United States President Benjamin Harrison granted George H. K. Carter a homestead in 1889 on the yet unnamed land.

[4] One of the most puzzling mysteries in Florida history was the disappearance of Circuit Judge Curtis Chillingworth and his wife Marjorie, who left a friend's home on the night of June 14, 1955, en route to their oceanfront cottage in Manalapan.

It was established five years later that the couple were murdered by hitmen hired by one of Curtis Chillingworth's fellow judges.

The Chillingworths were thrown overboard from a boat into the ocean with lead weights strapped to their legs; their bodies were never recovered.

[8] The U.S. presidential yacht Sequoia was auctioned at the La Coquille Club in Manalapan on May 18, 1977, during the Carter administration, for US$286,000 [9] as a symbolic cutback in Federal Government spending (annual cost to the U.S. Navy was $800,000) and to reduce signs of an "imperial presidency".

[10] A 22-acre property in Manalapan was purchased by Larry Ellison in 2022 for $173 million, making it the most expensive home sale in Florida history.

It is bordered on the north by the bridge, beach access road and beach for the Town of Lantana, Florida; on the west by the Lake Worth Lagoon; on the south by the South Lake Worth Inlet (known locally as "Boynton Inlet"); and on the east by the Atlantic Ocean.