton Historical Preservation Board. In 2010 the Boca Raton children's museum had hoped to acquire the house from its owner Robert Muller to add next to their other historic buildings, Singing Pines and the Arvida Cottage. The deal fell through and the museum ended up building a replica of Boca Raton's oldest home, Thomas Moore Rickards house instead. This home is privately owned so you can not tour the inside but it is part of the tour on the geotourist app put together by the Boca Raton Historical Society.

Pearl City is a historic neighborhood just north of downtown Boca Raton. The neighborhood was…read moreplated on May 30, 1915, a decade before Boca Raton was incorporated. The neighborhood was created when Thomas M. Rickards, Henry M. Flagler's agent decided to return to North Carolina and sell his land holdings. Rickards hired his successor George Ashley Long to survey and sell the property. Long created a three block subdivision and began selling lots along the Florida East Coast Railway tracks north of the railroad tracks and it became Pearl City. Alex Hughes was the first person to buy a lot and he became a community leader. Hughes Park in Boca is named in his honor. Other founding family names are the Swansons, Clarks, Johnsons, Alburys, Wrights and Cunninghams. Long went on to become the first mayor of Boca Raton. Eventually the neighborhood spread eight more blocks to the north. Residents of the neighborhood were the blue collar African Americans employed at resorts, farms, and in construction. Many people worked at Butts farm growing green beans or at the Boca Raton Resort once it was built. The last wooden residence in Pearl City is the historic Fountain House at 156 NE Pearl St. It was built in 1929 Alvin and Gladys Fountain. Small wooden houses were once common in the area but now there are very few left. Pearl City was designated a historic district by the decree of the Boca Raton City Council in 2002. At that time the city used 6.2 million dollars they received from Community Development Block Grants from the federal government to improve infra structure in the community. The reason the area was named Pearl City has been lost to time. The prevailing theory behind the name is that it is related to the Hawaii Pearl Pineapple because pineapples were grown in the area and harvested in a shed in the neighborhood. Another theory is that the first baby born in the community was named Pearl. The other two streets in the neighborhood are named after precious gems, Ruby and Sapphire streets. A notable neighborhood landmark is a memorial dedicated to Martin Luther King in front of the Ebeneezer Baptist Church which was organized in 1918.

This memorial to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was dedicated in 2000. It is a bust of the slain civil…read morerights rights leader with some of his most memorable quotes underneath a pergola with benches. The memorial was developed by a partnership between the historic Pearl City community and the city of Boca Raton, It sits in front of the historic 1918 Ebeneezer Baptist Church. Pearl City is a community plated in 1915. It's residents were the blue collar African Americans employed at resorts, farms, and in construction. The community uses the memorial to stage events on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. There is a community breakfast followed by a ceremony with city officials, speeches and music.

All that is left of an interesting part of WWII history in Boca Raton is a white wall with a plaque…read moreon it. In 1942, on the beach, there were four tourist cottages, the Boca Raton Villas and to the south the 1937 home owned by Dr. and Mrs. William Sanborn who lived in Detroit and only used it during the winter. Surrounding their house was a decorative concrete wall. The Army Air Corps had leased the nearby Boca Raton Club as their headquarters while the Boca Raton Army Air Field was under construction. German subs were deployed during WWII as part of Hitler's Operation Drumbeat. They torpedoed tankers and freighters traveling the east coast shipping lane carrying vital supplies to the U.S. and England. A total of 397 ships were sunk and 5,000 people were killed. Twenty-four ships were sunk off the coast of Florida, 18 between Cape Canaveral and Boca Raton. While the German submarines were patrolling the Florida coast a blackout was in effect for all residents of coastal towns. Despite residents precaution, several merchant ships were sunk right off the coast of Boca that year. One night a local family named the Barrett's were visited by the military police who accused them of signaling to the German submarines off shore. A neighbor had reported seeing flashing lights from their area of the beach. The family suggested that the signaling might be coming from the deserted Sanborn house next door. The house was surrounded by a large white U shaped wall and when it was investigated no people were found but there was evidence that the house had been recently occupied. Empty food cans were discovered and the beds had been slept in. A telescope and signaling devices were found in front of the large bay window in the living room but no one was ever caught. Today the Excelsior and Beresford condominiums occupy where the Boca Raton Villas and Sanborn home stood. Sanborn Square and the Sanborn Cafe carry the family name. In November of 2015 a plaque commemorating the history that took place here was unveiled by Boca Raton Mayor Steven Abrams on the portion of the Sanborn wall that still exists.

Visited The Sanborn Wall. An interesting piece of local history. Nice that it has been preserved…read more Any history or WW2 buff will enjoy seeing it. Part of the fun is actually finding it LOL. The GPS will help a bit, but eventually you will have to park and walk a bit. There is a large condo on the site of the former Sanborn estate, but the remaining South perimeter wall still stands, and runs the length from the sidewalk to the beach. Have fun!

The first bridge built across the Boca Raton Inlet was a wooden bridge with pilings that had an…read moreopening for watercraft. It opened electrically, but had to be closed manually by the bridge tender from 1942 to 1964, Haven Ashe. At low tide the remnants of some pilings are still visible. It was replaced in 1964 with a modern bascule bridge. Today the Boca Raton Inlet Bascule Bridge carries traffic from A1A north across the inlet. It is one of only four bridges in the United States with the Hanover skew design also known as a knee girder bascule. The Boca Raton Inlet Bridge extends 540 feet in length. It was designed by Hardesty and Hanover consulting engineers of New York. Their design allowed the bridge to cross the inlet at a sharp 45 degree angle. The Hanover skew design allows for even load distribution over a shorter span using a single leaf instead of the more expensive double leaf, swing bridge, and retractable drawbridge designs. If you have ever driven across the Boca Raton Bascule Bridge you will notice the sharp incline that takes you up to a beautiful view of the inlet. If you were to walk over the bridge you would notice the jagged pivot point on the deck. It was a lot of fun to drive over it on a gorgeous afternoon as we took a trip up the coast in a convertible.

