Pearl City, Boca Raton, Florida
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pearl City is a neighborhood in Boca Raton, Florida, immediately north of downtown. The neighborhood was originally platted on May 30, 1915 for blue-collar African Americans employed at the Boca Raton Resort & Club, on area farms, in construction, land-clearing, and various domestic jobs.[1]
There is little evidence on the origin of the name, but it is often theorized that Pearl City is named after the the Hawaiian pearl pineapple, a major crop grown in the area at the time.
There is a memorial dedicated to Martin Luther King, Jr. on the neighborhood outskirts.
Contents |
[edit] Crime
Pearl City, and the surrounding communities of Lincoln Court and the Dixie Manor housing projects, are identified as low-income because of high levels of poverty. This is also where the majority of the city's African American population lives. Subsequently, the Boca Raton Police Department held an investigation in the 1980s, after identifying the area for being drug trafficking hub.
[edit] Revitalization
The neighborhood was designated a historic district by the decree of the Boca Raton City Council in 2002. [1] Streets had also been resurfaced with asphalt after decades of neglect and deterioration.
[edit] References
- ^ Evans and Lee, (1990). Pearl City, Florida: A Black Community Remembers. Boca Raton: Florida Atlantic UP/UP of Florida.
[edit] External links
Coordinates: 26°21′38″N 80°05′05″W / 26.360556°N 80.084686°W
