Delray Beach is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. As of the United States Census 2000, the city had a total population of 60,020. As of 2004, the population estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau is 64,150. >http://www.census.gov/popest/cities/tables/SUB-EST2004-04-12.xls

History
=The Early Years=
The history of Delray Beach effectively begins with the construction of the Houses of Refuge in Florida in 1876. The house derived its name from the grove of mature sour orange and other tropical fruit trees found at the site chosen for the house of refuge, but no record or evidence of who planted the trees has...

Delray Beach is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. As of the United States Census 2000, the city had a total population of 60,020. As of 2004, the population estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau is 64,150. >http://www.census.gov/popest/cities/tables/SUB-EST2004-04-12.xls

History
=The Early Years=
The history of Delray Beach effectively begins with the construction of the Houses of Refuge in Florida in 1876. The house derived its name from the grove of mature sour orange and other tropical fruit trees found at the site chosen for the house of refuge, but no record or evidence of who planted the trees has survived. Indians presumably lived or passed through the area at various times, and hunters, trappers, and run-away slaves may also have lived or passed through the area in the 18th and 19th Centuries, but there is no record or evidence of them.

Settlement began around 1884, when Blacks from the Florida Panhandle bought land a little inland from the Orange Grove House of Refuge and began farming. By 1894 the African-American community was large enough to establish the first school in the area.

In 1894 William Seelye'Steel Cut'Linton, postmaster of Saginaw, Michigan, bought a tract of land just west of the Orange Grove House of Refuge, and began selling plots in what he hoped would become a farming community. Initially, this community was named after Linton. In 1896 Henry Morrison Flagler extended his Florida East Coast Railway south from West Palm Beach, Florida to Miami, Florida, with a station at Linton.

The Linton settlers began to achieve success with truck farming of winter vegetables for the northern market. A hard freeze in 1898 was a setback, and many of the settlers left, including William Linton. Partly in an attempt to change the community's luck, or leave behind a bad reputation, the settlement's name was changed in 1901 to Delray, after the Detroit neighborhood of Delray, Detroit ('Delray'being the anglicized spelling of'Del Rey,'which is Spanish language for'of the king'', which in turn, the Detroit neighborhood was named after the Mexican-American War's Battle of Molino del Rey).