Boca Raton through the years - 1950s to present

[ByeByeLW]

Now that you mention Shadowood I remember a movie theater there that showed only art-house type films. I think the theater may still be there, but the films are just like everywhere else now.

[City Guy997S]

Originally Posted by OptimusPrime69

I remember back along glades rd just west of saint andrews rd was that Santa Barbara community and they had all these banyan trees planted along glades rd headed west which provided a nice tree canopy while driving along..... now they're all gone because of hurricane Wilma and they replaced them with shrubs and bushes...now it looks so barren and kinda bland...... where the trees used to be.

Also, I remember when airport rd was a single lane road t get to boomers and the Muvico theatre and the left to get on to airport rd from glades coming east was a single left hand lane, now it's 2.

Also, the FAU entrances have been expanded and made longer the the eastern entrance went from one left lane to two.

Those tacky banyan/ficus trees were a disaster......they were planted right under the power lines so when FPL trimmed them it was a hack job to protect the power lines, not aesthetic at all.

Before Muvico/Boomers on airport road there was a golf range out there for years (golf range and mini-golf (not amusement like but small putting greens)

[ZTM]

It's a horrible place now. Lived there for 10 years starting in 1992. Terrible traffic, snotty snooty gold digger women everywhere, fake plastic (literally) people and nothing but a consumption lifestyle.

[THX 1138]

Originally Posted by ZTM

It's a horrible place now. Lived there for 10 years starting in 1992. Terrible traffic, snotty snooty gold digger women everywhere, fake plastic (literally) people and nothing but a consumption lifestyle.

You missed some points:

Bocahantos

Every other car is a MB, Audi, BMW or Land Rover.

Very high % of spoiled kids and Spanish River HS student parking lot...

https://www.google.com/webhp?sourcei...ids+boca+raton

[FlaLadyB]

Originally Posted by ZTM

It's a horrible place now. Lived there for 10 years starting in 1992. Terrible traffic, snotty snooty gold digger women everywhere, fake plastic (literally) people and nothing but a consumption lifestyle.

ZTM... exactly how many places do you "live" in all at once? You keep posting in various places about how much you hate living there and how "rotten" it is and its everywhere in at least 3 to 4 counties.

Thought you were moving out of the area completely...but nope, you're still here, .....somewhere

[dive77mmwet]

Originally Posted by ByeByeLW

I will give you my memories when I have more time. This is a great thread idea.

There are soooo many things I regret not photographing. If something strikes your fancy, get a shot of it, no matter how insignificant it seems now. One day you may want to go back to it, and not being able to go back to that small thing can break your heart.

In the mean time, you may enjoy researching the history of some of our area's Natural Areas at pbcgov.com/erm.

Some of the areas were failed housing developments; Pondhawk in Boca was a rec area for all the IBM folks that used to live here. IBM's history here is very interesting as you are living in what is more or less the birthplace of the PC.

In any case, each Natural Area has a PDF of its history . Sometimes you can even find artifacts of former buildings/residents on the grounds.

One of my favorites is High Ridge scrub on High Ridge Rd in Boynton. It was once a sand mine/failed housing development. You will see many sand pines there-there aren't many around because when they are young they look like Christmas trees, so of course they were dug out years ago. They smell wonderful.

Volunteering to do clean-ups with ERM is fun-never know what you'll find! If you have a feel for urban archaeology you might enjoy that.

There used to be lots more palm trees around as well. Google "lethal yellowing" to learn about that.

Also, if you go to Barnes and Noble there are several "postcard history" books of the area, but they are usually pre-50s stuff.

A former Delray resident has a site called oldfloridapostcards.com which is pretty fascinating too, and you can always put Boca or Delray into eBay-surprising what you can come up with
there.

It's great that you're doing this. We moved to Delray when I was 17, but photography was kind of expensive back then. We had lived in Deerfield for two years prior to that;and before that, New Jersey.

Delray was a lot less settled than Deerfield. it was like living in a Southern Gothic novel.

What about Motorola the birth of the cell phone, gone! I had a office one day the next my key card did not work! talk about change! great read and yes the groves all gone up in Palm Beach man best fudge chocolate and treats, with a caged gator fun for all and a real treat to take folks to from out of town and now all gone ,, I got to stop but lots of memories and the citrus canker? cutting your citrus trees in your own yard!