{"id":2904,"date":"2015-11-15T15:52:51","date_gmt":"2015-11-15T20:52:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/svetanyc.com\/?p=2904"},"modified":"2017-04-09T10:41:58","modified_gmt":"2017-04-09T14:41:58","slug":"boca-raton-2015","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/192.168.2.119:1984\/svetanyc\/2015\/11\/boca-raton-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"Boca Raton, Fl. November 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I think of\u00a0Florida<\/a>, I always remember the amazing experiences I have when visiting\u00a0it, from the amusement parks in Orlando to Winter Music Conference<\/a> in South Beach and from diving in one of the most exciting places in the US (and the world) – Key Largo to ecological diversity of Everglades and the history of Florida Keys. Hence, when my husband had to attend a business conference at Boca Raton<\/a>, Fl, I tagged along, especially since we were to spend 5 days at the world famous Boca Raton Resort and Beach Club, A Waldorf Astoria Resort.<\/a><\/p>\n

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I didn’t venture much outside the resort, except to check out Mizner Park<\/a> in Boca Raton’s downtown and to visit Gumbo Limbo Nature Center<\/a>, however, I spent lots of quality time utilizing every facility and eating at every restaurant the resort had to offer. So, here is my adventures at Boca Raton Resort and Club.<\/p>\n

History of Boca Raton.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The earliest known inhabitants of the Boca Raton area were the Tequesta<\/a> Indians, who lived in communities near the ocean as long ago as one thousand years until being “discovered” by the Spanish voyagers in the 18th\u00a0century. “Boca Ratones”<\/em>, the original name given by the Spaniards, meant “a shallow inlet of sharp-pointed rocks which scrape a ship’s cables.” And it was originally located to the south, in present-day Biscayne Bay<\/a> in Miami. In 1823 a mapmaker, while copying the documents, mistakenly moved its location to the north and began referring to the city’s lake, today known as Lake Boca Raton, as “Boca Ratone Sounde.” The name\u00a0stuck to the area and it is known today as Boca Raton. It didn’t take long for the Spanish and the Brits to clear the area from the indigenous people but for a long time, it largely remained uninhabited. The first significant settler to this area was Captain Thomas Moore Rickards<\/a> in 1895, who resided in a house made of driftwood on the east side of the East Coast Canal. The Florida East Coast Railroad (FEC)<\/a> hired Rickards to promote the area to farmers who would ship their crop via the FEC. Rickards produced the first survey of Boca Raton; he subdivided several hundred acres of land and\u00a0sold the lots to northerners for growing pineapples and orange trees. Rickards planted 50 acres of his own land, called “Black Cat Plantation”, however, after his groves and fields were destroyed in a hurricane in 1903, he moved to North Carolina. The\u00a0expansion of the Florida East Coast Railway, connecting West Palm Beach<\/a> to Miami made the region accessible to a group of resourceful pioneers. Amongst these were a group of Japanese immigrants under the leadership of Joseph Sakai, who formed a community along today’s Yamato Road in 1904.\u00a0Japanese farmers of the Yamato Colony<\/a> converted the land west of the city into pineapple plantations, however, the colony never grew very large due to a blight<\/a> that destroyed much of their crops and subsequent competition from Cuban production. By the 1920s, many of the colonists had returned to Japan, but the Japanese heritage of the Yamato Colony survives in the name of Yamato Road<\/a>\u00a0and in the Morikami Museum and Japanese Gardens<\/a>, located northwest of the city limits.<\/p>\n

In May of 1925, the Town of Boca Raton was incorporated at the height of the Florida land boom, when several investors were interested in turning it\u00a0into a resort town.\u00a0Most famously, Addison Mizner<\/a> had several projects for resorts and mansions in the area. His exclusive hotel\u00a0Ritz-Carlton Cloister Inn was built in 1926, later renamed the Boca Raton Resort & Club<\/a>, and is still one of the only “5 star” hotels located in Florida.\u00a0Although many of Mizner’s plans for the young community were squelched by the demise of the land boom in 1926, a few survive today\u2014and his architectural style continues to influence the city (ex. Town Hall – the home of the Boca Raton Historical Society and its History Museum).<\/p>\n

In the 1930s and 1940s, Boca was known for its winter vegetable crop, particularly the green beans which commanded a premium in northern markets. In 1942, the Army Air Corps established its only war-time radar training school at the site of what is today Florida Atlantic University and the Boca Raton Airport. The facility brought thousands of servicemen as well as families and civilian employees to the tiny community of Boca Raton, with a population of 723 people in 1940.<\/p>\n

