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Rainbow Tropical Gardens: A Roadside Paradise in Boynton Beach

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Rainbow Tropical Gardens: A Roadside Paradise in Boynton Beach

In the first half of the twentieth century, the coastal region of South Florida experienced rapid transformation. Railroads, highways, and the land boom of the 1920s brought new towns and tourism to areas like Boynton Beach. Along U.S. Highway 1, travelers encountered a landscape filled with nurseries, citrus groves, and small attractions that promoted Florida’s image as a lush, tropical destination. Among these, one of the most memorable was Rainbow Tropical Gardens, created and maintained by Clyde O’Brien Miller, a gifted horticulturist whose imagination and craftsmanship shaped the site into one of Boynton Beach’s earliest and most beloved landmarks.

Clyde O’Brien Miller and His Vision

Clyde O’Brien Miller was born in 1885 and developed an early interest in tropical plants and landscape design. He was part of a generation of horticulturists who viewed Florida not only as fertile ground for agriculture but also as a living canvas for artful gardens. Before establishing his own property, Miller worked on the gardens of Addison Mizner’s Cloister Inn in Boca Raton, where he absorbed Mizner’s use of Mediterranean Revival architecture and romantic garden design. This experience strongly influenced his later work.

By the late 1920s, Miller had settled in Boynton Beach and purchased land along U.S. 1 just north of downtown. He opened Rainbow’s End Nursery, which sold tropical plants and decorative landscape materials. Miller’s passion for creating beautiful spaces soon transformed the nursery into something larger. He began developing the grounds into Rainbow Tropical Gardens, a series of landscaped pathways, water features, and floral displays that showcased the variety and vibrancy of Florida’s tropical vegetation. Miller’s vision combined horticulture and art in a way that appealed to both tourists and local residents.

Design and Features

The gardens reflected Miller’s mastery of planting design and his appreciation for the visual power of color and form. He arranged winding footpaths that led through beds of hibiscus, crotons, bougainvillea, and palms. Visitors followed these trails past lagoons, fountains, and bridges, each carefully placed to frame the surrounding landscape. Stone gazebos, archways, and pergolas offered shade and a sense of discovery, while reflecting pools mirrored the vibrant foliage overhead.

At the front of the property stood Mediterranean Revival–style buildings that served as the gift shop and café. Local tradition and historical recollections suggest that Addison Mizner, who had already established himself as Palm Beach County’s most famous architect, either designed or inspired these structures. The combination of stucco walls, barrel tile roofs, and arched openings harmonized perfectly with the surrounding plantings.

Miller himself was responsible for much of the stonework and ornamental detailing throughout the grounds. His craftsmanship gave the gardens a handmade quality that distinguished them from purely commercial roadside attractions. Everything about the property reflected careful planning and artistic intent.

The Tourist Attraction Years

During the 1930s and 1940s, Rainbow Tropical Gardens became a celebrated stop for travelers driving the Dixie Highway and later U.S. 1. Visitors walked through the gardens, took photographs, and purchased tropical plants to ship north. The site appeared on linen postcards distributed across the country, often labeled with its motto, “All the Colors of the Tropics.” These colorful images helped spread Boynton Beach’s reputation as a place of natural beauty.

By the postwar years, Miller expanded the attraction to meet the expectations of modern tourists. The property included bird shows, alligators, and a Seminole Indian Village, reflecting the entertainment trends of the 1950s. Despite these additions, the heart of the gardens remained Miller’s landscapes and his commitment to horticultural display.

Rainbow Tropical Gardens also functioned as a community landmark. Local families held gatherings on the grounds, and the gardens served as a backdrop for countless photographs and wedding portraits. It represented the idealized Florida landscape that residents and visitors alike associated with sunshine, color, and abundance.

