Delray Beach, Florida

USA / Florida / Delray Beach /
Delray Beach is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, USA. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 60,020. As of 2004, the population estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau is 64,150. The history of Delray Beach effectively begins with the construction of the Orange Grove House of Refuge in 1876. Settlement began around 1884, when African-Americans from the Panhandle of Florida bought land a little inland from the Orange Grove House of Refuge and began farming. By 1894 the African-American community was large enough to establish the first school in the area.

In 1894 William Seelye Linton, postmaster of Saginaw, Michigan, bought a tract of land just west of the Orange Grove House of Refuge, and began selling plots in what he hoped would become a farming community. Initially, this community was named after Linton. A hard freeze in 1898 was a setback, and many of the settlers left, including William Linton. Partly in an attempt to change the community's luck, or leave behind a bad reputation, the settlement's name was changed in 1901 to Delray, after a suburb of Detroit, Michigan.

Delray was separated from the Atlantic Ocean beach by the Florida East Coast Canal (now part of the Intracoastal Waterway). In 1923 the area between the canal and the ocean was incorporated as Delray Beach. In 1927 Delray and Delray Beach merged into one town named Delray Beach.
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delray_Beach,_Florida
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   26°27'22"N   80°5'33"W

Comments

  • I was born in New York, raised in Delray Beach and now I live in England...but my heart remains in Delray!
  • The polygon shows the exact city limits, but the rectangle shows the approximate unincorporated limits of Delray Beach.
This article was last modified 8 years ago