Visitors to a previous Delray Affair look at a Delray Beach Historical Society exhibit celebrating the Delray Affair’s start as the Gladioli Festival. Photo provided
By Christine Davis
Coinciding with the 63rd Delray Affair, the Delray Beach Historic
Tim Sharp works in Boca Raton teaching students in the Chamber of Commerce’s Young Entrepreneurs Academy, one of his several volunteer missions. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
By Hannah Spence
Many people aspire to spend their golden years at the beac
A worker records a headstone during an inventory of the Delray Beach Memorial Gardens Municipal Cemetery in June. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
Survey maps graves and occupants, opening a new avenue into Delray’s history
More local history stories: Ce
By Rich Pollack
DELRAY BEACH — Roy Simon loved Delray Beach.
A Delray native and a descendent of one of the community’s first families, Mr. Simon had a passion for his hometown. That energy charged much of his work and focused his vision on ideas th
Delray Beach police search Black men parked at the beach in 1956. Officials did not allow Black people on city beaches until 1962, slowly relenting in the face of negative national publicity. Photo provided by Delray Beach Historical Society
How coas
Understanding our history is critical in today’s world.
Learning about the past helps us all to recognize our predecessors’ brilliant successes as well as their mistakes. Perhaps most important, we can identify the times when evil darkened the world
The contestants for queen of the 1951 Gladioli Festival. The festival lives on as the annual Delray Affair. Photo provided by the Delray Beach Historical Society
Related: Along the Coast: A view from the home front
By Anne Geggis
The 20-year stretch
The society’s premier fund-raiser was a spectacular success, welcoming guests to the downtown campus where they meandered along the pathways of the one-acre Heritage Garden. Custom-built vignettes showcased favorite restaurants offering delicious foo
Historical Society Executive Director Winnie Diggans Edwards (left) counts on volunteers like Dan Kowalski and Connie Cook Lyons to keep the Heritage Gardens thriving. Photos by Jan Engoren/The Coastal Star
By Jan Engoren
On a beautiful Friday mornin
Longtime residents fill in gaps, share stories of Delray Beach history
Wise Elder Circle members Wanda Machek, 79, and Roy Simon, 87, pore over vintage photos in an effort to identify people in the images. The Delray Beach Historical Society started
Charles Gregory and Jamie Anderson release two fish for an exhibit.
A checkered pufferfish is on display.
John Miller of Delray Beach builds aquarium bases.
Photos by Tim Stepien and Willie Howard/The Coastal Star
By Willie Howard
The Delray Beach
From fishing queens and charter boats
to tackle and trophies, Delray show reels in
history in a catchy way
Fishing around Delray Beach was portrayed in an alluring way to motorists who spotted this billboard.
The Wueppers, Smiths and others on Delray
Howard Falcon, who grew up in what now is known as Delray Beach’s Historic Falcon House, returned for a reunion with longtime friends. Joining Falcon, his son Howard III and his grandson Howard IV at the 1925 home — now SoHo/Max’s Social House — were
Jestena Boughton, owner of the landmark downtown hotel, continued a family tradition that began more than eight decades ago by giving back – this year, to the Delray Beach Historical Society. Boughton presented a $10,000 gift that will help the socie
LEFT: James ‘Bay’ McBride Jr. drowned in 1956 while swimming at an unguarded beach. It was illegal for him to use the ‘whites only’ beach off Atlantic Avenue.
BELOW: Bay’s mother, Rosabelle McBride, visits his grave.
Jerry Lower/The Coasta
In 1962 the Interracial Committee was formed to seek harmony
amid the unresolved resistance to integration of the beach.
Delray Beach Police Chief R.C. Croft displays items
confiscated under an ordinance that allowed police to search vehicles.
Photo
A postcard advertises one of the Boston’s site’s early incarnations as the Hotel Del-Sol.
Photo provided by Delray Beach Historical Society
Boston’s, with the Upper Deck above.
Photo provided
Where else would hockey sticks decorate the dance floor, e
Delray Beach Historical Society President Leslie Callaway addresses the crowd
during the the 50th Anniversary Celebration of the Delray Beach Historical Society charter signing.
INSET BELOW: A portrait of Ethel Sterling Williams.
Tim Stepien/The Coa
By Rich Pollack
Marsha Love’s The Cat at Cason Cottage may be the only children’s book set in Delray Beach that includes a cat named Clarabelle, a series of friendly ghosts and, of course, lots of local history.
Love — a descendent of early
World War II Navy veteran Ernie Simon, and his wife, Norma, look at a mannequin
dressed in a WWII 101st Airborne uniform in the Cason Cottage at the Delray Beach Historical Society
during the ‘Delray Beach: The World War II Experience.’
Kurtis Boggs
