Henry Flagler’s Florida East Coast Railway reached Boca Raton in 1895, creating an essential link in the railroad’s southward extension to Miami and the Florida Keys and helping spur the tourism and agricultural development on which the community was founded and prospered. The depot built on this site in 1930 was not Boca Raton’s first station. Although the railway was crucial to opening the area, Boca Raton’s distinctive architectural character took shape in the 1920s and 1930s largely through the influence of architect and developer Addison Mizner. After the collapse of southeast Florida’s Boom Era in 1928, Mizner lost his extensive Boca Raton holdings, and Clarence A. Geist, who had begun as a brakeman in New Jersey and became a utilities magnate in Philadelphia, bought the bankrupt development and sought to build on Mizner’s achievements. His plans included a passenger depot on the Florida East Coast Railway line to serve guests of the exclusive Boca Raton Club and provide a gracious entrance to the community. To ensure the station complemented the Club, Geist donated the needed land and rights to the Florida East Coast Railway and was reputed to have made a considerable investment in the railway. Designed by Florida East Coast Railway architect Chester G. Henninger and built in 1930 in the Mediterranean Revival style, the station featured a gently pitched gable roof, stuccoed walls, and arched loggias with delicate spiral columns. The style, generally associated with Mizner’s work, contributed significantly to Boca Raton’s physical character, which remains visible today. The Florida East Coast Railway Passenger Station operated until 1968, when passenger service along the line ended; later recognized as a living testament to Florida’s Boom Era, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980 and restored in 1989 by the Boca Raton Historical Society with assistance from the Count and Countess de Hoernle and broad community support.