Colony Hotel & Cabana Club

The Colony Hotel anchors the corner of East Atlantic Avenue in downtown Delray Beach, and it has been doing so since 1926, when architect Martin Luther Hampton, an associate of Addison Mizner, designed it as the Alterep Hotel for original owner Albert T. Repp. In 1935, George and Agnes Boughton bought the property along with George’s father and renamed it the Colony Hotel, and it has stayed in Boughton family hands ever since. Third-generation family member Hilary Roche now serves as managing partner, which makes this one of the longest continuously family-run hotels on Florida’s southeast coast, not a corporate acquisition dressed up as heritage.

The building itself is Spanish Colonial Revival, painted its signature bright yellow, and it still runs on its original 1926 Otis traction elevator alongside a preserved antique telephone switchboard on display in the lobby. Wicker furniture, historic photographs, and Cuban-style tile on the porch floor carry the period detail through the public spaces, while hurricane-impact windows were custom designed to resemble the originals rather than replacing them with generic modern glass. Air conditioning, televisions, and high-speed internet were added over the years so the 66 guest rooms function like a modern hotel without losing the historic shell around them. The hotel operated only from January through April for most of its history and only shifted to year-round operation around 2000.

A short drive from the main building, guests also get access to the Colony’s private Cabana Club, added in the late 1940s, which includes a stretch of private beach and a heated saltwater pool, a rare amenity for a hotel of this size and vintage. Back on Atlantic Avenue, the hotel is surrounded by the boutiques, galleries, and restaurants that make downtown Delray Beach one of the more walkable dining and shopping strips in Palm Beach County, and the property itself offers a bar, breakfast and lunch service, a fitness room, and weekend live entertainment. Pets are welcome, and the hotel has earned green certification for its sustainability practices along with membership in Historic Hotels of America and a spot on Delray Beach’s Local Register of Historic Places.

Delray Beach sits roughly seven miles north of downtown Boca Raton, close enough that many Boca Raton visitors cross the city line for dinner or a weekend without thinking twice about it, and it is included in this guide because Boca Raton’s own lodging inventory offers very little in the way of genuinely independent, family-owned hotels with any real history behind them. The Colony has never been part of a national hotel brand and is not affiliated with any major chain; it is privately owned and operated by the same family that bought it nine decades ago. For anyone researching independent stays near Boca Raton who wants a working piece of 1920s Florida architecture rather than a branded box, the Colony is one of the most credible options in the immediate area.