Table of Contents:
NOT SO ANCIENT
HENRY FLAGLER
SHOULD SEE NEW SMYRNA-BEACH
SHOULD SEE NEW SMYRNA-MAINLAND
PORT ORANGE / PONCE INLET
How did a town in Florida get named after a prominent Ionian Greek city-state dating to the 3rd millennium B.C.?
That didn’t actually happen until the 1700s A.D.,
However, the area along today’s Indian River North, just south of where it meets the Halifax River, has a history as old as Ancient Greece.
ANCIENT FLORIDA
Remains of Nomadic hunters called Paleo-Indians have been found dating to 12,000 years ago in northern Florida. The reason for them being in Northern Florida was the plentiful sources of fresh water and the animals and plants attracted to fresh water.
Circa 8000 B.C., the climate began its warming period, which we are still in today. Sea levels rose, and fresh water was more plentiful from glacial runoff into the river beds it created. After thousands of years, the Mammoths and other animals of North Florida were hunted into extinction. The people turned their eyes south to new hunting grounds.
The first Florida “land boom” would continue for the next 5,000 years as more human populations arrived, had babies, and spread out. By the late Archaic period (circa 3000-1000 B.C.), people were living along Florida’s east-central coast and settling the St. Johns River valley. By 500 B.C., distinct regional cultures began to emerge.
Surruque were indigenous peoples living along the Atlantic Coast of what would become Florida, from Turtle Mound to Cape Canaveral. Mosquito Lagoon was first named “Surruque Lagoon”.
The Mayaca were living along the St. Johns River, west of Daytona, at the same time. Both tribes were hunter-gatherers, living off fishing and the plentiful deer and alligators in the area. Additionally, they ate local berries and plants.
1500 A.D.
After living, for the most part, war and disease-free for 12,000 years, that all came to a disastrous end with the arrival of the first Europeans.
Over the next 200+ years, measles, smallpox, yellow fever, influenza, and hard labor (slavery) had decimated the local populations.
Less Ancient New Smyrna.
Juan Ponce de León, the Spanish explorer from Cuba, would be the first European to write about Florida in 1513. Setting out from the Caribbean, they would name the verdant landscape “La Pascua Florida,” the Festival of Flowers.
Then he moves on.
According to the local Ais (or Ays) indigenous tribe, this land remains the land of the local natives.
According to Spanish maps, it is part of Spain. The lagoon began appearing on Spanish maps as early as 1605 as the Rio de Ais.
When the British translated the Spanish maps in 1820, they mistranslated it as the Indian River Lagoon.
But the Spanish and the British stay away, so it really isn’t a concern who calls it what.
That is, until 1754. Great Britain attacks the French and their allies. The natives become targets of the English, who are attacking Spanish missions all along the South Georgia and Florida coast. Captives become the spoils of war, which the British sell to the plantations in the Carolinas and West Indies as free laborers.
The British are Coming to New Smyrna.
By 1763, the British owned Florida, but only briefly. However, they made the most of the 20 years they were in charge. They were determined to make it a productive English colony.
The following year, the British Parliament offered £500 (British pounds sterling) as an incentive to anyone who could cultivate cotton, indigo, or even silk on the humid coastal land of East Florida. They included generous land grants as incentives.
Dr. Andrew Turnbull was a Scotsman and a physician who later became a diplomat and an entrepreneur. He served as the British consul in Smyrna (modern-day Izmir, Turkey) during the Ottoman Empire. While there, he met and married the daughter of a Greek merchant in 1753. For the next 10 years, he grew his business and his family. Circa 1763, he moved his operations to London.
With the announcement of the new territory and generous land grants in the New World, Turnball convinced a number of his wealthy friends to take advantage of this can’t-fail opportunity.
Along with his business associates, Sir William Duncan and Sir Richard Temple, they acquired land grants of 20,000 acres each. In 1766, Turnbull visited the Mosquito Coast to claim his land. What he saw so delighted him that he returned to England in the Spring and acquired more land and the financial backing of the British Government.
In 1767, he sent funds from the British government to the colony to begin building infrastructure.
What’s Missing?
They had the land and buildings, but now they needed labor. He named it New Smyrna in part to honor his wife, but more to make it sound desirable to his soon-to-be Greek labor force.
