From Palm Beach County to Miami-Dade, 11 cities are celebrating their centennials in 2025 and 2026. WLRN News' series "History We Call Home" spotlights the moments, ideas and people that made these cities part of our community's fabric over the past century.
In 1915, George Emory Butler and his brother James “J.D.” Butler were making their way to South Florida on a train. They reached Palm Beach before the tracks became too flooded to go any farther, so the brothers hopped on a rowboat and headed south. The two had set off from Southwest Georgia after their parents had passed away.
“ They had a sister, Eila, who was here and she said, ‘Come on down to Florida. All you gotta do is put a seed in the ground and you can grow a crop and you can sell it,’” said Timothy Butler, George’s grandson.
That rowboat would eventually land in the community of Deerfield, a small agricultural settlement named after the herds of deer that would graze by the Hillsboro River, and the Butlers would become instrumental in the founding of the town that would later become the City of Deerfield Beach.
After planting their crops on Eila’s farm for a few seasons, J.D. and George would build their houses across the street from each other. In fact, J.D. Butler’s house still stands today and serves as the headquarters of the Deerfield Beach Historical Society. Ten years after the Butlers arrived, the small community decided to incorporate. J.D. led the delegation that filed the paperwork in Tallahassee, and on June 11, 1925, George was elected as the first mayor of the newly formed Town of Deerfield.
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The town was incorporated in the peak of the Florida land boom. Michael Zaidman, an archivist with the Deerfield Beach Historical Society, said the real estate bubble had a tremendous impact on the value of the land.
“ ’We're gonna offer an acre of land for 50 bucks and you can come down and get a piece of property and have a place to go.’ And then it started steamrolling. People would buy the land and they would resell it a week later for 200 bucks and then 600 bucks. And then just a short time after that, it was selling for $5,000 an acre,” he said.
There are a few theories as to why the town decided to incorporate when it did, including that Boca Raton — the city just across the Hilllsboro River, now known as the Hillsboro Canal — may have wanted to annex the increasingly valuable Deerfield. Today, the river divides not just the two cities but Broward and Palm Beach counties.
Ultimately, Timothy Butler says that the motivations for incorporating will remain a mystery.
“ There's nobody else to ask. Both my granddads on my father's side said, ‘You should ask us more questions, you're gonna miss having this information.’ And they were right,” he said.
Capone Island
Boca Raton remains a popular suspect because in the 1950s the two municipalities did have a land dispute — thanks, in part, to the notorious gangster Al Capone.
The Hillsboro River was a popular route for rum runners during Prohibition. Cap’s Place, opened in 1928 in nearby Lighthouse Point, was a popular gambling hall and speakeasy. Capone allegedly used a fish packing house in Deerfield that later became the Riverview Restaurant as a gambling hall and booze smuggling operation.
In addition to being its first municipal leader, George Butler was also the town’s first attempt at local law enforcement during the era of Prohibition.
“ He acted as the constable. He bought a shotgun and tried to stop the rum runners from coming up Hillsborough Boulevard because he thought that was unsafe,” said Timothy.
In 1930, Capone’s lawyer, Vincent G. Giblin purchased a 52-acre island where the Hillsboro River meets the Intracoastal Waterway. The intent was for Capone to build a private home on the island, but his conviction for tax evasion in 1931 meant the home was never built.
The Army Corps of Engineers used the island, now known as Capone Island, for dumping until the 1950s when the City of Boca Raton wanted to incorporate the island to expand the Royal Palm Yacht and Country Club. Upon hearing these plans, a delegation from Deerfield rushed to Tallahassee to claim the island as part of Deerfield Beach. Eventually the City gave the island to Broward County, which operates the site as Deerfield Island Park.
From agriculture to beach destination to modern suburb
In 1939, the town renamed itself Deerfield Beach to attract tourists. Hotels and motels began to crop up on the beach and the town grew slowly until the 1970s. Jeff Fisk, a member of the Deerfield Beach Historical Society, moved with his family to Deerfield Beach in 1967.
“ There were less than 10,000 people. West of town was four or five blocks west of Dixie Highway, and I-95 didn't exist,” he said.
The cattle ranches and agricultural fields were still common when Deerfield Beach High School opened its doors in 1970, says Fisk.
“ A couple months before it opened, I was over there with my older brother. He had joined the cross country team and brought me over to work out with them when I was 10 years old. And when you looked west from the track, where right now you can see [I-]95, you would’ve seen about 250 head of cattle right there,” he said.
The school chose the Bucks as its mascot to honor the city’s history.
Since the 1970s, the agricultural land was sold off to developers, leading to a population boom. That includes the 640 acres of land owned by the Butler family.
“ They made a six-lane, US 441, in front of the farm, they built the Sawgrass Expressway on the north edge of the farm, and they widened Wiles road on the south end of the farm. So it was set up for development. Farming, you could tell, was on the way out,” said Timothy.
Today the city has an estimated 90,000 residents, and all of the agricultural land has been developed.
“That farmland was used to grow houses instead of crops,” said Timothy.
The town's namesake deer have moved on for the most part, but statues of the hooved mammals adorn many of the city’s buildings and green spaces.
