Pompey Park, the heart of Delray Beach's historic Black neighborhood known as The Set, is being rebuilt from the ground up. The city broke ground on September 10 on a roughly $59 million project at 1101 NW 2nd Street that will bring a 54,000-square-foot recreation center, new pools and a new playground. The current center stays open until the new one is ready, which the city expects in 2028.

A park with a history

Pompey Park was created during segregation, when Black residents of Delray Beach were shut out of public beaches and pools. It became the place where generations of families in The Set learned to swim, played ball and gathered as a community.

It is named for C. Spencer Pompey (1916 to 2001), an educator and civil rights leader who moved to Delray Beach in the early 1940s. In 1942 he joined a federal equal pay lawsuit against the Palm Beach County School Board, working with Thurgood Marshall, to challenge the gap between what white and Black teachers were paid. He spent more than four decades in local schools, rising from teacher and coach to principal of Carver High School, and by 1950 he had set up one of the city's first recreation programs for Black students. Rebuilding the park that carries his name is a way of honoring that work for the next generation.

What is being built

The park covers 17.5 acres and already draws about 150,000 visits a year, with more than 40 organizations using it every month, according to the Delray Beach Community Redevelopment Agency. The new version is built to handle that kind of demand:

  • A 54,000-square-foot recreation center, designed to a Category 5 standard so it can stand up to the strongest storms.
  • Two new pools, including a family pool, with a cabana and changing rooms.
  • An indoor running track and basketball courts.
  • A new playground, a park shelter, a pergola and shade structures.
  • A baseball field, upgrades to the existing little league field, new restrooms and more parking.

The City of Delray Beach and the CRA are paying for the project together. The guaranteed maximum price with builder Core Construction is $59,193,363.

The Category 5 detail is more than a construction spec. A recreation center built to that standard can stay standing through the kind of storm that closes everything else, which gives The Set a sturdy community building in a neighborhood that has relied on Pompey Park as its gathering place for generations.

A groundbreaking the neighborhood made its own

Before the ceremony, the city invited residents to a shovel painting day at the park in late August, and the shovels they decorated were the ones used to turn the first dirt. About 100 longtime residents joined city leaders and the builders at the groundbreaking itself.

For many of the people there, the park is personal. Plenty of Delray Beach residents learned to swim in Pompey Park's pool, played their first organized games on its fields, or spent after-school hours in its gym. Seeing the city commit this kind of money to the place, rather than to a new site somewhere else, is the point the neighborhood has been waiting to hear.

What changes for families now

The most important detail for anyone who uses Pompey Park today: the existing recreation center remains open while the new one goes up. Programs, sports and after-school routines do not have to move across town during construction.

The new recreation center is expected to open in 2028, and the full park renovation is scheduled to wrap up in 2029. For current hours and programs, call the center at 561-243-7356 or check the City of Delray Beach website. If your family has its own Pompey Park story, this is a good year to share it with the kids who will grow up in the new one.