Boca Raton Old Floresta

Every Florida land boom developer of the 1920s knew that they could be successful only if people actually built on the lots which they purchased. To encourage people to build in Boca Raton, Mizner’s development company began construction on two subdivisions west of downtown. In October 1925 the company announced that it would construct houses in what became known as Old Floresta. Mizner said the houses were planned for the executives and directors of his company with one house especially designed for his brother, the Reverend Henry Mizner, who had recently retired from his St. Louis parish and planned to live in Boca Raton.

The Robinson Company, large New York contractors who were building the Cloister Inn, received the contract to begin twenty-nine houses in Old Floresta, the first of the many projected for the subdivision. The company was unable to complete all of the houses before the money ran out. The land and the new houses were repossessed by the original land owners. It was Hermann Von Holst, the leader of the Chicago owners of the property, who proposed new names for the streets and that the subdivision be called Floresta. The Old Floresta houses had plain facades—Mizner said that simplicity "...[was] always dominant in the best of Spanish architecture”—of rough-finished stucco with numerous windows and doors that frequently opened onto wrought-iron balconies. He also designed the street front facades with thick walls to give the windows and doors deep reveals. The roofs, covered with barrel tiles made at Mizner Industries, were uneven with low pitched lines alternating with flat parapets. In many of the smaller Old Floresta houses, Mizner substituted dining alcoves for formal dining rooms.  Call to get additional information about this historic area of Boca Raton 561-362-0045