Instructions:
1....Print this file.
2....At its end, click on "rules" to see a copy of the trail rules, print it, and then click where indicated at the end of the 3-page rules and patch order form to get back to the list of Florida trails.
3....If you want a hand-drawn map showing the locations of all of the sites, send a self-addressed stamped envelope to Steve Rajtar, 1614 Bimini Dr., Orlando, FL 32806.
4....Hike the trail and order whatever patches you like (optional).
WARNING - This trail may pass through one or more neighborhoods which, although full of history, may now be unsafe for individuals on foot, or which may make you feel unsafe there. Hikers have been approached by individuals who have asked for handouts or who have inquired (not always in a friendly manner) why the hikers are in their neighborhood. Drugs and other inappropriate items have been found by hikers in some neighborhoods. It is suggested that you drive the hike routes first to see if you will feel comfortable walking them and, if you don't think it's a good place for you walk, you might want to consider (1) traveling with a large group, (2) doing the route on bicycles, or (3) choosing another hike route. The degree of comfort will vary with the individual and with the time and season of the hike, so you need to make the determination using your best judgment. If you hike the trail, you accept all risks involved.
An 8 x 16 foot rescue station located here was one of a string of cabins built to house shipwrecked sailors. While Myrtle Cottage was being built in Melbourne Beach in 1888-89, mother and daughter Cummings lived here. After it was no longer needed for its original purpose, the building was rented out to families until it was abandoned.
The town of Melbourne Beach was incorporated on March 4, 1923. Its first mayor was Lena Lamb.
This building served as the town hall and post office at another location, then was given by the town to the county in 1959. It was floated down the river and placed at this location. One of its uses has been as the Spessard Holland Community Center and was later renamed the Old Town Hall History Center.
This school opened in 1967, serving the area from Canova Beach to the Sebastian Inlet.
Maj. Cyrus E. Graves, a retired Union soldier from Boston, sailed here in 1883 looking for a retirement home and a place to invest his savings. Over the next four years, he bought 400 acres across from Crane Creek at $1.25 per acre. He settled near Mans Point and in 1885, he set out 10,000 pineapple plants.
In 1888, he conveyed to Capt. Alfred Wilcox 160 acres south of Ocean Ave., extending 150 feet south of 6th St., with the exception of an acre in the northwest corner of the tract for a park. In exchange for the land, Wilcox cleared the land and in 1889 built a pier on the river, a bathhouse, and a pushcart railroad going seven tenths of a mile from the river to the ocean in the middle of Ocean Ave.
Located here was the small "snowbird" cottage of Mr. and Mrs. Sims, which they named "Suits Us".
On this corner was a cottage identical to that of the Sims family across the street, which its owner named "Me, Too". This portion of Oak St. heading south was not opened until the 1950s.
In 1887-88, when Ocean Ave. was merely a foot path, mother and daughter Grace Cummings moved here and bought two acres of scrub from Cyrus Graves. In 1888-89, with the help of Frederick Wheeler they built a large boarding house here known as Myrtle Cottage. it also served as the town's restaurant.
Grace Cummings also served as the school teacher.
A nondenominational chapel was built here for $200, with the first service in it being held on January 10, 1892. A 1924 hurricane knocked it off its foundation. Electricity was added in 1941 and was enlarged for the following year with the addition of transepts and a bell from a Conway church.
The land was donated by Mr. and Mrs. Whiting, construction was supervised by R.W. Beaujean, and land for a parsonage was donated by Cyrus Graves. used mostly during the winter season, it attracted many guest preachers. Prior to its construction, religious services were held in Myrtle Cottage.
The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.
Capt. Rufus W. Beaujean came here in 1886 and built a 14 x 12 1/2 foot house on the riverfront in 1889 at the east end of the Melbourne Beach Pier. It was the family home until 1909, and later served as the post office. During the 1940s, it was moved to a site on Ave. A.
For a time, it was the home of some of the hired help at the restaurant in front of it, known as Sunnyrest, then the Dixie Inn, and in 1970 Poor Richard's. In the 1990s, it was acquired by Bruce and Lois Ingram and was later moved here.
In the 1920s, this was the location of a tennis court. It was made from shells taken from a mound at the intersection of River Rd. and Sunset Blvd., and then covered with a thin coating of cement.
This facility was built in 1959 for $9,878.31, replacing the previous town hall which is now near Spessard Holland Park.
This house was built in 1889 by Jacob Fox, standing here near the lagoon close to the end of the railroad. The house was built of cypress and pine, with one large room on each of the two floors. It featured a shake roof, pot-bellied stove, and an open porch. After the original construction, a cistern was added at the southeast corner of the house, as were the fireplace and chimney.
G.E. Ryckman, a vintner from western New York, bought the house in 1908.
Capt. Alfred Wilcox built the front portion of his home in 1889 at this location.
W.L. Sweet built the cozy, casual Villa Marine Hotel here by 1912 out of concrete blocks manufactured on site. Lumber was ferried here by boat from Melbourne. The hotel had a good reputation for accommodations, but its meager meals were also well known.
During the 1950s and 1960s, it served as a rooming house for Space Coast workers. In later years, it served as a fraternity house for the Florida Institute of Technology. It was then turned into a dentistry office.
In the 1910s, there was a general store at this location, which later housed the post office. It was later removed to make room for the park.