Florida map showing Rainbow Tropical Gardens

Decline and Transformation

By the late 1950s, the tourist economy of coastal Florida began to shift. The construction of the interstate highway system diverted travelers away from U.S. 1, reducing the steady stream of visitors who once stopped in Boynton Beach. Larger and more heavily advertised attractions, such as Cypress Gardens near Winter Haven, began to dominate the market. Like many independent roadside sites, Rainbow Tropical Gardens could not compete.

The property gradually closed, and much of the land was redeveloped. However, the main building, which had served as the garden’s entrance and café, survived. It was adapted for new use and today operates as Benvenuto’s Catering and Restaurant, a well-known Boynton Beach landmark. The restaurant retains many original architectural elements, including stucco walls, Spanish tile roofing, and arched porticos that date back to the garden’s early years.

The surrounding area became part of the Dos Lagos residential community, which occupies what was once the broader landscape of the gardens. Within that neighborhood, a few of the original garden structures still exist. Stone gazebos, walls, and fragments of pathways can still be found amid newer development, quietly preserving traces of Miller’s original design.

Remnant arch from Rainbow Tropical Gardens

Clyde Miller’s Legacy

Clyde O’Brien Miller’s work at Rainbow Tropical Gardens reflected his belief that horticulture was an art form capable of transforming the everyday environment. His skill as a gardener and builder made him one of Boynton Beach’s early creative figures. Although Miller was not trained as an architect, his collaboration with the Mizner aesthetic and his ability to blend structure and vegetation placed him within the larger tradition of Florida’s garden designers.

Miller’s influence extended beyond the physical site. His approach to tropical landscaping anticipated later trends in South Florida design, where color, texture, and native flora became central features of residential and public gardens. Even after the gardens closed, his example inspired other nurserymen and landscapers in the region.

Enduring Significance

Rainbow Tropical Gardens stood for three decades as a symbol of South Florida’s beauty and enterprise. It showcased the possibilities of tropical horticulture at a time when the region was defining its identity as a tourist paradise. The site’s history connects Boynton Beach to the broader story of Florida’s roadside culture and the individuals who shaped it through imagination and labor.

Although much of the original garden has vanished, the survival of Benvenuto’s Restaurant and several of Miller’s stone structures ensures that the spirit of Rainbow Tropical Gardens has not completely disappeared. For residents of the Dos Lagos community, the memory of the gardens remains embedded in the landscape itself.

Park Shores Manor: Boynton’s first Townhouse/Condominium Project

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In 1963, Boynton Beach entered a new era of residential growth when former mayor J. Willard “Bill” Pipes announced plans for a $3.5 million condominium complex to be built along the west side of the Lake Worth Lagoon between Northeast 10th and 12th Avenues. The project, called Park Shores Manor, was planned as a 23-building community of two-story residences, totaling 117 living units. It represented one of Boynton Beach’s first ventures into the townhouse and condominium style of living, a concept still new to most of Florida at the time. Pipes, who had been a Pepsi-Cola executive before returning to local business, saw in Boynton Beach the ideal setting for a modern, self-contained residential community that combined independence with shared amenities.

Palm Beach architect John Stetson designed the project in a “tropical, island-type” style with a Mediterranean influence. The homes were organized as townhouses with living rooms and kitchens on the first floor and bedrooms on the second. Each building faced either Lake Worth (today’s Intracoastal Waterway) or a man-made canal and included a private dock and patio. Walls and hedges separated the units, creating privacy while maintaining a sense of community. The four-acre property was located almost opposite the Boynton Inlet, offering quick access to the Intracoastal Waterway and the Atlantic Ocean.

 

Pipes emphasized that Park Shores Manor would be built as a true condominium, a legal arrangement that allowed each owner to hold title to their individual unit and the land beneath it. This differed from the cooperative housing model, where residents owned shares in a corporation rather than their own property. He explained that this structure gave owners the freedom to obtain mortgages, buy and sell their homes independently, and build personal equity. It was a new form of home ownership that fit the optimism of postwar Florida and the growing desire for maintenance-free living near the water.

