As you drive around town, do you ever wonder where some of the street names originated from? Butts Road may just be a path for you to cut over from Military to Glades, but you are actually driving on a wealth of local history from the early 1900’s.

August H. Butts and his wife Natalie Swanson purchased 3,500 acres of land in 1933 in Boca Raton on each side of Glades Road from Florida’s Turnpike to Interstate 95. Mr. Butts took advantage of a slow economy at the time to obtain this attractive farmland. He chose his land for its higher elevation, abundance of trees, and good drainage—the conditions needed to grow beans.

His forward thinking paid off—this land ended up becoming one of the largest bean farms in the entire state of Florida. The farm used advanced growing methods and state-of-the-art watering systems to produce the best tasting beans around. They shipped the beans as far away as Chicago, New York, and Boston.

Butts Farm became one of Boca Raton’s main employers during the Depression. Mr. Butts hired local workers and migrants to work at the farm. At its peak, the farm employed up to 900 workers in the fields during high season. Many of the workers were Hispanic or African American migrant laborers, and others were African Americans living in Boca Raton’s Pearl City community. Butts also generously provided housing, a church, and a general store for its employees. At one time, the farm even ran a school.

Just like the farm was an important part of the Boca Raton economy in the 1930’s, the land that was Butts Farm is now where the Town Center Mall exists—another place critical to our city’s economy. When farming became less profitable, the Butts family sold much of its land to Arvida Corporation. Other parcels of the land were donated to Florida Atlantic University and St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church.

Next time you drive along Butts Road that runs on the east side of Town Center, you can think of it as a tribute to the Butts’ family’s contribution to the local economy.