It was in the 1920s that the sleepy town of Boca Raton began to change, marked by three important developments: the incorporation of the town; the purchase of oceanfront property by a group of Palm Beach and Northern investors headed by society architect Addison Mizner; and the announcement of plans to build a giant, beachfront hotel complex, Mizner style. (These plans were soon scrapped in favor of the Ritz-Carlton Cloister Inn.)

Mizner had already built 40 homes in the Palm Beach area and established the Mizner Development Corporation. At one time its stockholders included such high-rollers as Paris Singer, Irving Berlin, Elizabeth Arden, W.K. Vanderbilt II and T. Coleman du Pont. Film star Marie Dressler, the unofficial hostess of Boca Raton, actually sold real estate for Mizner.

Fresh from turning Palm Beach into a playground for the rich and famous, Mizner set out to transform Boca Raton into his dream city. The result: Twenty-nine homes in Floresta, now an historic area adjacent to the Boca Raton Museum of Art; and at least 12 smaller ones in Spanish Village, north of Singing Pines and the Children's Museum and west of Second Avenue. The 100-room, Spanish-style Cloister Inn opened its doors in early 1926. Now the Boca Raton Resort & Club, the development's distinctive Mediterranean Revival style set the standard for local architecture.

Although the land boom went bust and Mizner and company went bankrupt even as the inn's first guests were unpacking their bags, by the end of the decade, Boca Raton had become one of Florida's best-known cities.

Then came World War II. Boca Raton set aside 5,000 acres of facilities for 20,000 army personnel at what is now Florida Atlantic University. Because of the German submarine threat and fear of invasion, residents volunteered for four-hour shifts of spotter duty in a 30-foot-high wooden observation tower on the beach.

After the war years, Boca Raton's subtropical locale and beckoning business climate attracted the prestigious International Business Machines (IBM) and Florida Atlantic University; both set-up shop here in the mid-'60s.