The plans included a shared clubhouse, putting green, swimming pool, and shuffleboard area. Units were offered in one-, two-, and three-bedroom models priced from $14,000 to $24,000. Each home featured individual air conditioning and heating, built-in television aerials, and access to 75-foot-wide canals. The first building, containing six units, was projected to cost about $90,000, excluding land costs. Construction was expected to begin in mid-1963, and future phases would proceed according to sales. The Jay Willard Corporation, headed by Pipes, managed both construction and sales.

By early 1965, Park Shores Manor Town Houses had become a reality. A newspaper advertisement that January invited buyers to enjoy “carefree living” in a waterfront community. The ad described one- and two-bedroom townhouses with carpeted bedrooms, tiled baths, G.E. kitchens, and sliding glass doors. Each home had individually controlled heat and air conditioning, private boat dockage, and access to deep, dredged canals just off the Intracoastal Waterway. The community was only five minutes from Gulf Stream fishing grounds.

Presale prices ranged from $17,900 to $25,400, including the lot. Six homes were ready for immediate occupancy, with financing available for up to twenty years at six percent interest. Ownership included a one-year membership to the Cypress Creek Golf Club, and residents could join a private club and pool if they wished. The ad described a planned colony of 120 townhouses at 658 Manor Drive in Boynton Beach, offering an organized yet independent lifestyle along the water.

 

 

 

 

Park Shores Manor combined modern construction with coastal living. It offered residents the privacy of individual ownership with the comfort of shared amenities. The architecture, setting, and ownership model reflected Florida’s changing identity in the 1960s, when towns like Boynton Beach began transforming from quiet coastal communities into planned residential centers. Pipes and his team built more than a set of homes. They established one of Boynton Beach’s earliest examples of condominium-style living, setting a pattern for future developments that would define the region’s growth for decades.

Fun fact: Rider Road is named for Willard Pipes’ wife Jean Rider Pipes. Today the townhouses sell for $275-$400,000.

It’s a little piece of paradise; one that makes Boynton Beach so special.

The Orange Blossom Express

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Excitement filled the air in the newly chartered Town of Boynton by the sea. The long awaited Orange Blossom Express had completed its extension to Miami, and was scheduled to stop in Boynton. This monumental event embodied even more prosperity for south Florida. The last few years saw dizzying growth. Folks who used to live in, visit, or pass through Boynton didn’t recognize the place any longer.

Boynton townsfolk awaiting the Orange Blossom Express

 

 

 

The great land boom had greatly altered the landscape of the frontier settlement. New schools, churches, hotels, office buildings, and elaborate residences were under construction.

 

It seemed that with each passing day another developer set up big tents, and their agents took down payments for lots or houses not yet built. A six-story Spanish style hotel under construction on Ocean Avenue was the talk of the town.

 

 

 

 

On Saturday, January 8, 1927 in picture-perfect 72 degree weather, over 500 residents waving flags gathered at the Seaboard Air Line railroad station. Everyone was excited to meet the inaugural train car carrying Seaboard president Solomon Davies Warfield and Florida governor John Wellborn Martin.

Seaboard Air Line President Solomon Davies Warfield

Florida Governor John W. Martin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Boynton band welcomed the sleek green, yellow and orange train filled with over 600 “titans of industry” who were interested in investing in Florida land.

Orange Blossom Express

The prominent men who had traveled from New York to south Florida peered out the windows at the assembly.

Train with Mr. Warfield and Governor Martin

Boynton mayor Roy O. Myers had issued a special proclamation ordering all business houses to close from 8 am to 10 am and urged everyone to the Seaboard Air Line station to greet the train and dignitaries. Nearly the whole town turned out for the monumental event.

Decorated Seaboard Air Line station

 

 

 

Chamber of Commerce president Albert Edward Parker and the Boynton Boosters had decorated the Seaboard station in red, white, and blue, and small coconut palms greeted the spectators.  Men wearing suits with suspenders waved their hats, and farmers in overalls and work pants looked around curiously, Women carrying babies waved handkerchiefs, and schoolchildren stood on tiptoe or their father’s shoulders to view the extravaganza.

