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Delray Beach celebrates its centennial
Mayor Woodie McDuffie precedes as Delray Beach celebrated its past, present and future Thursday evening. Behind him are members of the Delray Beach City Commission and centennial celebration committee. to the right of McDuffy wearing a light blue shirt is former Mayor David Schmidt.
By Palm Beach Business.com
DELRAY BEACH — Happy Birthday Delray! You’re 100 years old! Well almost.
With lots of music, the opening of a time capsule and of course a birthday cake — large enough to feed 1,000 — the Village by the Sea celebrated its centennial with a party that took up most of downtown.
Technically, the birthday doesn’t come until come until Sunday — Delray came into being on Oct. 9, 1911 — but nobody seemed to mind the slight discrepancy. And as Mayor Woodie McDuffie said it was Delray, not Delray Beach back then because the barrier island wasn't part of the town.
Each block of Atlantic Avenue from Swinton to Federal Highway had live music commemorating various eras in the city’s history. There were gladiolus galore, of course — Delray once had 13 gladiolus growers and an industry worth $1 million a year — and a time capsule filled with items from 1986, the year of Delray’s 75th anniversary.
McDuffie and Majorie Ferrer of the Downtown Development Authority cut the birthday cake at Old School Square, kicking off the evening’s festivities.
At 8, McDuffie and Dottie Patterson, archivist with the Delray Beach Historical Society, opened the time capsule. First item that came out: a quilt from Trinity Lutheran Church and School wishing the city happy birthday.
Most unusual and inexplicable item: a small jar of Vaseline. Really.
There were copies of a diamond anniversary Delray Beach cookbook. Lots of copies. Newspaper clippings, photo prints complete with something called negatives. There were certificates from a group of beard growers called the brotherhood of the brush.
A letter from then-Police Chief Charles Kilgore provided a bit of perspective on exactly how far Delray has come in the lat 25 years.
He notes Delray’s two biggest problems back then were a growing population and crack cocaine. The city was eying crime-ridden West Atlantic Avenue for redevelopment, had built a new headquarters for the police department on the avenue and was looking to move the fire department to a new facility on West Atlantic. Meanwhile Palm Beach County planning to build a satellite courthouse in the vicinity and there were plans to convert an abandoned elementary school into a cultural center for the city
Both the fire department and courthouse were completed years ago, and Old School Square is almost literaly the heart and soul of Delray Beach. West Atlantic today would be almost unrecognizable to Kilgore.
Items from the time capsule will be on display at the Delray Beach Historical Society at 3 NE 1st Street through late January when it will be sealed again. Residents are also invited to submit items to be included in the time capsule.
Thursday's celebration was one of a series of events commemorating Delray's centennial. More information can be found at the Delray 100 website.
Dottie Patterson, archivist for the Delray Beach Historical Society, holds the first item taken out of the 1986 time capsule, a quilt that was donated by the Trinity Lutheran Church and Schoo. McDuffie is at the left.
Oktoberfest: Heldensteiner, a band from Bavaria, entertain near Federal Highway.