Also on the British Government’s tab, he returned to the Mediterranean to hire workers for his new enterprise. He planned to hire Greeks working under the Ottomans in Asia Minor, believing they would be more accustomed to Florida’s warm climate. He had also seen the Ottomans’ miserable labor conditions and figured he could get the Greek laborers for a song.
It Looked Good on Paper.
For some reason, he encountered resistance from the Ottomans when he tried to recruit their cheap labor force.
To make up for his shortfall in men, he stopped in southern Italy and the island of Minorca, where he was able to attract more. By the time Turnbull finally reached the colony with his eight ships, he had almost 1,500 labourers, but they were mostly Minorcans.
In return for their passage to New Smyrna, which the British Government also financed, the laborers would work for 7 to 9 years as indentured laborers. At the end of their period, they were entitled to either a small plot of land adjacent to the colony or passage back to their homeland.
The New Smyrna Vision Begins to Come True.
By 1768, they were clearing the land and preparing to plant
All was not happy in this paradise. Besides the heat and mosquitoes, there was disease and raids by the local Native Americans. Many of the workers died.
Eventually, they did manage to produce a few years of crops, but not to the quality and quantity they wanted.
Turnbull put pressure on his laborers to work/produce more. Working conditions deteriorated, and the overseers’ harsh treatment increased.
By 1777, the laborers had had enough. Of the original 1500, fewer than 300 survivors fled north to St. Augustine to appeal to British Governor Patrick Tonyn.
He sheltered them, and they stayed in St. Augustine. They acquired the Casa Avero, built in 1763, and converted it into a place of worship for Greeks, Italians, and Minorcans. Today, it is the St. Photios Greek Orthodox National Shrine.
There is still a Greek community in St Augustine. The Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church still honors those from New Smyrna. The closest Greek church to New Smyrna is in Daytona Beach.
Of the surviving Minorcans, approximately 20,000–26,000 residents of St. Johns (St Augustine) County are descendants of the original Minorcan settlers of New Smyrna. The community maintains a strong link to the colony, especially through culinary traditions such as clam chowder, datil pepper dishes, and pilau, a one-pot spicy rice dish. Check the Menorcan Cultural Society webpage for festivals and other activities.
The Spanish are Coming Back.
The Spanish retook Florida in 1783 under the terms of the Treaty of Paris, and the colony no longer existed. Turnbull moved to Charleston, South Carolina.
The area around the colony became nearly deserted. It would remain this way during the second Spanish period, with no real development or agricultural activity.
During this time, seeing no real use for the land, the Spanish Crown granted 2,600 acres to a planter, and possibly part-time Episcopal minister from Connecticut named Ambrose Hull. He came to the area circa 1805 and built a palatial house on the foundations of the old settlement.
His plantation, “Mount Olive,” specialized in growing cotton and sugar. Unfortunately, Mount Olive’s history was short. Indian raids around 1807 damaged many of the buildings and crops. During the War of 1812, the house was destroyed. Hull fled.
The Seminole Wars.
The War of 1812 (between the United States and its allies and the United Kingdom and Indian allies) ended. This battle for land leaves both England and Spain weak. U.S. troops following General Andrew Jackson wasted no time claiming West Florida and East Florida.
In 1812, American marauders finished the destruction of the New Smyrna settlement.
The First Seminole War ended in 1819, when Spain ceded Florida to the U.S. The Treaty of Moultrie Creek dictates that the Seminoles must live on a large reservation in the center of the Florida peninsula.
A Moment of Peace and Rebuilding in New Smyrna.
In 1830, William DePeyster and Henry Cruger, merchants from New York, decided to invest in a dream. They purchased 600 acres from Ambrose Hull and had a steam-operated sugarcane mill and a sawmill built. The history of the Cruger and DePeyster Sugar Mill was even shorter than its predecessor.
On Christmas Day, 1835, Seminole Indians descended upon the plantation, running off the staff and slaves before setting the sugar mill and most of the other buildings on fire. The next morning, all that remained were parts of the cochina walls of the sugarcane mill and the machinery. New owners moved the machines to the Dunlawton Sugar Mill in nearby Port Orange. Within a year, that plantation became a spectacular bonfire at the hands of the Seminoles. In all, 16 plantations would disappear.
The Second Seminole War. (1835 – 1842)
Not happy with the situation in Northern Florida, the U.S. began the Second Seminole War around 1835 to take the rest of the state.
