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Town Hall at 7:00 P.M.
71 N. Federal Highway, Boca Raton
Free Parking
Admission: BRHS Members - Free / Non-members - $5.00
Please RSVP at 561.395.6766.101 or for more information.
October 19, 2011
Women of the Boca Raton Army Air Field During World War II
Aubrey Kintop, a former intern of the Boca Raton Historical Society,
recently received her master's degree in history from FAU and currently
serves as FAU adjunct professor specializing in American history. Aubrey
will discuss her research on civilian and military women of the Boca Raton
Army Air Field during World War II.
November 14, 2011
Boca Raton's Historic Downtown: The Boca Raton Road Quarter
Bonnie Dearborn will present historic downtown Boca Raton Road
when it was Boca Raton's bustling downtown. She will introduce its 
distinguished owners/residents, identify its trendy architecture, and
show its transition into becoming an avant garde design quarter.
With a master's degree in Urban Geography, Bonnie Dearborn,
was the administrator of the South Florida Regional Historic
for the Florida Division of Historical Resources,
Florida Department of State for 12 years. She now works as a historic preservation consultant. A 28-year resident of Boca Raton, Bonnie has researched and prepared several nomination reports for placing historically significant properties on the Boca Raton Register of Historic
Places as well as on the National Register.
January 18, 2012
Boca Raton's Yamato Colonists During World War II
Ana Soto, a Miami-Dade county educator who received her master's degree in History from FAU in 2010, will speak on Boca Raton's Yamato colonists during World War II.
The Yamato settlement was established in what is today the northern portion of Boca Raton by Japanese immigrants in the early twentieth century. By 1940 only three of the original families during World War II remained in the area. Ms. Soto will discuss the experiences of these families during World War II and how they compared with that of Japanese citizens on the west coast of the U.S. She will also reveal the treatment of white and African American residents displaced by the government for the establishment of the Boca Raton Army Air Field.
February 15, 2012
 The War Offshore:
German Subs off the Florida Coast During World War II
Boca Raton resident Eliot Kleinberg is the author of nine books about Florida and a long time reporter for the Palm Beach Post. He will discuss Florida's role during World War II and the German U-boat attacks that took place right off our coast in 1942.
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Past popular exhibitions displayed in the History Museum are now available to the public as traveling exhibits. The exhibits consist of hanging panels that depict an historical event or topic in Boca Raton's rich history. 
Palm Beach society architect Addison Mizner created the "Palm Beach style" with his design for the Everglades Club on Worth Avenue in 1918. He quickly found that he was not able to purchase through local suppliers the tile and iron work he needed for his Spanish design. He took over a blacksmith shop to make lighting fixtures and ornamental grills and built his own kilns to make the roof tiles. As his commissions grew, he purchased various craft shops to supply the décor and materials for his projects. Mizner Industries grew into one of the largest manufacturing companies in Palm Beach in the 1920s. The company made tiles, hand made pottery, wrought iron and stamped metal fixtures, cast stone columns, windows, and door surrounds, indoor and outdoor furniture, and art glass. The furnishings and other details were often distressed to give them the appearance of antiquity. Mizner Industries also imported antique furniture, decorative tiles, and other accessories to supplement the locally made products. Together these items helped furnish homes through South Florida 
By the 1950s, these furnishings and details were no longer in vogue; many were lost in the demolition of Palm Beach estates or the various renovations of the Boca Raton Club. Because of Boca Raton's close ties with the architect, "Mizner Industries" has been a focus of the Boca Raton Historical Society's collections since the 1970s. In this new exhibition at Town Hall we present a sampling of our current knowledge of both known Mizner Industries products (a rarity) and artifacts which represent the "Mizner style," popular once again.
