Delray Beach

Sister cities

• Miyazu
• Nahariya

History

The earliest known human inhabitants of what is now Delray Beach were the Jaega people. Tequesta Indians likely passed through or inhabited the area at various times. Few other recorded details of these local indigenous settlements have survived. An 1841 U.S. military map shows a Seminole camp located in the area now known as Lake Ida. In 1876, the United States Life Saving Service built the Orange Grove House of Refuge to rescue and shelter ship-wrecked sailors. The house derived its name from the grove of mature sour orange and other tropical fruit trees found at the site chosen for the house of refuge, but no record or evidence of who planted the trees was discovered. Partly in an attempt to change the community's luck, or to leave behind a bad reputation, the settlement's name was changed in 1901 to Delray, after the Detroit neighborhood of Delray ("Delray" being the anglicized spelling of Del Rey, which is Spanish for "of the king"), which in turn was named after the Mexican–American War's Battle of Molino del Rey. After 1905, newspaper articles and photographs of Delray events reveal that Japanese settlers from the nearby Yamato farming colony also began participating in Delray civic activities such as parades, going to the movies, and shopping. The 1910 census shows Delray as a town of 904 citizens. Twenty-four U.S. states and nine other countries are listed as the birthplace of its residents. Although still a small town, Delray had a diverse citizenry. By 1920, Delray's population had reached 1,051. In the 1920s, drainage of the Everglades west of Delray lowered the water table, making it harder to grow pineapples, while the extension of the Florida East Coast Railway to Key West resulted in competition from Cuban pineapples for the markets of the northern…

Geography

* The city's eastern boundary includes of beachfront along the Atlantic Ocean. * Directly to the south, the city is bordered by Boca Raton. Delray Beach's location in southeastern Palm Beach County is in the middle of Florida's Gold Coast region. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city of Delray Beach has a total land area of . In earlier years, downtown Delray was centered along Atlantic Avenue as far west as Swinton Avenue and as far east as the intracoastal waterway. Downtown has since expanded. By 2010, downtown extended west to I-95 and east as the Atlantic Ocean; The north–south boundaries extend roughly two blocks north and south of Atlantic Avenue. Delray Beach has a tropical climate, more specifically a tropical trade-wind rainforest climate (Köppen Af), as its driest month (February) averages of rainfall, meeting the minimum standard of in the driest month needed to qualify for that designation. Delray Beach has hot and humid summers. High summertime temperatures range from with low temperatures falling to around . Winters are warm and constitute a marked drier season. Ordinarily, wintertime high temperatures are in the range of and low temperatures are between . However, when occasional cold fronts hit South Florida, daytime high temperatures may only reach the low or mid 60s (°F). Overnight lows during these brief periods can sink into the 40s. These cold fronts do not typically last more than a day or two and only occur a few times each winter. Delray Beach's near sea-level elevation, coastal location, position above the Tropic of Cancer, and proximity to the Gulf Stream shapes its climate. Hurricane season officially runs from June 1 through November 30, although hurricanes can develop outside those dates. The most likely time for…

Race & ethnicity