The Third Seminole War.
This war takes place mostly on the Gulf Coast near present-day Fort Myers. However, skirmishes do take place between settlers in Volusia County and the few remaining Seminoles nearby.
In 1854, part of Orange County broke off to become Volusia County, named after the fortification on the St. Johns River. Enterprise, on Lake Monroe, is the first county seat.
Former manager of the Cruger and DePeyster Sugar Mill, John Sheldon, returned to the area to act as a customs inspector and re-establish the town.
The economy was devastated by the destruction of the large, vulnerable sugar plantations. So the community turned to smaller, independent farms that grew produce and raised livestock. The citrus industry began to grow along the Hillsborough River (later the Indian River).
In 1858, John Sheldon built The Sheldon Hotel, a 40-room hotel on the coquina foundation known as the “Old Fort”. At the time, it was the only hotel south of St. Augustine. Like many things in this area, its history was short.
New Smyrna in The American Civil War (1861 – 1865)
The newly built town served as a hub for the Confederacy’s blockade-running. The town’s location just south of the Mosquito Inlet (now Ponce de León Inlet) was a perfect landing place for smugglers bringing supplies from the Bahamas. Shallow draft steamers would carry cotton to the Bahamas in exchange for arms, ammunition, and medical supplies. From here, they would be transported inland to support Confederate troops.
In 1863, the Union Navy, using the gunboats Oleander and Beauregard, brought an end to New Smyrna’s “importing” business. They leveled most of the town, including the “Stone Wharf” and Sheldon’s Hotel, which the Confederates were using as a lookout. The gunpowder he was storing in the basement didn’t help matters.
Following the destruction of his home and business (again), Sheldon relocated his family to the Bahamas, where he continued to help the Confederate cause. He died there in 1862.
Post War New Smyrna
Not learning from the Seminole attacks, they had rebuilt using the local Live Oak and Red Cedar Timber from the Swift Brothers logging operation near Mosquito Inlet. In 1865, New Smyrna lay in ruin (again).
John Sheldon’s widow, Jane, returned from the Bahamas to help rebuild. She built a new hotel/store on coquina foundations, creating a central meeting point.
The community slowly grew, and by 1862, the population had reached 150. The members who could vote agreed to incorporate New Smyrna.
Around 1881, a narrow-gauge railroad line opened running from Orange City to Blue Springs Landing. The track was just over a mile in length, and mules pulled cars.
By 1884, the Orange Ridge, DeLand & Atlantic, another narrow-gauge railroad, began service, connecting DeLand to the St. Johns River. It connects to the Jacksonville, Tampa, and Key West Railway.
Two years later, the St. Johns & Halifax Railroad reached from the St Johns River to Ormond and Daytona.
In 1885, Captain S.H. Barber opened a two-story hunting and fishing lodge next to the new wooden swing bridge connecting New Smyrna with Coronado Beach (now New Smyrna Beach). With the railroad’s success, he adds additional floors. Today, you can still stay in the hotel under its current name, the Riverview Hotel & Spa.
By 1887, the Orange Ridge, DeLand & Atlantic had built a spur to New Smyrna.
The region is connected. However, these small railroads did not prepare the region for the express train barreling towards it from the North.
Henry Flagler and New Smyrna Beach.
With the success of his hotels and the East Coast Railroad from Jacksonville to St Augustine, Flagler was considering expansion.
By 1889, Flagler had bought up most of the narrow-gauge railroads in Volusia County and transitioned them into standard-gauge track.
By 1892, the Flagler Jacksonville, St. Augustine, and Indian River Railway reached New Smyrna.
Overnight, the “Indian River” citrus is departing, and New Smyrna visitors are arriving.
New Smyrna Beach in the 1900s
By the turn of the century, the New Smyrna train station was hosting up to 12 passenger trains a day.
The city is growing, and they are using other building materials besides just wood.
In 1903, the second Sheldon House Hotel is torn down, revealing the coquina foundations from earlier structures.
The citrus and fishing industries boomed. New Smyrna also had a profitable tourism industry.
A World War.
The U.S.A. returned home from WWI as a victor in 1918. Over the next ten years, the American economy will grow by 42%. Mass production and mass consumption spread across the land.
But not everything is sunny in Florida.
