The town is named after Maj. Nathan S. Boynton, a Civil War officer and former mayor of Port Huron, Mich., who settled here in 1896. The first Boynton colonists pitched tents and cleared land where they grew pineapples and vegetables. Other settlers helped Boynton build a hotel on the beach. Several buildings in the city's downtown were built with lumber from the Coquimbo, a Norwegian freighter that sank off the public beach in 1909. The other is the 1913 elementary school. In 1931, voters agreed to let residents in the eastern section of town split in a dispute over taxes. That area became Ocean Ridge. Boynton Beach is known as Gateway to the Gulf Stream

Once known as a sleepy retirement village, this  100-year-old city is in the midst of a far-reaching renaissance. In 1997, University of Florida statistics showed Boynton Beach reached a population of 50,000, making it the fourth largest city in Palm Beach County.