Pompano Beach, FL

Pompano Beach reaches from inland rail and industrial districts to three miles of Atlantic shoreline. At the eastern end of Atlantic Boulevard, the Fisher Family Pier extends over 900 feet from a beach district of hotels, restaurants, and shops. The original pier opened in 1963; work begun in 2019 produced a wider, elevated structure with fishing space, shade sails, marine artwork, and a shoreward end shaped like the pompano fish that gave the city its name. Farther north, the Hillsboro Inlet Lighthouse first shone on March 7, 1907, closing an 80-mile navigational gap between Jupiter and Cape Florida. It was added to the National Register in 1979. The mainland community first prospered through farming and the Florida East Coast Railway. By 1896, the line connected Palm Beach and Miami, allowing Pompano growers to ship tomatoes, beans, peppers, and other winter crops to distant markets.

ATTRianaré sévi / CC BY-SA 3.0

Packing sheds once lined the downtown tracks, and the railroad station doubled as the polling place for the 1908 incorporation vote. That agricultural past also shaped the city’s Black education history. Blanche Ely arrived as a teacher in 1923 and became principal of the Pompano Colored School in 1927–28. In 1938, the school had one teacher per 54 students, compared with one per 25 in the white schools. Ely’s sustained lobbying secured a local Black high school in 1951; it opened in 1952, ending the need to travel to another city for a diploma. Aviation and industry occupy a different part of the map. The city-owned Pompano Beach Air Park began as a World War II naval satellite training field and became a general-aviation airport after the city acquired it in 1947.

ATTRformulanone from Huntsville, United States / CC BY-SA 2.0

Its present 650 acres support flight training, aircraft services, public-security operations, and the Goodyear blimp base. A 2022 state study attributed 145,000 annual aircraft operations and 2,597 jobs to the airport. The field also houses over 200 aircraft and 20 aviation businesses. The blimp’s 45,000-square-foot hangar can hold two fully inflated airships, an unmistakable sight on the airfield’s west side. Pompano Beach’s fiscal 2025 report places body-armor manufacturer Point Blank Enterprises at the top of its private-employer list. Warehousing, distribution, marine businesses, and tourism broaden the working economy beyond the shoreline. Present-day civic and cultural activity has distinct coastal and inland centers. The pier and Fishing Village concentrate beach access, fishing, dining, and oceanfront events.

ATTRNo machine-readable author provided. Friejose assumed (based on copyright claims). / CC BY-SA 3.0

Old Town, west of the beach, reuses the former Bailey Hotel as Bailey Contemporary Arts, with working studios in the old guest rooms and exhibitions on the ground floor. Murals, two public plazas, and new housing have added evening activity around those older buildings. During the 2025–26 season, Old Town Untapped brought a first-Friday arts and music block party to NE First Street from October through June. The Blanche Ely House Museum carries the northwest community’s education story into the present through exhibits and appointment visits. These places give residents several ways into the city’s culture: a fishing line over the Atlantic, an exhibition inside an old hotel, or Ely’s history preserved in the house that bears her name.