Delray Beach Travel and Vacation Rental Overview

Delray Beach is a sophisticated little town located in southern Palm Beach County, directly on the Atlantic Ocean. A one-mile stretch of boutiques, art galleries, jazz clubs, restaurants and a historic hotel line Atlantic Avenue and ends right at the beach. This is one of the area’s most popular hangouts. The gentle waters at Delray Beach are perfect for swimming. In fact, its clean, wide beach, water warmed by the gulf stream and lack of rip currents made it the number one beach in the southeastern United States according to Travel Holiday magazine. There are special areas on the beach for kite flying, volleyball, Frisbee and paddleball. Scuba diving and snorkeling are nearby, and there are plenty of good golf courses in the area. Other recreational activities such as hiking and biking are offered at Delray Beach city parks. Delray Beach was named an "All-American City" by the National Civic League in 1993 and 2001. It is situated between Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach, but is much quieter than these two resort towns. Not just for families, Delray Beach is a romantic city where you can hold hands as you amble along the tree-lined streets, browsing through the galleries, shops and boutiques. Lodging also is plentiful; everything from moderately priced hotels to a quaint family-run inn.

The history of Delray Beach effectively begins with the construction of the Orange Grove House of Refuge in 1876. The house derived its name from the grove of mature sour orange and other tropical fruit trees found at the site chosen for the house of refuge, but no record or evidence of who planted the trees has survived. Indians presumably lived or passed through the area at various times, and hunters, trappers, and run-away slaves may also have lived or passed through the area in the 18th and 19th centuries, but there is no record or evidence of them.

Settlement began around 1884, when African-Americans from the Panhandle of Florida purchased land a little inland from the Orange Grove House of Refuge and began farming. By 1894 the Black community was large enough to establish the first school in the area.

In 1894 William Seelye "Steel Cut" 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. In 1896 Henry Flagler extended his Florida East Coast Railroad south from West Palm Beach to Miami, with a station at Linton.

The Linton settlers began to achieve success with truck farming of winter vegetables for the northern market. 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 the Detroit neighborhood of Delray ("Delray" being the anglicized spelling of "Del Rey," which is Spanish for "of the king", which in turn, the Detroit neighborhood was named after the Mexican-American War's Battle of Molino del Rey).

By 1910, Delray had a population of 250. In 1911 Delray was chartered by the State of Florida as an incorporated town. In the same year pineapple and tomato canning plants were built in Delray. Pineapples became the primary crop of the area. This is reflected in the name of the present day Pineapple Grove neighborhood near downtown Delray Beach. By 1920 Delray's population had reached 1,051.