Delray Beach, Florida | ||
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City | ||
City of Delray Beach | ||
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Nickname(s): Delray | ||
Motto: "Village By The Sea" | ||
Location in Palm Beach County and the state of Florida |
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Location in the United States | ||
Coordinates: 26°27′33″N 80°4′59″W / 26.45917°N 80.08306°WCoordinates: 26°27′33″N 80°4′59″W / 26.45917°N 80.08306°W | ||
Country | United States of America | |
State | Florida | |
County | Palm Beach | |
Settled (Linton Settlement) | 1884–1900 | |
Settled (Delray Settlement) | 1901–1910 | |
Incorporated (Town of Delray) | October 9, 1911 | |
Incorporated (Town of Delray Beach) | October 9, 1923 | |
Incorporated (City of Delray Beach) | May 11, 1927 | |
Government | ||
• Type | Commission-Manager | |
• Mayor | Cary Glickstein | |
• Vice mayor | Jim Chard | |
• Commissioners | Deputy Vice Mayor Shirley Johnson, Mitchell Katz, and Shelly Petrolia | |
• Interim City manager | Neal de Jesus | |
• City clerk | Katerri Johnson | |
Area | ||
• Total | 16.33 sq mi (42.30 km2) | |
• Land | 15.93 sq mi (41.25 km2) | |
• Water | 0.41 sq mi (1.05 km2) | |
Elevation | 9 ft (2.7 m) | |
Population (2010) | ||
• Total | 60,522 | |
• Estimate (2016) | 67,371 | |
• Density | 4,229.72/sq mi (1,633.11/km2) | |
Time zone | Eastern (EST) (UTC-5) | |
• Summer (DST) | EDT (UTC-4) | |
ZIP code | 33444–33448, 33482–33484 | |
Area code(s) | 561 | |
FIPS code | 12-17100 | |
GNIS feature ID | 0281485 | |
Website | www.mydelraybeach.com |
Delray Beach is a coastal city in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 60,522. The population was estimated at 66,255 in 2015. Delray Beach is part of the Miami metropolitan area.
Recorded history began when the United States Life Saving Service built the Orange Grove House of Refuge in 1876. 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 has survived.
Settlement began around 1884, when African-Americans from the Panhandle of Florida purchased land a little inland from the Orange Grove House of Refuge and began farming. By 1894 the Black community was large enough to establish the first school in the area.
In 1894 William S. Linton, a Republican US Congressman for Saginaw, Michigan, bought a tract of land just west of the Orange Grove House of Refuge, and began selling plots in what he hoped would become a farming community. Initially, this community was named after Linton. In 1896 Henry Flagler extended his Florida East Coast Railroad south from West Palm Beach to Miami, with a station at Linton.
The Linton settlers began to achieve success, with truck farming of winter vegetables for the northern market. A hard freeze in 1898 was a setback, and many of the settlers left, including William Linton. 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.