The Boynton High School was constructed in 1926-27 to meet the needs of the growing community. The brand-new building was seriously damaged in the 1928 hurricane, but repaired and brought quickly back into service.
The 30,000 square foot building is presently being remodeled. It is scheduled to open in June, 2019 as the Boynton Community Center.
Boynton High School – 1932
The Boynton Schools – 1935
The city of Boynton Beach bears the name of Major Nathan Smith Boynton who came to South Florida from Port Huron, Michigan in 1895. The Civil War veteran and newspaper owner purchased oceanfront land and began construction of the Boynton Hotel with workman recruited from Michigan.
Major Nathan S. Boynton
They brought their families and settled in the new town.
When Henry M. Flagler brought the Florida East Coast railroad into Florida, visitors
seeking the warm weather of the area began arriving for what was to become the winter tourist season. Even Boynton and his family, who spent their summers in Port Huron, came back to their Boynton Hotel for the winter.
Meanwhile, the area expanded rapidly as a farming community, growing vegetables for the hotel guests and opening up new sources of revenue through shipment of winter vegetables to other areas of the country.
Click here for a more complete history of the town’s founding.
Explore history by hovering on the history link above for specific subjects such as agriculture and the Boynton Hotel.
Publications Related to Boynton History:
Here is a collection of tools to help you do land record research in Palm Beach County.
1. Step 1 – Property Appraiser Web site – http://www.pbcgov.com/papa/index.htm
This website is very useful as a first step in land research. By typing in the current address, you can get the current owner’s name. From there, it is a backward search. Once you have the detailed information page on the property, you can hot link over to the Palm Beach County Clerk of Courts website to see the sales record that is attached in the detail on the PAPA website. This will give you key information such as the 
Section/Township/Range and the legal description of the property, which often has the plat book and page, which you can access in most cases.
2. Step 2 – Plat Books Web Site – http://www.pbcgov.com/pzb/pzbmaps/plats/platindex.htm
This website has most (but not all) Palm Beach County plats. Many of the very old books from the 1910s through the 1950s are not complete. This can be interesting to see how land was parceled out into smaller lots or tracts that the owners sold.
To see all the maps, please click here to display the instructions for accessing the Official Records Website.
3. Step 3 – Clerk of the County Court Official Records Web Site – http://www.mypalmbeachclerk.com/officialrecords.aspx
This website has all transactions, liens, warranty deeds, easements, back to 1968. Once you have an owner from the PAPA system and the section/township/range, you can research back and see former owners of the property.
Anything before 1968 requires a trip to the 4th Floor of the Palm Beach County Courthouse in downtown West Palm Beach. You can research the registry books yourself, and staff can help you in gaining access to microfilmed records. They charge $1.00 per page for printing of the microfilmed records.
Other Resources:
Learn how to read legal land descriptions such as “the SW 1/4 of the NW 1/2 of NE 1/4″ – not as hard as it seems! – Click here
Wikipedia Article on Section, Township, Range – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_Land_Survey_System
Section/Township/Range Map of Palm Beach County – Click here
Federal Land Grant Patent Records (Homestead Act of 1862) – Click here
University of Florida – Ancient Google Maps! See your property from the air from long ago – typical years are 1940, 1953 and 1968 – http://ufdcweb1.uflib.ufl.edu/ufdc/?a=flap Type in the modern address and the approximate location is marked on the old photograph.
Land Boundary Information System – Really ancient Google Maps! This archive has the original plat maps and drawings from the 1800s. Has the maps and the original surveyor notes from their field notes. The images are high resolution TIF files. As before, you will need to know the township and range of the area you want to research. http://data.labins.org/2003/SurveyData/LandRecords/GLO/index.cfm
Historic Aerials – More great aerial photography also included images from 1979 through the modern day – http://www.historicaerials.com/Default.aspx – You can draw in modern day streets over the photos, or slide back and forth between today and then – very neat.
Research resources for genealogy and historical inquiry.