 

 

Boynton townsfolk greet the Orange Blossom Express

Two young women presented a flower bouquet to Mr. Warfield. He was also given a small wooden chest containing the key to the Town of Boynton. In a few minutes the gala was over, and the train raced south where similar events played out in Delray, Deerfield and Pompano.

Welcome at Boynton (09 Jan 1927, The Palm Beach Post).

Lake Worth Herald

Ward Miller’s Briny Breezes at Shore Acres: The Early Years

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Wintering in Boynton

In November 1920, Mr. and Mrs. Ward B. Miller arrived to spend the winter in Boynton. Accompanying Miller and his wife Agnes was their daughter Ruth, son Howard and his new bride, Thomasine. The elder Millers looked forward to the mild climate, and time relaxing and socializing with other winter visitors. The younger set, who were in their early twenties, were excited about ocean bathing, bonfires on the beach, and motoring to Palm Beach and Miami to see the sights.

This season was Ward Miller’s second winter in Florida, and he rented a cottage at Ocean Avenue on the Dixie Highway for his family. He was certain he could convince Agnes that Boynton was an ideal place for their winter home. Born in Indiana, Miller had worked in the lumber business in Port Huron, Michigan, the city where Maj. Nathan S. Boynton served as mayor and newspaperman.

Plans are drawn for Mr. and Mrs. Ward B. Miller’s handsome new home on the ocean beach (30 Apr 1921).

Plans Drawn for “Briny Breezes”

Agnes must have found the moderate temperature and gulf stream breezes to her liking for a few months later The Palm Beach Post announced that the Ward Millers “have the plans drawn for a handsome new house to be erected on the ocean beach, on one of the lots he recently bought there. Work will be begun on the house almost at once. It will be built of cement with a stucco finish. The location is fine and although they will be somewhat removed from any neighboring residences at the present time, prospects are that a number of other homes will be erected within the near future.”

 

In mid-summer The Miami News reported that work had begun “on the fine home of Mr. and Mrs. Ward B. Miller on the ocean front…work is progressing nicely. Miller is building a magnificent home on his property there and will also install a large, modern dairy farm.” The fashionable two-story Miller home “Briny Breezes” was built in Spanish-style on the ocean ridge overlooking the Atlantic.

Briny Breezes Overlooking the Atlantic Ocean

The Miller’s home “Briny Breezes.”

Incorporating the Town of Boynton

Miller kept busy about town. He used his keen business sense to help charter the Town of Boynton, serving as its first vice-mayor. He also performed many civic functions, such as starting a  chamber of commerce.

 

Cattle shipped to Shore Acres (20 Jul 1922, The Miami News).

Shore Acres Dairy Farm

The Miller’s property stretched from the Florida East Coast Canal (today’s Intracoastal Waterway) to the ocean. He called the dairy Shore Acres and traveled to Georgia to bring cattle back in railcars.

The dairy expanded with Miller purchasing an adjoining 25 acreage of “muck and marl” land on the east side of the canal from Boyntonite James McKay. The coastal breeze at the oceanfront dairy helped to keep the flies and ticks away from the cattle.

Miller’s dairy associate in the $23,000 enterprise, M.A. Weaver, understood the dairy business and later founded Weaver Dairies.

Dairy Cow Manure for Sale (27 Mar 1921, The Palm Beach Post).

 

Not Much to See Here (Yet)!

Whereas Palm Beach was bustling during the season and Boynton and Delray were also attracting winter visitors, the area between Boynton and Delray was located on a lonely stretch of today’s A1A.

Visitors knew they were approaching Briny both by the strong odor and the telltale three-story mansion along the ridge.

