Jacksonville Beach is a coastal resort city in Duval County, Florida, United States. The population was 23,830 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Jacksonville, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area.
The city is part of a group of communities collectively referred to as the Jacksonville Beaches on the northern half of San Pablo Island. These communities include Mayport, Atlantic Beach, Neptune Beach, and Ponte Vedra Beach. When the city of Jacksonville consolidated with Duval County in 1968, Jacksonville Beach, together with Atlantic Beach, Neptune Beach, and Baldwin, voted to retain their own municipal governments. As a result, citizens of Jacksonville Beach are also eligible to vote in mayoral elections for the City of Jacksonville.
History It was incorporated on May 22, 1907, as Pablo Beach, and changed to Jacksonville Beach in 1925.
The area around present-day Jacksonville Beach was first settled by Spanish settlers. Spanish missions were established from Mayport to St. Augustine. Spain ceded Florida to Great Britain by treaty in 1763, only to have Spain regain it again, and then a final time in 1821 to the United States. American river pilots and fishermen came to Hazard, present-day Mayport, and established a port.
Pablo Beach
In the late 19th century, developers began to see the potential in Duval County's oceanfront as a resort. In 1883 a group of investors formed the Jacksonville and Atlantic Railroad with the intention of developing a resort community that would be connected to Jacksonville by rail.
The first settlers were William Edward Scull, a civil engineer and surveyor, and his wife Eleanor Kennedy Scull. They lived in a tent two blocks east of Pablo Historical Park. A second tent was the general store and post office.
On August 22, 1884, Mrs. Scull was appointed postmaster. Mail was dispatched by horse and buggy up the beach to Mayport, and from there to Jacksonville by steamer.
The Sculls built the first house in 1884 on their tent site. The settlement was named Ruby for their first daughter. On May 13, 1886, the town was renamed Pablo Beach after the San Pablo River." First Settlers at Ruby, Florida." Florida Department of State Division of Historical Resources, 2011. Web. 28 Dec 2011. < >
In 1885, the San Pablo Diego Beach Land Co. sold town lots ranging from $50 to $100 each along with lots from $10 to $20 per acre within of the new seaside resort "Pablo Beach".Showing its Statistics, Resources, Lands, Products, Climate and Populations. The county Commissioners. 1885. Retrieved December 23, 2011 https://archive.org/stream/duvalcountyflori00duva#page/n5/mode/2up
In September 1892, work on the wagon road to Pablo Beach (Atlantic Boulevard) was begun.T. Frederick Davis, History of Jacksonville, Florida and vicinity, 1513 to 1924, Florida Historical Society, 1925.http://ufdc.ufl.edu/NF00000013/00001/Retrieved December 23, 2011
The first resort hotel, called the Murray Hall Hotel, was established in mid-1886, but on August 7, 1890, it was destroyed in a fire.
By 1900, the railway company began to have financial difficulties, and Henry Flagler took over as part of his Florida East Coast Railway.
In late 1900, the railway was changed to standard gauge and was extended to Mayport.
The Spanish–American War broke out in 1898. The 3rd Nebraska arrived July 22, 1898, for training and embarkation. They encamped at Pablo Beach. They were led by three-time presidential candidate, William Jennings Bryan."Our History." Our History: Greater Metro North & North Shore History. North Shore Neighborhood Association. 1999. Web. 23 Dec. 2011. After flooding in the camp at Pablo Beach the 3rd Nebraska moved to downtown Jacksonville.
Jacksonville Beach
The amusement park phase of Jacksonville Beach began in 1905 with the Pavilion, which was later expanded and called Little Coney Island. It was a popular tourist attraction with a dance floor, swim room, bowling alley, and roller skate rinks. An issue with contracting, and constant weathering of its wooden structure, aged Little Coney Island, causing it to be torn down in 1925.
On June 15, 1925, the name Pablo Beach was changed to Jacksonville Beach.
The Shad's Pier was created in 1922 by Charles Shad, with help by Martin Williams.
Around the same time, W. H. Adams Sr. created the Ocean View Pavilion amusement park on the former site of the Murray Hall Hotel. Adams wanted to create a larger roller coaster than the one at Little Coney Island. His vision resulted in a 93-feet high coaster. The location of the coaster by the beach made it vulnerable to damage, and it was eventually deemed unsafe. It was deconstructed to a smaller coaster, which hurt business at the amusement park. By 1949, the Ocean View Pavilion was in decline, and a fire destroyed it a few years later.
The only amusement park in Jacksonville Beach today is Adventure Landing. The boardwalk declined in the 1950s due to the crackdown on gambling and games of chance. Driving on the beach was prohibited in 1979.
Pablo Beach made aviation history on February 24, 1921. Lt. William DeVoe Coney, in a transcontinental flight from San Diego, California, landed at Pablo Beach, having made the flight in 22 hours and 17 minutes, beating the old record, set two years earlier, by 3 hours and 32 minutes. Coney's record was soon eclipsed on September 5, 1922, by Jimmy Doolittle piloting a De Havilland DH-4 biplane from Pablo Beach to San Diego in an elapsed time of 21 hours and 19 minutes."Doolittle's 1922 Record Flight." Florida Department of State Division of Historical Resources, 2011. Web. 28 Dec 2011.