In the 1960s, South Florida experienced another great land boom, with developments pushing the Everglades and former farmlands increasingly westward. The population grew to almost 30,000 residents by 1970, continuing to increase well outside city limits to this day. In 1962, Boca Raton attracted the newest state university, Florida Atlantic, to the site of the old army airbase. IBM<\/a> moved one of its computer facilities to Boca Raton in 1967, and in 1981, it was there the first IBM PC was developed.<\/p>\n

During the 1980s and 1990s, the city focused much of its attention on downtown redevelopment, and a number of important historical properties, such as Boca Raton’s original Town Hall and F.E.C. Railway Station were restored and opened to the public. In 1991, the new downtown outdoor shopping and dining center, Mizner Park<\/a>, was designed\u00a0over the site of the old Boca Raton Mall. It has since become a cultural center for southern Palm Beach County, featuring a landscaped central park between the two main roads (collectively called “Plaza Real”) with stores only on the outside of the roads. In\u00a02001, it became home to the Boca Raton Museum of Art<\/a>, and as of\u00a02002 – a location of the new Count de Hoernele Amphitheater – a large-capacity outdoor venue for concerts and other performances. Completed in 2013, Mizner Park was designed as a classical\u00a0Mediterranean revival<\/a> town center and presently features many restaurants, boutiques and galleries. On one afternoon when my husband and I decided to drive “to the city”, Mizner Park looked more like a “trying too hard wanna-be” Mediterranean outdoor mall (if there are any of that kind in Europe) with virtually all of its residents taking\u00a0siesta. We stopped at Villagio<\/a>\u00a0Restaurant for lunch and it was pretty ordinary – from food to service to ambience.<\/p>\n

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Many buildings in town have a\u00a0Spanish Colonial Revival<\/a> architectural theme, initially inspired by Addison Mizner. Still today, Boca Raton has a strict development code for the size and types of commercial buildings, building signs, and advertisements that may be erected within the city limits. For ex., neither outdoor car dealerships nor billboards are allowed in the municipality. Go figure!<\/p>\n

Well, from a farming community of 18 souls in 1903, modern-day\u00a0Boca Raton is one of the wealthiest communities in South Florida and home to over 93,000 people, most of whom are white, well-educated and well-off or, should I say, rich.\u00a0According to Forbes<\/a>, Boca Raton has three of the ten most expensive gated communities in the U.S. – The Royal Palm Yacht and Country Club holds the #1 spot, The Sanctuary – #6, and Le Lac – #8 spot.<\/p>\n

Boca Raton Resort and Club.<\/strong><\/p>\n

To tell a story of Florida’s most famous and luxurious hotel, we have to begin with a story of its mastermind – Addison Mizner – a so-called “Society Architect”. Mizner’s\u00a0Palm Beach mansions for the wealthy and socially prominent created both a new architectural style and a new life style for America\u2019s preeminent winter resort.\u00a0Born in 1872 in Benicia, California to one of the state\u2019s pioneer families, Mizner, like most members of his profession in those years, didn’t have a university degree, but received his formal training as an apprentice in the office of Willis Polk, later a prominent San Francisco architect. After a decade as a country house architect on Long Island, Mizner came to Palm Beach with sewing machine heiress, Paris Singer, during the winter of 1918. It was his design for Singer\u2019s Everglades Club<\/a> that introduced Mediterranean style architecture to the resort. The success of the club lead to commissions for resort mansions for the socialites of Palm Beach (Mizner Boca Raton Development Brochure<\/a>)<\/p>\n

To help draw the wealthy away from Palm Beach, Mizner planned to build a large ritzy hotel right on the beach\u00a0and call it – The Castillo del Rey. This hotel was part of his plan to create “the world’s most architecturally beautiful playground” with miles of “paved and landscaped streets, golf courses, polo fields, elegant shopping vistas, and luxurious mansions for the cr\u00e8me de la cr\u00e8me of world society.” Along with his brother, Addison formed The Mizner Land Development Company, which included such investors as T. Coleman du Pont<\/a>, Elizabeth Arden<\/a>, William K.<\/a> and Harold Vanderbilt<\/a>, Clarence H. Geist, Irving Berlin<\/a>, the Duchess of Sutherland<\/a>, and Paris Singer. The Mizner Development Corporation took in over two million dollars on the first day of sales and an additional two million at the second offering of lots. However, when Ritz-Carlton group was brought on board to run the Castillo del Ray, the hotel had to be redesigned in order to meet the Ritz-Carlton\u2019s exacting standards, and it significantly delayed the start of construction. With the money from lot sales, Mizner decided to immediately build a smaller 100-room Cloister Inn on the west bank of Lake Boca Raton. He also started construction of the many amenities he had promised for the new city of Boca Raton, including the miles of streets, the administration buildings, and a number of houses.<\/p>\n