 

 

 

The Boynton Caves

The biggest attraction in the area at the time was the Boynton caves – a series of natural subterranean caves on the beach that attracted picnickers and served as a roadside curiosity. Motorcycle clubs from Fort Lauderdale and Palm Beach and local young people frequented the region and used the site as a rendezvous  point.

Caves located between Highway A1A and the Atlantic Ocean (State Archives of Florida)

 

Young women from the Town of Boynton posing on the lawn of the Gulf Stream Golf Club (Image courtesy of Boynton Beach City Library Local History Archives)

 

Gulf Stream Golf Club

It didn’t take very long for other families to realize the tropical Florida dream and to join the Millers in what was then considered a “remote outpost.”

In late 1923 workmen completed the palatial Addison Mizner-designed Gulf Stream Golf Club south of Miller’s dairy. The impressive private club caused quite a stir with the locals, who would ride their bikes down the desolate stretch, or walk the beach southward for a glimpse of the grand building.

The Phipps brothers built mansions along the beach and started winter polo matches. Florida surged in popularity when developers began subdividing land and creating new communities appealing to northern investors and affluent people fancying buying a winter home.

 

 

 

Wagg Organization (13 Sep 1925, The Palm Beach Post).

The Great Florida Land Boom

The great Florida land boom dramatically changed Florida, especially Palm Beach County, Boynton Beach, and even Miller’s Briny Breezes.

In 1925, at the height of the boom, after seeing the development frenzy and being approached by several persistent real estate developers, Miller couldn’t resist “selling the farm.”

Exclusive Listing Palm Beach Shore Acres (21 Oct. 1925, The Palm Beach Post).

 

 

 

 

As he approached his 64th birthday, Miller agreed to the Alfred Wagg Corporation subdividing his dairy lands into a new development called “Shore Acres.”

Wagg’s company quickly listed Palm Beach Shore Acres for a half million dollars.

 

Prospective buyers line up to purchase lot’s in Alfred Wagg’s new boom time subdivision Briny Breezes at Shore Acres

The Miller’s then joined the other dreamers and schemers and their sometimes-unscrupulous salesmen who peddled property unseen and weren’t inclined to record every transaction.

 

Announcing Briny Breezes (14 Oct 1925, the Palm Beach Post).

Cashing In

Meanwhile, Ward Miller invested in real estate in Boynton and northward into West Palm Beach. He purchased interests in lots in Northwood, Grandview Heights, and the Flamingo Park area. Across Florida, land swapped hands freely, routinely without proper title searches conducted or deeds issued.

The “Big Bubble”

Bubble in the Sun by Christopher Knowlton

 

Mid-year into 1926, the land boom bubble deflated.

Modern historians like Christopher Knowlton, author of “Bubble in the Sun: The Florida Boom of the 1920s and how it brought on the Great Depression” quoted a contemporary who described the land grab frenzy stagnation, stating “We just ran out of suckers.”

Hurricanes

Severe weather patterns extinguished any romantic dreams for investors.

In a now familiar tale, the wrath caused by the twin hurricanes of 1926 was finalized with the killer 1928 hurricane. Its devastation extinguished the land development schemes.  Supply chain issues in the Port of Miami thwarted materials delivery and potential investors realized that their pipe dreams were a grand illusion.

 

Run on the Banks

The First Bank of Boynton, established only a few years earlier, closed in 1929 and did not re-open again until the 1940s as it took that long for financial recovery in Boynton.

“Bank building, 1927,” Boynton Beach City Library Local History Archives,

 

The Great Depression

Boynton Needlecraft Club at Briny Breezes, 1932, Boynton Beach City Library Local History Archives

 

The depression hit hard. The people who stayed in the area had to work hard and trade with neighbors just to survive. Agnes and other local women shared afternoons sewing clothing, gifts and home accessories.