After World War I, Florida saw a rise in racial violence against blacks in the state. Florida is not the only place, but it leads the nation in lynchings per capita from 1900 to 1930.
In Volusia County, there are five lynchings, well, that we know of.
Black veterans are returning from a war where people have been treating them more like equals. All of a sudden, there are two classes. There is competition for jobs with so many service members looking all at once. And things are changing for everyone. Socially and economically, there is change, and most people do not adapt quickly. And there is lingering resentment stemming from the Reconstruction period, which is not too distant.
The modern Klan flares up again after World War II, first in Georgia, but spreads to Florida quickly. Estimates are that there were three million members nationwide by 1925. As the Depression deepens, the Klan begins to fade, except in Florida, where they expand their list of targets.
To escape lynchings, segregation, and civil rights suppression, more than 40,000 African Americans left Florida for northern cities.
New Smyrna’s Roaring 20s
Prohibition in the United States began in 1920. The United States government prohibited the production, importation, and sale of alcoholic beverages. New Smyrna’s and the rest of Volusia County’s tourism skyrocketed. Why? Go back and read the section on blockade-running during the Civil War. Once again, Ponce Inlet was a supply route from the Bahamas. In Nearby Holly Hill, you had the real McCoy importing alcohol to northern Volusia County.
By the mid-1920s, Florida was enjoying a healthy land boom. Whether prohibition had anything to do with that is purely speculation.
New Smyrna Beach in the 1930s
Starting in 1929, the economy, in part due to the land boom, took a severe turn for the worse. New Smyrna’s main industries, agriculture, citrus, tourism, and fishing, all took a huge hit.
Federal aid via the US government helped, but was only a drop in the bucket. The Federal Emergency Relief Act (FERA) project built the Chamber of Commerce building on Canal Street in 1935. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) built the city library (now City Hall) in 1940.
In 1942, America joined another World War. Once again, African Americans are equals on the battlefield.
The U.S. War Department established several Naval Outlying Fields (NOLFs) in Volusia County as training bases. The one in New Smyrna opened in 1942. Pilots flew out of here in Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bombers, practicing bombing on targets in the nearby Canaveral National Seashore. In 1947, the airport became the New Smyrna Beach Municipal Airport.
By 1945, the war was over. And once again, Blacks return to a two-class Florida.
In 1946, New Smyrna annexed the town of Coronado Beach on the barrier island. The following year, they merged the two as New Smyrna Beach.
Educator and civil rights activist Mary Bethune, of Daytona fame, helped secure a 2.5-mile strip of oceanfront in the 1940s as a safe recreational space for Black families. By the 1950s, it featured a bar, motel, and outdoor dance area. Bethune Beach Park is still there today, but now it’s a beach for everyone.
New Smyrna Beach and Civil Rights.
Almost a decade after the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education ruling, many Florida public schools still do not integrate.
African Americans were facing arrest while eating at public lunch counters, and the Ku Klux Klan was escalating violence.
Change in Volusia County.
It wasn’t until 1963, when the Ku Klux Klan’s violent attacks against Martin Luther King Jr and other Black leaders in St Augustine were beamed into America’s living rooms, that Washington finally did something. In 1964, Congress passed the Civil Rights Act.
Things did not get better overnight, but some healing did begin. However, in Volusia and many other Florida counties, widespread school integration did not occur until the 1970-71 school year began. And only after a Supreme Court mandate.
New Smyrna Beach for the last 50 years.
The last passenger train on Flagler’s Florida East Coast railroad pulled out of New Smyrna in 1962. The nearby yards are still in operation for today’s freight trains. But as the interstate system replaced train travel, New Smyrna began to move from a sleepy little town to a tourist destination.
The 1980s saw major redevelopment of the downtown area on the mainland along Canal Street, which needed some T.L.C. With the founding of the Canal Street Historic District and the larger, more residential New Smyrna Beach Historic District, the mainland now features and protects more than 300 buildings, many from 1885 to 1935, located along the Indian River.
In the 1990s, the city turned its attention to revitalizing Flagler Avenue on the barrier island. Several iconic eateries and bars got a much-needed influx of cash and paint, making the area a tourist destination again. Think Florida beach town. The barrier island includes the Coronado Historic District, with more than 80 structures, primarily in Craftsman and Frame Vernacular styles.
