An 11-room boutique inn in the Sundy family's 1899 Queen Anne house on Swinton Avenue, set within a one-acre botanical garden with a freshwater swimming pond and the city's most unusual breakfast room.
"The most romantic small hotel in Delray Beach. Eleven rooms in an 1899 Queen Anne house set inside a one-acre garden with a freshwater swimming pond, the property other locals book for the proposal."
The Sundy House sits on a one-acre lot on South Swinton Avenue, three blocks west of Atlantic Avenue, inside the 1899 Queen Anne residence that John Shaw Sundy (Delray Beach's first mayor) built as his family home. The building is on the National Register of Historic Places and the surrounding gardens, developed continuously by the property's various owners since the 1990s, are the most significant private botanical compound in the city. The current operating programme (reopened after a phased restoration in the early 2020s) carries 11 guest rooms across the main house and a series of smaller cottages, plus the Restaurant at the Sundy House, the freshwater swimming pond that serves as the property's pool, and the wedding and event programme that has made the gardens a regional venue for two decades.
The 11 rooms are arranged across the main house and three garden cottages, each with its own architectural identity rather than a unified design scheme. The Top of the House suite in the original main building runs roughly 600 square feet across the entire third floor with sloped ceilings, original heart-pine floors, and a clawfoot tub; the Bali Suite carries a hand-carved Indonesian four-poster and a private garden patio; the Carriage House holds a one-bedroom layout suitable for longer stays. The interior register is heritage residential rather than hotel: antique furniture, hand-stencilled walls, original fixtures where possible, restored rather than replaced. Bathrooms have been brought up to current spec; bedding is high-end; in-room technology is intentionally restrained.
The Restaurant at the Sundy House is the property's secondary anchor and one of Delray's most distinctive dining rooms, breakfast and weekend brunch are served on the wraparound porches overlooking the gardens, dinner runs in the smaller interior rooms with a contemporary Florida menu built around the kitchen garden. The freshwater swimming pond is the property's most photographed feature: a chemical-free, plant-filtered swim setup in the centre of the gardens, lined with stone and fringed by tropical planting, that operates as a natural pool rather than a conventional concrete one. There is no spa, no fitness centre, and no parking deck of consequence, the gardens are the property and the city's restaurants are three blocks away. WiFi is competent throughout.
The Sundy House is the most singular hotel in Delray Beach. It does not deliver the Seagate's amenity density, the Ray's rooftop, or the Cabana Club's beach asset; it delivers an experience that none of those properties attempt, an overnight stay inside a registered historic residence within a one-acre botanical garden in the centre of the city. The natural pond, the wraparound porches, the hand-stencilled wall treatments, and the on-site restaurant assemble a property that reads more like a Caribbean great house than a Florida hotel. It is the right booking for an anniversary, a honeymoon, or a proposal that wants the room and the setting to be the centre of the trip rather than the trip's logistics.
An anniversary at the Sundy House is the most romantic small-property choice in Delray Beach. Book the Top of the House suite for the milestone, arrange a private dinner on the upper porch overlooking the gardens, take a morning swim in the freshwater pond before the Restaurant opens for breakfast service, and use the property's continuous walking proximity to Atlantic Avenue for the dressed-up evening. The property's calendar runs slow midweek and busy on weekends; book midweek for the quieter version of the experience.
For a Delray honeymoon that values heritage and quiet over resort scale, the Sundy House is the booking. The 11-room footprint means the property is genuinely uncrowded most weeks; the Bali Suite or the Top of the House suite is the upgrade play; the freshwater swimming pond and the wraparound porches handle the slow-day programming the property is built for. Pair with the Cabana Club at the Colony Hotel for beach days, or use the public beach four blocks away.
The Sundy House is the property other Delray hotels recommend for the proposal. The gardens (the bench in the orchid pavilion, the gazebo at the south end of the property, the pond's east-side stone deck at sunset) are the most consistently used proposal settings in the city; the Restaurant team and the gardener will discreetly cooperate on the staging, and the property's small scale means the operating team has the bandwidth that the larger Delray hotels cannot match. Book any suite with private garden access, arrange the timing with the front desk on arrival, and let the gardens carry the moment.
106 South Swinton Avenue
Delray Beach, FL 33444
United States
Historic Swinton Avenue, three blocks west of Atlantic Avenue, the original 1890s residential heart of Delray
11 rooms and suites
Garden Room from $245/night
Cottage Suite from $365/night
Bali Suite from $485/night
Top of the House Suite to $625/night
Check-in: 3:00 PM
Check-out: 11:00 AM
1899 John Shaw Sundy residence; National Register of Historic Places; phased restoration early 2020s
1899 John Shaw Sundy Queen Anne residence (National Register of Historic Places)
One-acre botanical garden
Freshwater chemical-free swimming pond
Restaurant at the Sundy House (breakfast, brunch, dinner)
Wraparound porches across both floors of the main house
Three garden cottages plus main house accommodations
On-site wedding and event venue
Complimentary WiFi
From $245/night. The 11-room scale closes peak weekends well in advance; the Top of the House suite books three to four months ahead for Valentine's Day, peak anniversary dates, and December holiday weeks.
View Rates & Dates →The 1926 Atlantic Avenue landmark with its own private Cabana Club, the city's other heritage property.
The 28-suite Caribbean-inflected boutique one block off the ocean, the other small-property choice in Delray.
The 157-room Autograph Collection flagship with private beach club, country club, and full spa for the larger-property contrast.
The 141-room Curio Collection design hotel in Pineapple Grove with the city's only true rooftop pool.
New openings, special offers, and the week’s best value suites. One email a week, no noise.