Annual Highwaymen Art Show & Sale
Date: February 7, 2026
Location: Boynton Beach Arts & Cultural Center 125 East Ocean Avenue, Boynton Beach
Boynton Beach Historical Society Program Meetings
Location:
First Presbyterian Church of Boynton Beach
235 SW 6th Avenue, Boynton Beach (Park on west side, use northwest gate)
Hospitality Meet & Greet 7:15-7:30 pm
Programs: 7:30 – 8:30 pm
November 24, 2025
Program: Unbreakable Healer—The Remarkable Life of Dr. Mabel Elliott
Speaker: Dr. Ginger Pedersen
Unbreakable Healer by G.L. Pedersen
DR. MABEL E. ELLIOTT of West Palm Beach, Florida, was an adventurous physician, missionary, and humanitarian. From 1919 to 1923, she braved war zones in Turkey, leading refugees from the Armenian Genocide through a blizzard in Marash and caring for thousands in desperate need. As Medical Director in Ismid and Armenia, she saved orphans and refugees. After the Burning of Smyrna, she treated thousands of refugees, setting up hospitals across Greece. Analysis of her 1924 book, Beginning Again at Ararat, solved a century-old historical mystery. From 1925 to 1941, she shattered barriers in Japan as the first licensed American woman doctor, revolutionizing care for women and children at St. Luke’s International Hospital in Tokyo. Her legacy is one of courage, compassion, and lasting change.
January 26, 2026
Program: Landscape Painters—A.E. Backus and Florida’s Highwaymen
Speaker: Dr. Evan Bennett
February 23, 2026
Program: Sunlit Arches—How William Manly King Shaped South Florida
Speaker: Janet Naughton
Author Janet Naughton
Sunlit Arches by Janet Naughton
William Manly King Jr. was one of the architects who helped shape South Florida in the early twentieth century. From the optimism of the 1920s land boom to the hardships of the Great Depression and the transformations of the postwar years, his designs reflected the needs and ideals of a changing state. He created schools, churches, residences, apartment houses, hospitals, and civic buildings—structures that served communities and gave form to public life.
King was long overlooked, yet he created more buildings than many of his celebrated contemporaries, and his work defined the look of South Florida for generations. Drawing on years of research, historian Janet Naughton offers the first comprehensive study of his career, blending architectural history with the stories of the communities his work touched.
March 23, 2026
Program: The Life and Times of Muralist Bernard P. Thomas
Speaker: Sarah Thomas Bollenbacher and Lloyd
Thomas
April 27, 2026
Program: Mangos and More!
Speaker: Larry Grosser
HISTORY STROLLS
Professor Janet Naughton, past-president of the Boynton Beach Historical Society leads narrated history tours of downtown Boynton Beach, local cemeteries, and other historic sites.
2024 Tours
February 17, 2024 (sold out)
History stroll with Professor Janet Naughton
Rosenwald Schools in Palm Beach County – Historic Marker Dedication, 2024
Historic Marker Dedication for Boynton’s Poinciana Elementary School. The school was the first Rosenwald Funded School for rural black children in Palm Beach County
Program Meeting Recordings
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