The Boca Raton Garden Club continues
its 22-year tradition of offering a holiday ornament.
Photo contributed
By Sallie James
Holiday decorations with a historic touch are what the Boca Raton Garden Club’s annual commemorative ornament fundraiser is all about.
This year’s offering — the 22nd ornament in a series that was started in 1994 —commemorates Spanish River Park.
Ornament Chairman Carol Rice and Lenore Alford, who created the series and designed the ornament, presented the newest ornament during the Nov. 24 City Council meeting.
The three-dimensional ornament depicts the old Spanish River Park tower in the background near a boat dock in a lagoon with a seagull perched on a piling.
Spanish River Park, at North Ocean Boulevard two miles north of Palmetto Park Road, is an oasis where visitors can picnic, fish and hike.
Rice noted that Spanish River Park is the first city park featured on any of the ornaments.
“It was a long, hard struggle to get Spanish River Park. To actually have it become a wonderful park for city use they had to pass many bond issues,” Rice said. “If people hadn’t rallied and voters hadn’t voted the way they did, we would have had a continuous strip of high-rise condos up and down our beachfront.”
Rice explained how a beach buy-up to counteract condo development in Boca Raton along State Road A1A went from 1966 to 1973 when land was acquired for what would become its three major parks.
The park is of special significance to Alford, whose late husband, Alan, served as Boca Raton city manager and then as mayor during the time when the city was acquiring the beachfront property for parks. Alan Alford died in October.
Other ornaments in the series include: Old Town Hall, The Train Depot, Old Betsy, the Pavilion, the Inlet Bridge, the Camino Real Bridge, Boca Hotel and Club and the first Schoolhouse, among others.
Ornaments cost $18 each and are available by calling the Boca Raton Garden Club at 395-9376 or by visiting the Boca Raton Historical Society gift shop at 71 N. Federal Highway.
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