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
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Ron Heavyside’s sons, Ronnie (left) and Ryan, run the Nomad Surf Shop he started in 1968. Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star
By Ron Hayes
On a breezy Friday evening not long ago, Ron Heavyside sat in an old wooden porch chair in front of his Nomad Surf Sh
Florida Lore, by Caren Schnur Neile; History Press,
167 pp.; $21.95
By Steve Pike
Caren Schnur Neile can’t remember a time when she wasn’t telling stories.
“I was 7 years old when I wrote my first little book,’’ said Neile, whose latest book, Florid
A couple poses outside the Seacrest Hotel, where the Delray Beach Marriott now stands, on Atlantic Avenue just west of Ocean Boulevard in the 1940s. Delray Beach Historical Society
By Jane Smith
Delray was once a farming mecca, shipping pineapples a
Volunteers work in the Briny Breezes Library in 1972. It looks much the same today. Photos from Overdue in Paradise
By Ron Hayes
The libraries are big and small, public and private. Academic, deeply religious or passionate about medicine. They’re Fin
By Sallie James
IBM is often credited with cementing the place on the map for this little city on the south end of Palm Beach County. And the company and an initial group of 12 engineers then went on to change the world.
“We were given the
In the early days, the building served as Town Hall and Fire Station. Photo provided by Boca Raton Historical Society
By Thom Smith
With the Twenties roaring all around, Addison Mizner, who was as much entrepreneur as he was developer, turned his
Marie Soltis at the Briny Art League studio with her painting of a blue heron at Wakodahatchee Wetlands.
Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star
Artist Louise O’Brian holds one of her paintings outside her Briny Breezes mobile home in the 1940s. Photo provided
The La Coquille Club, built in 1954, was one of the most significant mid-century modern buildings
in the area. The architect was Byron F. Simonson.
In 1934, Jacques and Consuelo Vanderbilt Balsan bought land on the south end
of Hypoluxo Island, whi
Children from the Lantana Hypoluxo School sit
on the Around the World float during a May Day 1923 celebration.
Lantana Elementary School students crowd around a 1935 American LaFrance fire engine
in this photo, one of about 25 images on display at th
Donn Colee Jr. at the original studios of Lake Worth’s ‘All-Girl’ radio station WLIZ, now transmitter site for WWRF, ‘Radio Fiesta.’ Thom Smith/The Coastal Star
By Thom Smith
Long before Florida became a state, the Colee family was setting the sta
By Thom Smith
“You’ve got a nice voice; you should go over to the all-girl radio show,” a newscaster at WEAT (radio and TV then) suggested to the Palm Beach Junior College student he was dating in the mid-’60s.
“And that was it,” Deidre Hal
When it opened in 1991, the shopping complex transformed Boca Raton’s downtown into an urban hub
Courtesy of the Boca Raton Historical Society
TOP: The Boca Raton Mall in the ’80s. ABOVE: Cars turn onto Plaza Real in Mizner Park, which replaced the m
Summoning the past
with a concrete cruise along the old road
Australian pines flank A1A in Gulf Stream in 1944.
Courtesy of the Historical Society of Palm Beach County
Boca Ratone by the Sea, a 1923 gas station/dance hall/ fish camp on A1A where the
Mock protesters were part of the fun of the ‘60s exhibit grand opening. Tim Stepien/The Coastal Star
By Steve Plunkett
Women in tie-dyed dresses and psychedelic makeup took selfies in the parking lot. Inside, a new exhibit at the Boca Raton Histo
By Ron Hayes
You see it at the movies all the time.
“Inspired by a true story” is the promise at the beginning.
And then, in tiny letters at the end: “Although based on real events …” And you find out that most of what you’ve just se
By Steven J. Smith
Restaurateur Arturo Gismondi confirmed he intends to convert the historic Luff House into a restaurant by this time next year.
The two-story, 2,492-square-foot Luff House — named for pioneer residents Theodore and Harriet
For a child living on beachfront,
intrigue of wartime was exciting
Seen from the Atlantic Ocean is the Sanborn house (left), where Dr. Peter Barrett
recalls a suspected spying incident took place in 1942. The Boca Raton Villas ar
at the center and th
By Steve Pike
It’s surprising whom you’ll find in a cemetery. Janet DeVries and Ginger Pedersen, for example, found such well-known West Palm Beachers as Burt Reynolds, Larry the Cable Guy, Ottis Anderson and Lois Frankel. OK, so none of these fou
Heifer International’s holiday gift catalog.
By Ron Hayes
You’ve probably found the catalog in your mailbox around this time of year.
Amid the booklets for gourmet cheese baskets, fruitcakes and holiday trinkets comes “The Most Important Gi