Built in the Mediterranean Revival style, with glorious decor and landscaping, complete with gardens and courtyards, The Cloister Inn opened on Christmas Eve, of 1925, with a dinner party, hosted by Addison and his brother. The dinner guests and critics alike fell in love with Mizner’s dream hotel. “The Cloister was simple to severity in its whole yet rich in delights.” Another critic asked: “What could make forms of wood, or stone, or stucco so beautiful that they trouble the imagination?” The entire hotel, constructed in a few short months, was decorated in a stark almost monastic appearance. It featured original antiques, tapestries, and artifacts from Mizner’s personal collection in addition to products of Mizner Industries. Besides offering a gloriously beautiful hotel, inside and out, Addison wanted to extend the tradition of having a high standard of service as well, by anticipating the amenities and comforts of the hotel’s guests. To do so, all service employees were carefully picked and trained. Description of the hotel from a historical record.<\/a><\/p>\n

However, already by the autumn of 1925, Florida\u2019s great land boom began to unravel. Bad publicity was generated by the fraudulent practices of many promoters and transportation embargoes that kept building supplies from reaching the state. Members of America\u2019s middle class traveling to Florida during the summer found its hotels and restaurants closed and its heat, humidity, and mosquitoes unbearable. These factors all contributed to an uncertain real estate climate. Unfortunately, Mizner\u00a0had entered the real estate market just as it began to collapse. By the time the Ritz-Carlton Cloister Inn\u00a0formally opened in February 1926, the corporation had serious problems. The hurricane of September 1926, sealed the fate of the Florida land boom and of Mizner\u2019s dream for Boca Raton. By spring 1927, suits were filed asking recovery of property sold to the Mizner company, which\u00a0led to bankruptcy. In November, Clarence H. Geist, an original Mizner backer and wealthy Philadelphia utilities company owner, purchased the assets for $71,500 in cash and the assumption of around seven million dollars in debts. Nevertheless, Clarence H. Geist, embracing architect’s vision of having a high quality resort hotel, built upon Mizner’s beginning efforts, doubling the size of The Cloister Inn and constructing the Cabana Club, thus expanding the hotel into the Boca Raton Club. Geisth also hired Ohan Berberyan, a Palm beach art dealer to complete the decoration of the hotel.\u00a0Subsequently, the U.S. Army used the club as barracks during World War II. Touted by officials as “the most elegant barracks in history,” it housed soldiers during the Boca Raton Army Air Field’s operation.<\/p>\n

Throughout the years, owners of this resort built on the plans of Mizner, adding their own improvements, and always keeping the service to guests as a priority front and center. The\u00a0Schine<\/a> family, owners of the Biltmore and McAllister hotels, purchased the hotel in 1944, renaming it the Boca Hotel and Club.\u00a0Arthur Vining Davis<\/a>\u00a0and his\u00a0Arvida Corporation<\/a> modernized the hotel, and built The Boca Raton Club Tower in 1969, that is 91m\u00a0tall, has 27 floors, and is colored in a lovely “Boca pink”. In 1980, Davis and his Arvida Corporation built the resort’s large Beach Club Hotel on the prime oceanfront property where Mizner originally\u00a0had planned to build his Castillo del Ray. The hotel resort was bought by VMS Realty, in 1983 and after the\u00a02009 renovation, it made\u00a0an attractive property for the Waldorf Astoria Collection Corp, who bought the whole resort in the spring of 2009.<\/p>\n

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Since its opening, Boca Raton Resort and Club \u00a0has been a top destination on southern Florida’s Gold Coast. Occupying 356 acres fronting the Atlantic Ocean, it has a private stretch of beach, two 18-hole golf courses, 30 tennis courts, 5 pools, croquet, baseball, basketball and a 27-slip marina. A wide variety of restaurants (13, to be exact) and lounges can be found here, as the Spa Palazzo offers signature treatments like Arabian Ritual Bath. Hmmmm….<\/p>\n

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The Boca Beach Club<\/strong> is a gorgeous waterfront property where I was “shuttled” to every day from The Cloisters. At\u00a010 am, I would attend a Hydro-Fitness pool class, in a company of a dozen 70+ year old ladies and even make friends with some of them. Both, the beach and pool facilities were impeccable, service was friendly but not annoyingly intrusive, and\u00a0fitness instructors were supportive but not super demanding. I was happy that my husband managed to free a half-day to spend it with me at the Club.<\/p>\n

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