Boynton Needlecraft Club at Briny Breezes, 1932, Clara Topleman, Jennie B. Jones, Rena Powell, Alice Knuth, Clara White, Agnes Miller, Minnie Paulle, Emily Atwater, Harriet Seegitz andClara Shepperd (Courtesy of the Boynton Beach City Library Local History Archives)

Rooms for Rent (The Palm Beach Post)

Ward and Agnes Miller were involved in several land-related court cases and were on the delinquent tax list. They devised ways to supplement their income and retain hold of their coveted oceanfront land. They rented out rooms in their beautiful home. They purchased strawberry plants to raise and to sell to visitors traveling down the ocean boulevard.

Miller’s buying strawberry plants in Plant City (5 Nov 1931, The Palm Beach Post).

(12 Oct. 1934, The Miami Herald

 

 

 

 

Briny Breezes Trailer Camp

During this financial depression the Miller family decided to lease lots to annual visitors and established the Briny Breezes Trailer Camp. There’s more to the story, but that’s a more familiar one and will make a good future blog.

Briny Breezes for Trailers & Campers

 

 

1930s Brochure for Briny Breezes

Boynton Beach’s Poinciana School History

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POINCIANA STEM ELEMENTARY SCHOOL HISTORY

 THE MAJESTIC ROYAL POINCIANA TREE

May and June are the months when royal poinciana trees bloom the brightest. Their red, flame-colored flowers add brilliant color to the South Florida landscape. A commenter on the Historic Boynton Beach Facebook page declared that the late spring signature flowers are Florida’s version of leaves changing color in the fall.

Royal Poinciana Tree in bloom

WHAT’S IN A NAME? 

Boynton’s Poinciana STEM Elementary School is named after the massive umbrella-shaped royal poinciana tree. The name alone evokes Florida’s lush, tropical beauty. David Fairchild brought the first of these Madagascar natives to South Florida when his wife planted one in their Miami front yard in 1917.  The trees thrive from Key West north to West Palm Beach and it’s likely that Boynton Garden Club members beautified Boynton by planting royal poinciana seeds here in the 1930s or 1940s. According to the University of Florida, the trees bear flowers between four and 12 years after planting. 

LET’S BUILD A SCHOOLHOUSE

Typical 1900s Black School (courtesy NYPL)

Many people don’t realize that Boynton Beach’s Poinciana Elementary School had its humble beginnings as an informal school operated by African Methodist Episcopal church members. St. Paul’s AME Church, constituted in 1900, is Boynton’s oldest church.

The school received government funding after 1907 when the black community petitioned the school board to furnish a teacher, but the residents were to provide a building. The petition was accompanied by a letter of support from farmer and fruit shipper Cullen Pence, a community builder who donated land to the city for a ball field and helped with many town improvements.

1907 Board of Public Instruction of Dade County minutes

Pence & King’s Addition 1908

 

The one-room wooden schoolhouse was situated on Pence & King’s Addition (Federal Hwy. north of Boynton Beach Blvd.), a tract laid out by Pence and black pioneer resident  L. A. King  in 1908. This suggests that Mr. Pence furnished the land and wooden school building and the school board paid for a teacher.  Newspaper accounts and school board records show that by 1909, when Palm Beach County separated from Dade County, the school’s official name became Boynton Negro School.

 

Let’s look back at how the fledgling school, like the brilliant tree it’s named for, took root, and blossomed.

 

 

 

SEPARATE AND UNEQUAL

Under the “separate but equal” doctrine of the 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson decision, segregated schools were expected to provide a comparable education and experience for black and white students. On the contrary, black students received second-rate treatment; the buildings were substandard; teachers were paid substantially less than white teachers; supplies were meager, and schools often received desks, books and slates discarded from white schools. The school year too, was shortened for Florida’s black students so the children could work in the fields during winter harvest.

THE TOWN GROWS

Picking Beans (Broward County Library Digital Archives)

 

By 1910, the unincorporated town of Boynton had grown to over 600 residents. The Board of Public Instruction paid to erect an opulent new two-story concrete block school in the 100 block of Ocean Avenue for Boynton’s white students. The modern school had indoor plumbing, gleaming blackboards, and spacious classrooms with large windows and door transoms for ventilation and natural light. In juxtaposition to the overcrowded one-room Negro School, the new Boynton School for white students had a fancy bell-tower and six classrooms. When the school opened on September 8, 1913  it enrolled 81 pupils between grades one and twelve.