A 12-foot artesian well was drilled in 1888, and its pressure was used to push a water wheel. That water wheel was used to run a power plant, built here in 1915 for $8,000.
Lawrence Ryckman and his son, Lawrence, Jr., formed the Melbourne Beach Improvement Company in 1908 and bought out the other original shareholders, thereby acquiring the rest of the Wilcox land. They rebuilt the 1888-89 pier and repaired the railroad. The company office was located in the post office, built in 1894 at the east end of the pier, which was the center of life in the early settlement.
The 650-foot long, 12-foot wide pier was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984 and was restored in 1985.
This house was built in 1909 by Rufus W. Beaujean, complete with electrical wiring. Electricity was not available in Melbourne Beach for several years thereafter.
Beaujean was the first postmaster of the community beginning in 1894 and in 1902 obtained the motor launch Jessie B as the ferry to the mainland, replacing the sailboat Adelaide. In 1908, Don and Claude Beaujean replaced it with the Ida Mae.
This tree was planted by Clara Gadd Ballard in the 1920s. Later, she had an argument with her husband, Jack, who backed his truck into it. When he grabbed his saw and threatened to cut it down, she grabbed her .38 calibre Smith and Wesson and told him she'd shoot him if he touched the tree. He left it alone, crooked and gnarled from its collision with his truck.
Ernest Kouwen-Hoven bought property here and came here to inspect it in 1914. He became friends with Don Beaujean, who was developing Melbourne Beach. Kouwen-Hoven planned Indialantic as a beautiful modern resort with a ferry link to the mainland.
He then decided that a bridge would be better, and he built it in stages. Whenever he stopped, Melbourne residents predicted that it would end there, and called it "Kouwen-Hoven's Folly". He started it in 1919 and completed it in April of 1921. It was made of wood and was lit with kerosene lamps which were often knocked over by fishermen, setting the bridge on fire.
A new concrete bridge opened in 1947. In 1977, a new high level bridge was built for westbound traffic, and in the early 1980s a new high level eastbound span replaced the 1947 cement and steel swing bridge.
This Spanish style home was built in 1926-27 for Martha Frick of Grand Rapids, Michigan. The Beckwith family of New York bought it in 1938. In an upstairs garage apartment in the back for a time lived Murph the Surf, a big-time jewelry thief. The house was renovated by National Realty for its beach office.
In the early 1920s, Ernest Kouwen-Hoven sold his interest in Indialantic to Herbert R. Earle, representing a group of businessmen in Detroit. They developed the $350,000 Spanish style Indialantic Hotel, which had slate floors brought from Vermont. It was begun in 1924 and had its grand opening on February 2, 1926. It closed in 1932 and reopened in 1935.
Nearby was the Indialantic Casino with an elegant shopping center and salt water pool. Further development of Indialantic was halted by the hurricane in 1926 and the end of the Florida land boom.
Karl P. Abbott's Indialantic Inc. bought the casino and hotel in 1940 and renamed them the Bahama Beach Club and the Trade Winds Hotel. They were popular into the 1960s, and were later torn down.
During the Civil War, salt ponds were evaporated here. Sea water was allowed to slowly evaporate, leaving the valuable salt.
This area was inhabited by the Ais Indians, who had constructed a shell mound here just north of the present Sunset Blvd. It was 1,000 feet long, 50 feet across and 13 feet tall. The mound was destroyed to provide material for early streets.
In the 1920s, Don Beaujean owned 50 acres bounded by Ave. B on the north and the ocean on the east. When A1A came to Melbourne Beach, it was moved west to pass between Beaujean's land and that of another individual who also wanted it on his land.
In earlier days, the residence of Mrs. Joslin on this corner was known as the "Wooden Shoe".
This row of stores was completed in 1951. Bob Edmund had a barber shop at the east end, beside the post office run by Mrs. Ladd (which later housed a beauty salon). Roy and Helen Scheller had a sundry store in a unit which later housed the Corner Restaurant. L.G. Morgan had a TV store in the unit where the Purple Oyster later was.
There formerly was a one-pump gas station and grocery store here. Following that, Flagship Bank had a branch here.
The Casino contained rooms for overnight accommodations plus gambling, soft drinks, and a swimming pool, but no liquor. It burned down in 1973.
Brevard County, by Elaine Murray Stone (Windsor Publications, Inc. 1988)
Crossroad Towns Remembered: A Look Back at Brevard & Indian River Pioneer Communities, by Weona Cleveland (Florida Today 1994)
Early Days in Melbourne Beach 1885-1928, by Frank J. Thomas (Jet Press 1968)
Florida's History Through Its Places: Properties in the National Register of Historic Places, by Morton D. Winsberg (Florida State University 1988)
Historic Brevard, (Brevard County Historical Commission 1989)
Indialantic-by-the-Sea, by Margaret E. Kingsley (1981)
Melbourne Beach: The First 100 Years, by Frank J. Thomas (1983)
Melbourne Bicentennial Book, by Noreda B. McKemy and Elaine Murray Stone (Brevard Graphics, Inc. 1976)
Satires and Unsatires on Melbourne Beach, by Frank J. Thomas (1976)
Tales of Old Brevard, by Georgiana Kjerluff (The Kellersberger Fund of The South Brevard Historical Society, Inc. 1972)
Click here for a copy of the trail rules.