FEC Station
Newspapers:
Chronicling America – The Library of Congress collection – prior to 1923
The Tropical Sun – Palm Beach County’s First Newspaper
Boynton Beach News & Boynton Beach Star Newspaper 1946-1975
Lake Worth Herald -The Lake Worth Herald Newspaper 1912-1970
How to do Land Research – click here
Florida Department of Environmental Protection (Land Documents)
Boynton Beach Oral History Collection
Adams, Homer Quincy (1918-1994)
Adderley, Cecil Leopold (1906-1999)
Barrett, Ann Thieman (1894-1998)
Benson, Clarence Robert (1917-1993)
Brant, Bob (1925-1982)
Brantley, Cecelia Thrash (1907-2000)
Butler, James Willis (1918-2003)
Chadwell, Bertha May Daugharty Williams (1887-1982)
Crane, Leslie Burdick (1909-1998)
Creason, Naomi Wells (1910-2000)
Edward, Christine O’Donnell (1918-2008)
Girtman, Blanche Hearst (1922-2019)
Grubbs, Naamen Emmanuel (1922-1994)
Hood, Edythe Guthrie (1913-2007)
Keatts, Clorice McGregor (1905-2000)
Klep, Eva Heaton (1900-1999)
Lacey, Walter Ridout (1919-1997)
Lee, Randolph Melvin (1920-2001)
Lunsford, Arris Ozzie (1909-2003)
McGregor, Albert Leslie (1908-1997)
McGregor, Hazel Lacey (1916-2000)
Meeks-Light, Martha Norfus (b. 1939)
Meredith, Anna Brugger (1896-1985)
Merkel, Rebecca Partin (1920-2005)
Merrill, Helen Frances Shepard (1914-2003)
Miner, Ethel Powell Coleman (1914-2007)
Murray, Glenn Lucius (1885-1985)
Oyer, Lillian “Freda” Voss (1896-1998)
Padgett, Tereesa Dagley (1921-2003)
Pierce, Ethel Sims (1890-1987)
Pompey, C. Spencer (1915-2001)
Rousseau, John Robert (1920-1995)
Scott, Otley (1912-2002) & Lucille Tuck Scott (1913-2012)
Stanley, Margaret Meredith (1917-2002)
Thompson, Leonard (1912-2002)
Tuite, John “Jack” (1918-2006)
Tuppen, Buddy (b. 1937)
Waters, Edna Hutchinson Jung (1912-1996)
Weaver, C. Stanley (1922-2010)
Weems, Nathaniel Marion, Jr (1927-2015)
Woolbright, Beryl Meredith (1906-1997)
Woolbright, Beryl (1906-1997) and William Turner “Sam” Woolbright (1908-1994)
Maps:
Aerial Photography from University of Florida – Views from 1940, 1953 and 1968
Palm Beach County GIS Maps – Find your property information
Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps -Pre 1923 Maps from the University of Florida
Sanborn Maps 1867-1970 (Requires valid Palm Beach County Library Card)
Section, Township, Range Map for Palm Beach County
Genealogy:
Familysearch.org – From the Church of Latter Day Saints – free access to millions of records
Genealogical Society of Palm Beach County
Jewish Genealogical Society of Palm Beach County
Palm Beach County Library Genealogy Page
Find A Grave
Historical Societies/Websites:
Boca Raton Historical Society
Delray Beach Historical Society
Florida Historical Society
Florida Archives – Florida Memory Project
Historical Association of South Florida
Henry Morrison Flagler Museum
Historical Society of Palm Beach County – Now featuring an online archive!
Lantana Historical Society
Loxahatchee Guild
Loxahatchee River Historical Society
Palm Beach Past
Archives:
Boynton Beach City Library Local History Archives
State Archives of Florida/Florida Memory
The Library of Congress/Digital Records
The National Archives and Records Administration
Palm Beach State College Archives – School yearbooks, newspapers and photographs
Court Records:
Palm Beach County Clerk of Courts – Access to many transaction records back to 1968
Books:
Google Books – Millions of free scanned books in the public domain
The Boynton Beach area’s earliest inhabitants went uncounted – the pre-Columbian Indians followed by the Seminole Indians. In the 1880s, settlers from the Bahamas occupied some of the land along the Lake Worth’s south shore, growing tomatoes and fishing. They did not lay claim to the lands, and were soon supplanted by the settlers from the North who had come to farm and build the Boynton Hotel.
In 1900, the US Census found 91 people living in the vicinity of Boynton, in what was officially designated as Precinct 6 of Dade County, Fort Lauderdale. We know its our earliest Boynton citizens based on the names that appeared on the two census sheets, such as Margretta Pierce living in the household of Frederick Voss, the Garnett family, and the Harper family.
Boynton was a named settlement, so it is unclear why they included it the Fort Lauderdale tally.
Excerpt from 1900 US Census Sheet
1900 US Census – Dade County
On the 1910 and 1920 US Census counts, Boynton appears as Precinct 4 of Palm Beach County, a “minor civil division” given that it was not yet incorporated as a town. The precinct covered Boynton, Hypoluxo and Ocean Ridge, and the names on the census sheets confirm that. The population drop from 1910 to 1920 can probably be attributed to these changing precinct lines.
1910 US Census, Palm Beach County
1920 US Census, Palm Beach County
In the 1930 US Census and all afterward, Boynton Beach appears as an incorporated town, so the census counts follow the established city limits as the city expanded through the years.
Today Boynton Beach is Palm Beach County’s third largest city with a population of 78,060 in the 2020 census (only West Palm Beach and Boca are more populated).
Boynton Beach Population History, 1890-2010
The 2020 Census recorded 80,380 people in the City of Boynton Beach.
