Listed on early maps as "Boca Ratones," many people wrongly assume the name is simply translated to "Rat’s Mouth." The Spanish word boca (or mouth) was often used to describe an inlet, while raton (literally mouse) was used by Spanish sailors to describe rocks that gnawed at a ship's cable, or as a term for a cowardly thief.[1][2] The name Boca Ratones originally appeared on eighteenth century maps associated with an inlet in the Biscayne Bay area of Miami. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, the term was mistakenly moved north on most maps and applied to Lake Boca Raton, whose inlet was closed at the time. The local pronunciation for "Raton" resembles the Spanish pronunciation; "Boca Raton" rhymes with "tone" and "alone" (not with "baton").
The Boca Raton Resort & Club Tower.
The city's early history was as the site of Addison Mizner's Boca Raton Hotel. The "pink hotel" today is visible from miles away as a towering building on the Intracoastal Waterway. The Pearl City neighborhood of Boca Raton was established to originally house the service personnel for the hotel. Japanese farmers of the Yamato Colony converted the land west of the city into pineapple plantations beginning in 1904. During World War II much of their land was confiscated and used as the site of a major training facility for B-29 bomber crews. Much of the airbase was later donated to become the grounds of Florida Atlantic University, many of whose parking lots are former runways of the airbase, while part of the airbase is now used as Boca Raton Airport. The Japanese heritage of the Yamato Colony survives in the name of Yamato Road (NW 51st Street) just north of the airport and at the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens northwest of the city.
Boca Raton was the site of two now vanished amusement parks, Africa U.S.A. (1953-1961) and Ancient America (1953-1959). Africa U.S.A. was a wild animal park in which the tourists rode a "Jeep Safari Train" through the park. There were no fences separating the animals from the tourists on the "Jeep Safari Train".[3] It is now the Camino Gardens subdivision one mile (1.6 km) west of the Boca Raton Hotel. Ancient America was built surrounding a real Calusa Indian burial mound. Today, the mound is still visible within the Sanctuary neighborhood on U.S. Route 1 near Yamato Road.[4]
T-REX Corporate Center was originally one of IBM's research labs where the IBM PC was created.
In the late 1960s, Boca Raton became the southern home to the International Business Machines Corporation. In 1965, well before the extension of I-95 into Southern Florida, IBM purchased several hundred acres of real estate just west of the CSX rail line, just northwest of Florida Atlantic University. Construction of IBM's main complex began in earnest in 1967, and the mammoth manufacturing and office complex was dedicated in March, 1970. The campus was designed with self-sufficiency in mind, and to that end sported its own electrical substation, water pumping station, and rail-spur. Among other very noteworthy IT accomplishments, such as the mass manufacture of the System/360 and development of the Series/1 mainframe computers, IBM's main complex was the birthplace of the IBM PC, which later evolved into the IBM Personal System/2. In 1987, IBM relocated their manufacturing for what became the IBM PC Company to Research Triangle Park in Raleigh, North Carolina, and converted the cavernous manufacturing facilities into offices and laboratories, later producing ground-breaking products such as the OS/2 operating system and VoiceType Dictation, known today as ViaVoice voice-recognition software.
IBM maintained its facilities at Boca Raton until 1996, when the facility was closed and was sold to Blue Lake Real Estate, who in turn sold it to the T-REX Management Consortium. Today, T-REX has revitalized the facility and its surrounding real estate into a highly-successful and landscaped business/research park. What used to be IBM's Building 051, an annex separated from the former main IBM campus by Spanish River Boulevard was donated to the Palm Beach County School District and converted into Don Estridge High Tech Middle School. It is named for the late Don Estridge, whose team was responsible for developing the IBM PC.
Due to Boca Raton's population explosion, many areas began to decay, including the downtown area. The Boca Raton Mall, a popular shopping mall in the 1970s was going vaccant, due to the opening of Town Center at Boca Raton in 1979. Many buildings were also being boarded up from the lack of customers and high traffic from cars going to the beach.[citation needed]
However, in the late-1980s, the city came up with a master plan to revitalize the decaying area that included mass landscaping, expansion of the downtown park, Sanborn Square, restoration of the old city hall to become a museum (The city council completely moved out in the late-80s), and a large lifestyle center to replace the dead Boca Raton one.[citation needed]
To do this, Boca Raton then passed a city ordinance banning the further development of multi-family housing within the city limits and for special zoning that limits the size and types of commercial buildings and advertisement signs which may be erected within the city limits. Corporations such as McDonald's had to redesign their classic Golden Arches restaurant motif to conform to Boca Raton's sign zoning restrictions. The unincorparated areas still contain restaurants with the classic arches, but the heights of the signs have been reduced. The effects of strict building ordinances has manifested itself in the majority of the area's buildings, constructed in the classic Addison Mizner style. Roadside advertising has also been subdued, as a result.[citation needed]
Mizner Park is a downtown attraction in Boca Raton's financial district.
In 1991, a new downtown shopping center, Mizner Park, was completed over the site of the older Boca Raton Mall. It has since become a cultural center for the city. Featuring a landscaped central park between two cobblestone roads (collectively called Plaza Real) with stores only on the outside of the roads, Mizner Park resembles a Mediterranean suburban "town center" with a more contemporary look. It features many restaurants and is home to the Boca Raton Museum of Art which opened in 2001. In 2002, a new amphitheater was built replacing a smaller one, providing a large-capacity outdoor venue.[citation needed]
However, despite Mizner Park's success, it has become the target of serious crime, occasional vandalism, and political controversy. In the mid-1990s, the Ku Klux Klan marched down Plaza Real; in addition, the area has become a destination for pickpockets and other petty criminals. Despite the crime, a successful renovation project was completed, yielding a total of six new high-rise towers.[citation needed]
In 1999, Simon Property Group bought out Town Center at Boca Raton and rebuilt the mall with an extension. Mervyn's closed its store as well as another in the outside the city. Saks Fifth Avenue then took and renovated the space and the old Saks was demolished and the lot was extended with a new anchor Nordstrom. The finished product was unveiled in late 2000 with over twenty-five new stores to shop in. It has now become a tourist attraction and one of the largest Simon malls in South Florida.[citation needed]
Demographics
As of the censusGR2 of 2000, there were 74,764 people, 31,848 households, and 20,000 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,061.7/km² (2,749.8/mi²). There were 37,547 housing units at an average density of 533.2/km² (1,381.0/mi²).
There were 31,848 households out of which 24.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 53.1% were married couples living together, 7.1% had a female householder with no husband present, and 37.2% were non-families. 29.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.26 and the average family size was 2.81.
In the city, the population was spread out with 18.9% under the age of 18, 8.1% from 18 to 24, 26.4% from 25 to 44, 26.7% from 45 to 64, and 19.8% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 43 years. For every 100 females there were 95.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 92.8 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $60,248, and the median income for a family was $77,861. Males had a median income of $52,287 versus $33,347 for females. The per capita income for the city was $45,628. About 4.1% of families and 6.7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 6.0% of those under age 18 and 4.9% of those age 65 or over.
