The City of Boca Raton celebrates its 100th centennial this year. The city has a past tied to World War II, with several “T-Buildings” that still stand after 83 years. Built in 1942 as part of the Boca Raton Army Air Field, these temporary structures were only designed to serve during the war.
Today, there are about 15 T-buildings, based on aerial maps of the former airfield, according to Sue Gillis, curator of the Boca Raton Historical Society. She said most have survived hurricanes over the years. Others were lost to demolition. While the buildings may not be glamorous, Gillis remarked that history lives within their walls, but whether they continue to stand or are preserved is now up to private owners. Most now serve as apartments or schools on the east side of Boca Raton.
“Owners, especially investors, are not necessarily interested in being burdened with preservation, and they may proactively turn down the building rather than run the chance that it would be historically designated,” said Gillis. “So we don’t want to create a sense of alarm, because I run into that as well: ‘Oh my God, my building is historic. Oh my God, let’s get rid of it.’ We don’t want that.”
While historic preservation is vital to Gillis, she said not every building needs to be saved; the goal is to preserve some examples of the base’s history rather than demolishing them all. She said historic designation is an extra layer of protection for property sites or districts that fall under the category.
After World War II ended in 1945, the base was mainly abandoned but continued to operate for a while. In 1949, Gillis said the city purchased 2,400 acres of the former airfield property from the U.S. government, salvaging the buildings and the property. After various private owners bought the T-Buildings, they were repurposed for other uses instead of being turned into a museum.
“But of course, you want them to be functional, and that’s certainly allowed. Historic preservation is about adaptive use, as they call it,” Gillis said. These buildings were not designed for modern living, and most have undergone renovations. As far as historic designation goes, she says it is fine for interior renovations like adding air conditioning or opening up the space, as long as the respect for the history is respected, like the Dade County Pine, a type of historic wood in the roofing.
The most significant setback to historical preservation is money. Gillis noted that these apartments are not high-end or owned by individuals with high incomes, so it’s a financial burden to preserve them, and she understands why one would hesitate.
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Even though she has spent 20 years fighting historic preservation in Boca Raton, Gillis said this is not an easy sell to property owners. After all the hoops one jumps through to preserve a building once it’s designated, there are additional steps from the city, such as obtaining permits. Furthermore, anything done to the exterior of the building must be approved by the city’s Historic Preservation Board to determine if it’s deemed appropriate, which adds a price tag to the process.
Nonprofits, educational institutions and government organizations can apply for grant funds, such as state preservation grants. However, Gillis made clear this option is not available for private owners. Four T-Buildings remain standing on the Boca Raton campus at Florida Atlantic University. The university uses them as classrooms; one even serves as a storage unit. However, these buildings are not designated.
The headquarters building for the base was located at 101 Pine Circle. Since World War II, it has operated as an apartment building. Gillis and her preservation team tried to save it by meeting with property owner Armen Batmasian on several occasions, encouraging him to consider preserving it. They even called out to local historic preservation experts, hoping someone might step forward to purchase the property and restore the building. Unfortunately, time ran out, and the building was demolished in August 2013. The land sat empty for a decade after that.
But when Gillis approaches owners, she has to play it safe and walk a fine line between respecting the past and working with developers. She says people aren’t always aware of the historical significance of Boca Raton, so it becomes a long educational process for those who make decisions about the city’s future.
In her eyes, the most original and least altered building, based on historic photos from her database, that she would choose to preserve is the Dorchester Apartments, located at 3535 NW 3rd Ave. Donald Planthaber, the property owner of the Dorchester Apartments since 2011, purchased the property from a family who had owned it since 1984. The family had already divided the building into individual apartments and undergone a roof replacement.
When Planthaber bought it, the property needed minor renovations, such as updating the electrical and plumbing. He stated that the building is durable and has a history. Still, nothing original about it would make him want to warrant designating it, unless the city provided funding.
“There’s nothing on it or in it that you’d go, ‘Oh, that’s historical,’” he said. Besides the aerial maps, the H-shaped building is the most notable feature. He doesn’t typically tell renters about the building’s past unless they ask, as some question if it was once a church.
According to Gillis, most of the buildings in Boca Raton are H-shaped and served as classrooms, while L-shaped buildings were used as housing for army personnel. Today, the two L-shaped buildings are the Garden of Sahaba Academy at 3100 NW 5th Ave and the University Apartments at 3000 NW 5th Ave.
While some buildings have had doors added or been painted, they are still recognizable as “old” buildings. But, Gillis said that two locations have been turned into warehouses and are unidentifiable unless you examine them from aerial maps or by looking at the roofing: 1401 NW 1st Ave and 108 NW 20th St.
Andrea O’Rourke served as an elected official on the Boca Raton City Council from 2017 to 2023 and held the position of Deputy Mayor from 2020 to 2023. During her time, the historic society often lobbied the city council and staff to designate areas in the city as historically significant. However, she said there was never enough appetite to make it happen, and there is a required investment from the city’s standpoint.
The city responded that there were other higher priorities to focus on, and she said they didn’t see a strong demand from the public for this initiative, which led to pushback against it.
“And then what happens is, quite honestly, people that live in a home that is from that era. They might want to do renovations on it. And then if it becomes historically preserved, their hands are tied,” she said. “So, which is why I think there wasn’t a great outcry from people that own the properties.
O’Rourke stated that building owners have entitlements. If you start taking those away, it can lead to legal issues, which she says is why the city probably didn’t want to get too involved. People would say, “I have rights. This is what I bought, and I bought it to do what I want with it.” Once it’s deemed historic, they can’t do what they planned, so she says it can get sticky.
“I like valuing our history. Personally, I would have supported an initiative to at least study and take inventory of all the properties in our community. I would still recommend doing that,” she ended.
This story was produced by MediaLab@FAU, a project of Florida Atlantic University School of Communication and Multimedia Studies, as part of a content sharing partnership with the WLRN newsroom. The reporter can be reached here.
