Local History

80 Years And Still Swinging

Mention golf around Vero Beach, and everyone is familiar with John’s Island Club, The Moorings Club, Hawk’s Nest and Orchid.

In Perspective

As work nears completion on Vero Beach’s Model Block Extension, downtown at S.R. 60 and 14th Avenue, another transformation is taking place – the Scott’s Sporting Goods building at that busy corner is being restored to its original appearance.

Why We Love Live Oaks

Vero Beach is unique for a number of reasons, not the least of which is the fact that it straddles the Carolina temperate zone and the Caribbean subtropical zone.

Mayor Mac

If he hadn’t been the victim of a mustard-gas attack during the First World War, Alex MacWilliam might never have come to Vero Beach, and the town might have been a very different place to the city we know today.

Head Of The Class

Sipping a glass of iced tea in his South Beach home, Peter Benedict is discussing a topic he has been living and breathing for more than 30 years: Saint Edward’s School.

Lowdown On The Highwaymen

More that anywhere else, the Treasure Coast is the focus of paintings by the Highwaymen, that loose-knit group of black Fort Pierce artists who produced a cultural explosion unlike any other in our state’s social history.

Grand Old Groves

In 1913, Axel Peterson traded a boarding house in Moline, Illinois, for 20 acres of land in Vero (not yet Vero Beach), Florida, sight unseen.

Wonderful Wabasso

Captain Frank Forster, a seafaring man, is considered to have been the first settler in Wabasso.

The World’s Largest Mahogany Table Returns To Mckee

After a nearly 30-year absence, the world’s largest one-piece mahogany table is back home at the Hall of Giants at McKee Botanical Garden.

Florida Cracker Cuisine

A “Cracker” is a Florida cowboy.

The MacTaggart’s Enchanting Garden

The Barry MacTaggarts found Vero Beach via a wildly circuitous route.

Zora Neale Hurston Rediscovered

The balmy breezes, warm climate and sea air of the Treasure Coast have nurtured many talents, but only a few with the creative force their peers label “genius.”

Blockade Runners Of The Indian River

"Of no particular importance except as “a convenient place of resort for pirates.”

The First Lady of Vero Beach

She is someone who – rather than bemoaning that things are not what they used to be – has spent her entire life embracing change and working to preserve, improve and enhance all that is valuable and unique about Indian River County.

Snowbirds, Exotics, & Other Interlopers

It’s early morning. A curl of foam rushes to shore carrying sea beans and the egg case of a skate while a sandpiper runs after the flotsam on twinkling feet.

A Daughter’s memories, A Sweet Surprise

Towards the end of the 19th century, newly arrived settlers in Central Florida discovered that the fertile region running alongside the Indian River Lagoon was ideally suited to the growing of oranges and grapefruit.

The New Life of Vero Man

Vero Man would have been proud.

The Whitman Christmas Tablecloth

By far my favorite family tradition is the Whitman Christmas Tablecloth, which this year celebrates its 50th anniversary.

Florida’s Splendid Little Wars

Newcomers who feel betrayed at our cold snaps also seem to believe that Florida began with coconuts carved into pirate heads and “Wish You Were Here” postcards of palm trees and sandy beaches.

Ladies of the Lagoon

Long before Henry Flagler built his string of luxury hotels on Florida’s East Coast, tourists flocked to the Indian River Lagoon to vacation in one of the last virgin areas of primeval beauty in the United States.

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