 

Boynton School (for white students) 1913

BOOKER T. WASHINGTON AND JULIUS ROSENWALD

In the 1910s, an unlikely pair helped improve education for black children in the rural south. Boynton, a farming community, was indeed rural.  In 1912, Tuskegee Institute founder Booker T. Washington invited Jewish-American philanthropist Julius Rosenwald (then president of Sears, Roebuck & Co.) to serve on the Tuskegee board of directors to help black education, where segregated southern schools suffered from inadequate facilities, books and other resources. Rosenwald’s 1917 school building fund encouraged local collaboration between blacks and whites by providing seed money and requiring communities to raise matching funds. Between 1917 and 1932, Rosenwald funded 5,357 community schools and industrial shops in 15 southern states.

Julius Rosenwald & Booker T. Washington in 1915 (Special Collections Research Center University of Chicago Library)

ORDINANCES 37 and 136

The Town of Boynton imposed segregation in 1924 with Ordinance 37. This forced black residents, businesses, churches, and the school to move west. Ordinance 136 passed in 1933  stipulated that black residents stay in the designated “colored town” from sundown to sunup.

JULIUS ROSENWALD SCHOOL BUILDING FUND

The Rosenwald funded Boynton School after the 1928 Hurricane (State Archives of Florida)

 

The Boynton Negro School located on the west side of Green Street (now Seacrest Blvd.) and today’s NE 12th Ave. was the first Rosenwald funded school in Palm Beach County. In 1925, at the height of Florida’s great 1920s land boom, the Rosenwald Fund contributed $900 in seed money toward a new four-room, three teacher Boynton Colored School. The fund also provided architectural plans and specifications for the schoolhouse.

 

THREE TEACHER COMMUNITY SCHOOL

Building Plans, Three Teacher Community School, 1924

Three Teacher Community School Interior Plans 1924

Building Plans, Three Teacher Community School, 1924

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Tuskegee architect approved community school design included a porch, three classrooms and an industrial room, running water, and indoor toilets. Black community members raised $100 and the white community donated $4,000 with the Palm Beach County Board of Public Instruction paying the last $12,000. Its four rooms served grades one through eight until 1952 when the building was no longer big enough to handle the number of students. Six further classrooms were built to the west.

Ten other Rosenwald-funded schools followed in Palm Beach County. After the devastating September 1928 hurricane left the Boynton school intact, the damaged or leveled most other Palm Beach County schools. School Superintendent Joe Youngblood petitioned the Rosenwald Fund for emergency monies. By 1931 Rosenwald schools and industrial trade shops were operating in Jupiter, Boca Raton, Delray Beach (shop), West Palm Beach (school, shop), Pahokee, Belle Glade, South Bay, Kelsey City, and Canal Point (school, library). 

Boynton Negro Elementary School, 1950. Teacher Blanche Hearst Girtman (Boynton Beach City Library Local History Archives)

 

OVERCROWDING

Boynton Negro School Basketball Team members, 1942 (Boynton Beach City Library Local History Archives)

 

 

In the mid-1940s, rural black schools consolidated. The Lake Worth Osborne Colored School that had operated out of a church combined with the Boynton School.

In the area west of Boynton/Hypoluxo/Lantana, the Rangeline School on Rte. 441 taught children of farmers and migrant workers in a World War II Quonset Hut.  

 

 

 

Students entering Poinciana School, teacher Blanche Hearst Girtman

In reaction to the landmark Supreme Court decision Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, school leaders decided to rename “colored” schools after local points of interest. In June 1954, the Boynton Colored School became Poinciana School. The 1950s were a time of rapid growth in Palm Beach County. The district added a Poinciana Annex building with six additional classrooms located at 121 NE 12th Ave. next door to the original school in 1952.