Just off Lake Boca Raton on the Boca Raton Inlet, the Boca Raton Inlet Bascule Bridge carries state…read moreRoute A1A traffic north across the inlet. This bridge has a restricted opening schedule and opens each quarter-hour from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., and on demand at all other times. The bridge has a 23-foot closed vertical clearance with 45 feet of horizontal space at the center span. We took it recently as we took a nice drive up A1A....The bridge's southern point intersects El Camino Real , which brings you to many of the nice businesses in Boca Raton. Mariners are advised to proceed through the Boca Raton Inlet only if they posses prior local knowledge of the area. Despite dredging, the inlet is quite dynamic and continually shoaling. Depending on the schedule, the bridge can be opened by horn signal (one long, one short) or by hailing the bridge tender on VHF Channel 09.

I enjoy learning about all of the military history in South Florida during WWII. Today I discovered…read morethis marker that chronicles a very sad chapter of the war that happened on what is now the Florida Atlantic University Campus. In 1942 the area that is now FAU University was the Boca Raton Army Air Field. For five years it trained 100, 000 soldiers for fighting in WWII. The army built more than 800 buildings and four runways to train pilots. Airplanes flew to Boca Raton from all over the country to have radar installed in their planes. Soldiers stayed at the Boca Raton Resort & Club and camped on the golf course. Some of those who received radar training at the Boca Air Field included Tuskegee Airmen, the crew of the Enola Gay which was the first aircraft to drop an atomic bomb during war time, and future astronaut Gus Grissom. Women at the air field worked in the WAC, Women's Army Corps. On May 12, 1944 the left engine of a Lockheed B-34 crashed during a training mission at what is now the intersection of North University Drive and FAU Boulevard on the FAU campus. After lifting 35 feet in the air, the plane veered left, hit the ground, cartwheeled, and burst into flames. Nine crew members ranging in age from 20 to 31 perished. Lt. Jacob M. Buie, 22, a student radar operator was from Florida. He was the only person to die at the hospital. His family was able to race from Central Florida to his hospital bedside before he passed. The crew members who died that day were: First Lieutenant Jacob M. Buie, Student Radar Operator from Florida, age 22 Staff Sergeant Frank L. Bursaw, Radio Operator, from Missouri, age 31 First Lieutenant William H. Carson, Pilot, from South Carolina, age 23 First Lieutenant Thomas A. Lamont, Student Radar Operator, from New York, age 27 Private Robert E. Locke, Aerial Engineer, from Ohio, age 22 First Lieutenant John J. Lominac, Student Radar Operator from North Carolina, age 25 Sergeant John S. Safieko, Radar Operator, from Missouri, age 25 First Lieutenant Benjamin P. Sibley, Student Radar Operator, from Massachusetts, age 27 Private First Class Norman R. Steiner, Student Engineer, from New York, age 20 Although people in the community knew about the air field, what went on there was kept secret by the government. Not much was even known about the crash. After a category four hurricane destroyed the base in 1947, it was decommissioned. In 1962 the former base became FAU and the Boca Raton Airport and in 1964 the main campus of the University opened to students. Susan Gillis of the Boca Raton Historical Society and Tom Wood, Fire Chief of Boca Raton Fire Rescue Services worked together to compile the history of the airfield and the crash. As a result of their work, on May of 2021 historical marker number F-1083 was unveiled at the sight of the crash. It was erected by Thomas R. Wood, Rosita B. Wood, Susan Gillis, Sally J. Ling, Boca Raton Historical Society, U.S. Air Force Historical Research Agency, Florida Atlantic University, and the Florida Department of State. Family members of 5 of the 9 men who lost their lives were able to attend a ceremony on campus honoring their sacrifice. Now there is a lasting reminder to educate everyone on the worst loss of life on the base. Tom Wood spent 10 years researching the crash to make sure these soldiers would not be forgotten.

Went here for a garden/flower themed event and paid the $5 to go inside the house. It was a…read moreself-guided tour, but they had about 4-5 staff throughout the house to answer any questions you may have. The inside was very nicely staged and I liked that each room had little papers that described what you were seeing and which of the furniture pieces were original. Randomly, my favorite part was probably the book of letters they had in the office room from "Jack" who lived in the house. They were so cute to read through!

We knew we were coming for a mom and me story time. But oh wow were we in for such a treat! It was…read morewith Cheryl McDougal who was born and grew up in this home with her family!. She put so much time and effort into preparing everything. And it was such a wonderful performative experience. All of the children and parents had a wonderful time! Miss Cheryl comes from a long family line of school teachers, and you can tell she loves working with children from her demeanor and the creativity, which came into planning this event. If you are ever able to visit one of the mommy and me sessions with her, I strongly recommend it! After story time, we were able to see Laura the Docents paper crafts which are available for sale and we were given a walk-through tour. It was incredible to see Cheryl's childhood bedroom and the phenomenal collaboratively family built dollhouse, which was her mothers and then hers. Thank you for such an amazing time and for making Halloween so special. McDougal Home is such a phenomenal piece of old Florida history and what once was of the farmland.