In 1968, most residents of Duval County voted to approve consolidation between the county and the City of Jacksonville. Jacksonville Beach, together with Atlantic Beach, Neptune Beach, and the Westside community of Baldwin, voted to retain their own municipal governments. As such, they are not part of the City of Jacksonville, but receive county-level services from Jacksonville, and vote for Jacksonville's mayor and city council.
Judy Van Zant, widow of lead singer of Lynyrd Skynyrd Ronnie Van Zant, and her daughter Melody opened the Freebird Cafe in 1999. Freebird Live, as it later became known, was a popular music venue that was a staple for Jacksonville Beach for 16 years until its closure in 2016.
In September 1999, Hurricane Floyd destroyed the Jacksonville Beach Pier. Five years later the pier was rebuilt.
In October 2016, Hurricane Matthew forced a mandatory evacuation of Jacksonville Beach. The hurricane came 40 miles off the coast of Jacksonville Beach, causing major flooding. The Jacksonville Beach Pier was partially destroyed.
Geography According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which, is land and (66.61%) is water.
Jacksonville Beach is the largest town in the Jacksonville Beaches community. It is the eastern terminus of U.S. Route 90, which ends at an intersection with State Road A1A three blocks from the Atlantic Ocean.
Cityscape
Architecture
The architecture of Jacksonville varies in style and is not defined by any one characteristic.
Designed by Marsh and Saxelbye, and completed in 1925, Casa Marina Hotel is a Mission-style hotel popular in the 1920s when Jacksonville's beaches were being developed. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 2, 1993.
Constructed in 1947, the American Red Cross Volunteer Life Saving Corps Station is an Art Moderne-style lifeguard station designed by local architect Jefferson Davis Powell. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on May 5, 2014.
Jacksonville Beach is also home to a notable collection of Mid-Century modern architecture. Perhaps the most notable of these were designed by architect William Morgan.
Climate Jacksonville Beach has a humid subtropical climate (Cfa).
Parks and recreation
Hanna Park is a public beach and city park located near Mayport in the Jacksonville Beaches area. It consists of of mature coastal hammock, and was formerly known as Manhattan Beach, Florida's first beach community for African Americans during the period of segregation in the United States.
Demographics
Racial and ethnic composition +Jacksonville Beach, Florida – racial and ethnic composition Race / ethnicity (NH = non-Hispanic) Pop. 2000 Pop. 2010 % 2000 % 2010 White alone (NH) 18,675 18,78420,261 88.97% 87.93%85.02% Black or African American alone (NH) 996 811666 4.75% 3.80%2.79% Native American or Alaska Native alone (NH) 53 4946 0.25% 0.23%0.19% Asian alone (NH) 341 358467 1.62% 1.68%1.96% Pacific Islander alone (NH) 8 94 0.04% 0.04%0.02% Other race alone (NH) 21 21116 0.10% 0.10%0.49% Mixed-race or multiracial (NH) 268 407953 1.28% 1.91%4.00% Hispanic or Latino (any race) 628 9231,317 2.99% 4.32%5.53% Total 20,990 21,36223,830 100.00% 100.00%100.00%
American Community Survey As of the 2023 American Community Survey, there are 10,837 estimated households in Jacksonville Beach with an average of 2.16 persons per household. The city has a median household income of $115,825. Approximately 5.8% of the city's population lives at or below the poverty line. Jacksonville Beach has an estimated 73.8% employment rate, with 58.2% of the population holding a bachelor's degree or higher and 96.9% holding a high school diploma.
The top five reported ancestries (people were allowed to report up to two ancestries, thus the figures will generally add to more than 100%) were English (93.4%), Spanish (2.5%), Indo-European (3.1%), Asian and Pacific Islander (0.5%), and Other (0.3%).
2020 census As of the 2020 census, Jacksonville Beach had a population of 23,830 and 11,351 households, including 6,031 families. The population density was . The median age was 44.1 years; 3.1% of residents were under the age of 5, 14.4% were under 18, and 20.0% were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 97.6 males, and for every 100 females age 18 and over there were 96.3 males age 18 and over.
100.0% of residents lived in urban areas, while 0.0% lived in rural areas.
There were 11,351 households in Jacksonville Beach, of which 19.1% had children under the age of 18 living in them. Of all households, 41.1% were married-couple households, 22.9% were households with a male householder and no spouse or partner present, and 28.5% were households with a female householder and no spouse or partner present. About 35.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 13.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older.
There were 12,789 housing units at an average density of , of which 11.2% were vacant. The homeowner vacancy rate was 1.2% and the rental vacancy rate was 6.4%.
+ Racial composition as of the 2020 census Race Number Percent White 20,655 86.7% Black or African American 680 2.9% American Indian and Alaska Native 59 0.2% Asian 472 2.0% Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander 6 0.0% Some other race 323 1.4% Two or more races 1,635 6.9%
2010 census As of the 2010 census, there were 21,362 people, 10,040 households, and 4,987 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 11,882 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 90.94% White, 3.89% African American, 0.24% Native American, 1.73% Asian, 0.05% Pacific Islander, 0.91% from some other races and 2.24% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 4.32% of the population.
2000 census As of the 2000 census, there were 20,990 people, 9,715 households, and 5,207 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 10,775 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 90.94% White, 4.82% African American, 0.27% Native American, 1.63% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 0.79% from some other races and 1.51% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino people of any race were 2.99% of the population.