Boca Raton, Florida is a town known to many for its popular culture references and sandy beaches. This city is, however, much more than just a vacation spot. With a population of 86,396 in Boca Raton proper (another 120,000 live in "West Boca," outside the city limits), the city is a major town in the southern Palm Beach County community. That is not to say that vacations are not important, since visitor numbers bring the area total up to an average population of 350,000 each day. When moving to Boca Raton, you will soon discover a city that has a great deal to offer.
Economy:
Tourism, while extremely important to the economy of Boca Raton, is not the only business in town. An affluent Florida city with higher than average incomes common among the population, Boca Raton is a major location for corporate headquarters. The earliest major company to build an operation in Boca Raton was IBM, which arrived in 1967 to build a computer manufacturing plant. In 1987, IBM converted the facilities into labs and offices, which were later sold to T-REX Management Consortium in 1996. Since 2001, IBM has returned to Boca Raton with a software development laboratory. Other companies with corporate headquarters in Boca Raton include the Bluegreen Corporation (a real estate and timeshare developer), Office Depot, the GEO Group (which operates prisons) and 1st United Bank. It's no wonder Boca Raton moving companies are so busy in this thriving city.
History:
The original inhabitants of the Boca Raton area were the Tequesta Indians, who lived along the coastal area until the 18th century. European settlers did not arrive until much later, with the earliest settlement dating only to 1895. The town quickly became the center of a small agricultural community focused on the cultivation of pineapples. Boca Raton was also the home of a significant Japanese immigrant population that farmed along what is now Yamato Road (much of the land was confiscated during World War II for the building of a military base). Boca Raton was incorporated as a city in 1925, during the Florida land boom of that decade. Although tourism grew from this time, Boca Raton remained an agricultural center throughout the 1930s and 1940s and was especially well-known for its winter green beans. In 1942, the Army Air Corps established a training base in the town and brought in a population of 30,000 to an area that counted only 723 residents in 1940. Boca Raton's major growth began in the 1960s, when development pushed the city's growth westward into the Everglades and farmland. By 1970, the population had reached over 30,000.
Tourism:
Boca Raton has far more than just beaches to attract tourists to the city (although there are nine beaches within the city itself). The city is also a major cultural center for the Palm Beach region, with arts organizations like the Boca Ballet Theatre, the Boca Raton Philharmonic Symphonia, the Caldwell Theater, the Centre for the Arts and the Sol Children's Theatre Troupe. The Palm Beach International Film Festival also holds many of its film events in Boca Raton each April. Museums in the city include the Boca Raton Museum of Art, the Children's Science Explorium and the Boca Raton Historical Museum. The Gumbo Limbo Nature Center, in Red Reef Park, is a major natural attraction for the city with a butterfly garden, boardwalk and sea turtle garden. For air travel to and from the city, the closest commercial airport is the Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach. Local transit is available from the Palm Tran bus service and the Tri-Rail commuter railroad.