Addison to zebra, the story of Boca


When she was a girl, Deborah Marraffino Rothberger liked to imagine herself at another moment in time, canoeing and dodging alligators like a Seminole Indian in the swamps.

Or she envisioned being a pioneer, building the first settlement in a virgin territory.

She wanted to know how the "barefoot mailmen" navigated Florida's wilderness while shuttling mail between Miami and Jupiter in the late 1800s.

History has always fascinated Rothberger, an elementary school teacher. When a friend told her about a book she saw while on vacation, Rothberger thought it might be something she could easily produce for her hometown of Boca Raton.

In A Stroll Through Boca Raton's History, From A to Z, Rothberger guides her readers on an easy-to-follow tour of the city's past, from its founding by black farm settlers around 1915 to the 1960s, which Rothberger used as her cutoff date. She pairs black-and-white photos of the city's historical figures and places with explanations for each.

For the letter Y, she chose Yamato -- the settlement of Japanese farmers who lived in the city in the early 1900s. "By 1942, most of the Japanese were gone, those that were left were moved by the U.S. government due to their close proximity to the U.S. Army Radar base constructed for World War II."

X is for "the eXploration of a site that contained early Caloosa and Tequesta Indian burial grounds."

Her book is scheduled to be out in December and will be used as part of an exhibit at the Boca Raton Historical Society, which sponsored the book.

Rothberger, a teacher at Deerfield Beach Elementary School for 12 years, uses the A-to-Z concept when she teaches her fourth- and fifth-graders history.

"I think it's more interesting than just writing a report on Florida. To me, it's harder," she said.

The state's history stretches back hundreds of years. But Boca Raton's?

The city's history is barely 100 years old. In many respects, it's new, compared with some parts of the country.

"I think it's harder when histories are complicated," said Mary Lou Riccio, of the Boca Raton Historical Society, who helped work on the exhibit that goes along with the book.

Sure, Boca Raton might not have the historical depth and wealth of more established, older cities like Boston or Philadelphia. But Boca Raton's background is interesting and important for young people to learn, Rothberger said.

"It doesn't have to be the oldest history. There's history everywhere," she said. "The city had to evolve from something."

Some of the historical figures in Rothberger's book were easy, she said -- A is for Addison Mizner, the architect whose design influence is seen in many of the city's buildings. G is for Clarence Geist, who owned the hotel now known as the Boca Raton Resort and Club and helped shape the city in its early years.

But Z for zebras? That's how Rothberger ends her book.

It might seem strange, but the city once did have the striped creatures roaming its land. Zebras and other animals inhabited what are now the neighborhoods near Camino Gardens. Back in the 1950s, it was a zoo called Africa USA.

While some people might have a hard time seeing a menagerie of wild animals where homes are now, Rothberger's book is full of such stories.

A longtime resident of Boca Raton, she likes to point out old buildings and what they used to house when she was a girl. She remembers the big banyan tree that once stood at Palmetto Park Road and Dixie Highway, where Blockbuster Video now sits.

Bringing to life Boca Raton before its rapid expansion is one of the reasons she wrote the book.

She wanted to show people living here now that the city "wasn't always like this."

"I think children have a hard time imagining what it was like not being able to run around the corner and go to McDonald's," Rothberger said.


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