Deerfield Beach: Hillsboro Club (May 2000)

My spouse and I stayed at the Hillsboro Club for two nights in mid-May 2000 to attend a family members wedding. Founded in 1925, The Hillsboro Club is a private residence club for members and their guests. Encompassed by the Atlantic Ocean and the inland waterway of Lighthouse Point, the Club is set on 15 acres of beautiful tropical landscaping with more than 1,000 feet of white sandy, private beach. The Club offers 144 Florida-style rooms and suites with balconies and varying views from oceanfront to garden and inland waterway. Amenities and activities at the Club include a 9-hole pitch 'n' putt golf course, freshwater pool, ten tennis courts, children’s activities, croquet lawn, fitness center, private dock, beach cabanas, spa, and restaurants.

Hillsboro's prime ocean front location, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean and Intracoastal Waterway, allows breathtaking ocean views, and spectacular sunrises and sunsets. Choose from an Ocean Front or Garden Side room (deluxe or traditional), or a Garden View Suite, and the choice of a king bed or two twin beds. Suites offer additional space with an attached sitting room. Most accommodations at Hillsboro are in low-lying houses such as Herschede, Malcolm, Curtiss and Van Dusen houses, or in cottages nestled among the sea grapes or high among the dunes overlooking the magnificent ocean. Hillsboro's beautifully appointed rooms come equipped with a full bath, toiletries, hair dryer, mini refrigerator, telephone with message service, wireless internet service, flat-screen TV, connecting rooms are also available.

Originally part of the land grant of the Earl of Hillsborough, the property occupied by the Hillsboro Club was first acquired and developed in 1923 as the winter campus of the Lake Placid School, an elite boy's school. Herbert Malcolm, the headmaster of the school, used the original buildings to house the boys and their visiting parents. The parents loved the surroundings so much that they persuaded Mr. Malcolm to convert the campus into an exclusive fishing lodge and so began the resort that gradually evolved into the Hillsboro Club of today. Over the years the families kept returning to their club, the children grew up and brought their children, and Hillsboro grew to accommodate them all.