Boca Historical Society offers 2020 holiday ornament; Garden Club opts out due to COVID
By Dale King
The coronavirus pandemic is making the holiday season a lot more difficult for local folks to enjoy.
Families are being urged to shun festive gatherings, and even Boca Raton has canceled its holiday street and boat parades and decorations around Mizner Park won’t be twinkling this season.
COVID-19 has forced the city’s Garden Club to cancel the creation of a holiday tree ornament for 2020 – a yuletide task it has cheerfully accepted each winter season since 1994.
But the Boca Raton Historical Society and Museum has announced that the organization has crafted an ornament for this season – one that marks the 30th anniversary of the opening of Mizner Park in downtown Boca Raton.
“We produce fewer than 150 holiday collectibles each year, so history and holiday fans should make their online purchase today by visiting www.BocaRatonOrnaments.com,” said Mary Csar, executive director of the Historical Society.
“We will soon announce dates in December when buyers can pick up their ornament in front of the museum, located at 71 North Federal Highway” in the Old Town Hall building that’s headquarters for the city’s history-minded organization.
The website for the Garden Club offers a regretful notation that “no commemorative ornament” will be created for 2020 “due to COVID-19.”
It does offer a glimmer of hope by adding: “There are plans for something special for next year,” when an ornament marking 2020-2021 is created.
The Garden Club’s contribution to the 2019 holiday season was an intricately designed tree hanger that pays homage to Ancient America, a tourist attraction of Native American culture and artifacts that drew the curious and contemplative to Boca Raton between 1953 and 1958.
It was the 26th in an unbroken annual series that bowed out this year due to the rigors of a pandemic that has impacted all corners of the globe.
Coincidentally, the Garden Club began the series in 1994 with an ornament honoring the Old Town Hall, where municipal offices were housed until the new city hall was constructed on West Palmetto Park Road.
Some of the other ornament themes through the years have been the Boca Resort & Club (1997), Florida Atlantic University (2000), the Boca Beach Pavilion (2001), the Yamato Colony (2006), Mizner Park (2009), Pearl City (2011) and Sanborn Square in 2016
Members of the Garden Club have been well aware of the pandemic and have worked to provide protective masks for members of the community as well as healthcare workers. Folks in the Garden Club crafted 2,500 of them to help folks avoid being infected.
As to the Historical Society, Csar recalled that in 1998, “the talented Boca Raton artist Barbara Montgomery O’Connell created her first ornament—depicting old Town Hall— for this BRHS. A 30-year resident of Boca Raton, the artist has donated her time and talent ever since to create the artwork on the annual ornament, always based on information and photographs from the historical society.”
In 1980, Csar said, the Community Redevelopment Agency was established to combat blight in the downtown area. CRA director Jamie Snyder called for the construction of an “Art Park” to replace the aging Boca Raton Mall on Federal Highway.
Eight years later, developer Tom Crocker answered the call with his “Mizner Park” project which would combine cultural facilities, residential and office space with a variety of retail establishments in a Mediterranean Revival style complex. “The completed Mizner Park opened to great fanfare in January 1991,” she noted.
Right now, the Historical Society is shut down because of the COVID pandemic. “When it officially reopens early next year, the new Boca Raton Historical Society & Museum will feature a series of dynamic, immersive and interactive exhibits showcasing critical moments and figures in the city’s development: Early History/Pioneer Days, Addison Mizner, Boca’s critical role in World War II, the groundbreaking role of IBM and the first functioning personal computers, and more,” said Csar.
Appealing to local historians, tourists and residents, the museum’s Fire Bay Gift Shop will, when it reopens, feature unique and educational gifts for all ages, including crafts by local artisans, historic photographs, unusual Boca-based gifts and souvenirs, books by local authors, and “The History of Boca Raton DVD” — as well as the annual holiday ornaments.
The mission of the Boca Raton Historical Society & Museum is to collect, preserve and present information and artifacts relevant to the past and evolving history of Boca Raton and to maintain a visible role in the education and the advocacy of historic preservation in the community, particularly through its ongoing project, History Alive!
Although currently closed, BRHS is using this time to completely reimagine and renovate the museum, which will celebrate its 50th anniversary in 2022.
