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Boca Raton Real Estate

Boca Raton, Florida was first inhabited by the Tekesta Indians who lived along the shores of what is now the Intracoastal Waterway. Spanish explorers and buccaneers were sailing off these shores in the 1500s and found the natural harbor of Lake Boca Raton a safe refuge. The Spanish are responsible for giving the City its name -- Boca de Ratones (the "de" and the "es" in Ratones were dropped over the years). By the early 1900s Boca Raton was a tiny agricultural community with many planters specializing in pineapple cultivation, the brainchild of a young Japanese student from New York named Joseph Sakai. With promises of land and the approval of the United States Commissioner of Immigration, Joseph traveled to Japan to recruit farmers for his Florida project. They named their community Yamato, an ancient name for Japan. One of those early immigrants from Japan was George Sukeji Morikami, who donated the land for the Morikami Park and Museum of Japanese Culture which is located in nearby Delray Beach. In May of 1925 the Town of Boca Raton was created and an architect named Addison Mizner decided to build a dream city of his own. He bought 17,000 acres of land and designed what was to be a new world resort, a utopia of architectural beauty, centering around an exclusive resort hotel. Boca Raton became a playground for the wealthy who enjoyed staying at The Boca Raton Resort and Club (photo upper right). Mizner's influence is evidenced today in much of Boca Raton's architecture as well as the world class shops, restaurants and boutiques located inside Mizner Park. Until the early 1960s Boca Raton remained an upscale small Palm Beach County town with the usual additional winter population. Like the rest of South Florida, Boca Raton experienced a fantastic building boom during the 1970s. It was the strict zoning standards that were adopted during that time, and continue to be strongly enforced today, that are responsible for preserving the beauty of Boca Raton.