Boynton F.E.C. Railroad Station and Farming

Boynton F.E.C. Railroad Station and Farming

Location

Henry M. Flagler was a key figure in the development of the east coast of Florida through his creation of the Florida East Coast Railroad, hotel construction, and property development.

Flagler originally made his fortune in the oil business by forming the Rockefeller, Andrews, and Flagler Oil Refinery in 1868. The company later emerged as Standard Oil which was considered the biggest and wealthiest industrial company in the world.

After visiting the city of St. Augustine, Flagler realized its potential and, on leaving Standard Oil in 1885, he came back to the city to start his next venture. He immediately recognized two main problems: hotels and transportation. On completing the Ponce De Leon Hotel in St. Augustine he began creating the Florida East Coast Railway by purchasing the Jacksonville, St. Augustine, Halifax, and Indian River Railroads.1. The railroad reached Lake Worth in 18942, Boynton in 18963, and, after a tremendous engineering feat, Key West in 19124.

Boynton FEC Railroad Station

FEC Railroad station and shipping platformFEC Railroad station and shipping platform

The Boynton FEC Railroad station was located on the east side of the railroad tracks just north of Ocean Avenue and across from Dewey Park. The building was a wood frame structure with vertical siding and a pitched roof. Ornamentation consisted of exposed rafter tails and decorative roof brackets.

As well as transporting tourists, the station was also used to ship agricultural produce such as tomatoes, beans peppers, pineapples, and bananas to northern markets. Oscar Magnuson, who can be seen standing in the cart in the above photograph, was a fern grower who would pack his ferns in ice to keep them fresh during shipment. 
Unfortunately, the train station building eventually fell into decline until it was declared an eyesore and demolished in the 1960s5

FEC Railroad station in declineFEC Railroad station in decline

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Farming

Boynton’s early growth was centered around the farming industry, which, at first, took place along the lakeshore and canal (now the Intracoastal Waterway) and on either side of what is now Seacrest Boulevard6. In 1896, Henry Flagler incorporated the Model Land Company7 which encouraged agricultural and industrial development on land adjacent to the newly opened railroad. By 1900, Boynton was a major supplier of tomatoes and pineapples to northern markets. The produce was shipped by boat and rail8.

Horace Bentley Murray’s Tomato Packing ShedHorace Bentley Murray’s Tomato Packing Shed
A report from 19109 states Boynton produced the best tomatoes on the east coast and each year one hundred and fifty two acres of tomatoes were planted with each acre yielding up to 1,000 crates. Other crops grown at that time included beans, pepper, eggplant, squash, celery, cabbage, red cabbage, cucumbers, onions, and potatoes. The report also states that, although the orange and grapefruit culture had never been entered into extensively, the “Dewey Grove” had been successful in growing high quality citrus fruit. Numerous pineapple fields also thrived. The Campbells, Duncans, Funk Brothers, F.W. Webber and others were all active in pineapple farming10.

Many of the black families arriving in Boynton at the time were farm workers who migrated from Georgia and the Bahamas. W.C Girtman arrived in 1900 from Apopka and purchased two acres along the Boynton Canal where he grew citrus trees and raised pheasants11.

Around this time, dairy farming also developed on the ocean ridge to the east of the Florida East Coast Canal12. In 1912 and 1913, the canals making up the Lake Worth Drainage District opened up the area west of Boynton to farming and dairying13. Boynton eventually had sixteen dairies and the success of both the farming and dairy industries contributed to the development of the area throughout the 1900s.

Boynton prospered through the Florida “Boom Time Era” which peaked in the early 1920s; however, in the mid-1920s, the town was hit by a series of unfortunate events, one of which was the discovery of citrus canker in the orange groves in 1925. This forced the local government and State Plant Board to destroy all citrus groves in the town14.

With ongoing expansion and development of the city, the farms have now moved farther west where they still produce a major share of the winter vegetables for the northeast.

Packing Shed on the IntracoastalPacking Shed on the Intracoastal

Boynton also had a long standing reputation as the home of numerous nurseries. Norman and Jean Merkel, graduates of Cornell University horticulture programs, moved from Ohio to Boynton in 1936 and took over a nursery to begin orchid cultivation. In 1946, B.W. Alberts joined the firm which became known as Alberts and Merkel. The Merkels travelled widely to fill the nursery with rare plants and, as the firm’s reputation grew, they began to supply flowers to U.S. presidents15.

Oscar Magnuson, whose house still stands on Ocean Avenue, owned a fernery located on High Ridge Road. His ferns were packed in ice and shipped by rail to northern markets. Oscar also grew and grafted mango and avocado trees.

  • 1. Florida East Coast Railway website. http://www.fecrwy.com/about/history
  • 2. Research Atlantica, Inc. City of Boynton Beach, Florida, Historic Sites Survey. Coral Springs: 1996, p.14
  • 3. Farace V.K. et. al., Boynton Beach, The First 100 Years, Boynton Beach Historical Society & Friends of the Boynton Beach City Library, 1995, p.10
  • 4. Florida East Coast Railway website. http://www.fecrwy.com/about/history
  • 5. Farace V.K. et. al., Boynton Beach, The First 100 Years, Boynton Beach Historical Society & Friends of the Boynton Beach City Library, 1995, p.10
  • 6. Boynton’s Growth Due Largely To Agriculture”, Boynton Beach Star, May 23, 1963
  • 7. Brown W.E. and Hudson K., “Henry Flagler and the Model Land Company”, http://digitalcollections.fiu.edu/tequesta/files/1996/96_1_03.pdf
  • 8. Farace V.K. et. al., Boynton Beach, The First 100 Years, Boynton Beach Historical Society & Friends of the Boynton Beach City Library, 1995, p.7
  • 9. “The Prosperous Town of Boynton”, The Florida East Coast Homeseeker, Volume XII, Number 11, November, 1910
  • 10. Research Atlantica, Inc. City of Boynton Beach, Florida, Historic Sites Survey. Coral Springs: 1996, p.20
  • 11. Ibid., p.21
  • 12. Ibid., p.18
  • 13. “Boynton’s Growth Due Largely To Agriculture”, Boynton Beach Star, May 23, 1963
  • 14. Research Atlantica, Inc. City of Boynton Beach, Florida, Historic Sites Survey. Coral Springs: 1996, p.20
  • 15. Ibid. p.39