By the 1960s overcrowding (over 700 students in 18 classrooms) forced double sessions with some classes held outdoors and in hot, cramped portable classrooms that Fire Chief Jack Tuite called “death traps.”

Fumes Evacuate Poinciana Portables (The Palm Beach Post, 16 Dec. 1960)

DESEGREGATION

In March 1962, the school board approved a land purchase of more than a half-acre for a Poinciana School addition to accommodate a junior high school. That same year Rev. Randolph Lee of St. John Missionary Baptist Church led efforts to establish a high school for black students. The closest high school for black students was Carver Industrial High School in Delray Beach. Students who wanted an education had to bus there from all over the region.

A $362,000 new school was planned for 1963, about the same time that Palm Beach County Schools began integration. The district had difficulty getting the site owner to sell as originally agreed. Furthermore, the school district had a large list of new school projects and improvements. In October 1963 the district was trying to prioritize the multiple projects, including a proposed $572,000 new Poinciana elementary and middle school that would include 13 classrooms, science rooms, industrial and home economics shops, a library, cafetorium [cafeteria/auditorium], locker rooms, and an administrative suite.

School System Needs $29 Million (10 Oct 1963, Fort Lauderdale News)

Meanwhile, school integration did not go smoothly. It turned out that most black families and white families wanted their children to stay in the neighborhood and not be bussed across town. A May 1965 Miami Herald article about school desegregation reported that the boundary lines for Poinciana School in Boynton Beach had been precisely drawn to encompass the negro residential section.

Poinciana Elementary School 1962 (Boynton Beach City Library Local History Archives)

Head Start (Boynton Beach Star 17 Jun 1965)

 

Poinciana became a site for the federally funded Head Start program for children not enrolled in private kindergarten in 1967.Sarah Costin and Lena Rahming incorporated the Boynton Beach Childcare Center about that time and worked with community leaders to build a separate building for preschool and kindergarten aged children.

By 1969, school officials agreed to remove grades 7-8 from Poinciana School, a decision that  forced 42 students to integrate into Boynton Junior High (now Galaxy Elementary School). Integration was so much stress for students and families of both black and white students that some students enrolled in private school and other  students simply dropped out of school.

NEW MAGNET SCHOOL 

The dilapidated school building saw its last days in late 1995, when it was razed for a larger, modern school. The Palm Beach County School Board built a brand new, closed campus Poinciana Elementary School that opened as a Math/Science/Technology magnet school in August 1996. With over 97,000 square feet and a Planetarium, the school occupies 8.7 acres, backing up to the Carolyn Sims Recreational Center. 

Poinciana STEM Elementary School

Today Poinciana STEM Elementary School attracts K-5 students across Palm Beach County for its robust science, technology, engineering, and mathematics curriculum. The 572 Poinciana Panthers are a diverse student body, approximately half of its students are black, 22% white, 13% Hispanic, 8% Asian or Pacific Islander, and at 6 % or more identifying as 2 or more races.

Sources

  • The Boynton Beach City Library Local History Archives
  • The Boynton Beach News
  • The Boynton Beach Star
  • The Broward County Library Digital Archives
  • Fisk University Special Collections & Archives
  • The Florida Department of Public Instruction
  • The Ft. Lauderdale News
  • The Historical Society of Palm Beach County
  • The Lake Worth Herald
  • The New York Public Library Photographic Collection
  • The Palm Beach County Property Appraiser
  • The Palm Beach Post
  • The School District of Palm Beach County
  • Special Collections Research Center University of Chicago Library
  • The State Archives of Florida
  • The Sun-Sentinel
  • The University of Florida

Special thanks to Georgen Charnes and Ginger Pedersen for their contributions to this research.

If you have any photos, comments, additions, or clarifications regarding Poinciana School and its history, please email boyntonhistory@gmail.com. We’d love to hear from you.