New Smyrna Beach Today.
Tourism, hospitality, and retail bring a lot of money into New Smyrna Beach’s economy. But there are also growing healthcare, construction, and aerospace industries. New Smyrna Beach is part of the Space Coast’s technological corridor. The Kennedy Space Center is only 30 miles south.
What is in New Smyrna Beach for me?
See & Hear.
You can walk or drive along the beach listening to the crash of the waves.
Taste & Smell.
The city has more bars and restaurants offering everything from fresh fish to a retro Dairy Queen, from Tiki bars to a bar in a tree house. Bring an appetite.
Feel.
There’s just a warm, small-town feel about New Smyrna Beach, whether you’re on the mainland or the barrier island. A stroll down a tree-covered street where people actually sit out on their porches is a piece of old Florida you don’t find much anymore.
Whether shark spotting near the inlet, or people watching along Canal street, it’s bound to take your mind off serious stuff.
There may be better ways to spend your days, but this one doesn’t suck.
Should See in New Smyrna Beach.
Smyrna Sand Dunes
At the very north end of the barrier island (Peninsula) of New Smyrna Beach, this great park offers the outdoors to man and dog. The sandy beach at the top (north) end has a dog section. A boardwalk just under 2 miles long circles the park from the fishing pier on the river side to the beach on the Atlantic Ocean. You can also drive on the beach to the park via the Beachway Avenue Beach Access. While a lovely walk, make sure to use the facilities near the parking area at the park entrance before setting off. The park offers the best views of the Ponce Inlet and the lighthouse on the opposite shore.
Visit ParkVolusia for more information on driving on the beach.
NOTE:
New Smyrna Beach is known as the “Shark Bite Capital of the World.” The highest concentration of shark bites is around the Ponce de Leon Inlet. Why? The inlet is a constant source of small baitfish (shark food). Now, before you cue the “Jaws” music, these are usually Spinner or blacktip sharks (avg 4-6ft in length), and a bite is usually a minor (yet painful) nip or bite on the foot or ankle.
These bites usually occur near the inlet, in murky water (where a fluttering foot might look like a fish), and during the summer months, when the water is warmer. In addition, more than 50% occur when surfers paddle further offshore.
Something else to consider: the 47 miles of shoreline in all of Volusia County averages 8-11 shark bites per year. In other words, the probability of you being “hurt” by a Shark Bite Cocktail is higher than you actually meeting a shark. Disclaimer: When you swim in any ocean, be aware that you are not the only creature in the water.
Flagler Avenue Beachfront Park
At the foot of Flagler Avenue on the Atlantic Ocean side is this park/parking area. It offers paid parking, restrooms, a small promenade, and access for cars to drive on the beach. Visit ParkVolusia for more information.
The Breakers Ocean Front Restaurant & Bar.
A restaurant has been operating here since the early 1900s. (which may explain why it was allowed to build closer to the water’s edge than later buildings.) Regardless, it has the best view in town. An outside “porch” runs the length of the oceanside of the building, with a 2-sider bar almost as long. To me, the best seats in the house are there, but there are also tables. With their location, they could have mediocre food. But they don’t. They have about a dozen hamburgers and other seaside bar staples to choose from. Yes, the accompanying rum drink and view might influence my review, but it is the best burger I have had in NSB. My beer-drinking friends like the offerings from their Half Wall Brewery on the mainland. Touristy? Yes. Crowded? Yes. A perfect way to put yourself in beach mode? Absolutely.
Ocean Breeze Tiki Bar and Grill
Across the street from The Breakers, but not directly on the beach, is this other popular bar with food. The second-floor Tiki Bar has tasty drinks, and it seems, always an ocean breeze. There is live music at night.
Flagler Avenue sign.
For the Instagramers.
Coronado Shuffleboard Courts
The history of the Coronado/Mainland Shuffleboard Club dates back to the early 1930s, when the two clubs were separate. The club at 288 Flagler St. dates back to 1937. Today, the club numbers around 250 members and is open to the public. What says Florida Beach Town more than shuffleboard?
Flagler Tavern
This large restaurant bar at 414 Flagler began as a small shanty in 1928. It grew alongside the area’s growing popularity. In 2014, new owners supersized it by adding the second floor. In my opinion, it just doesn’t have any 1920s vibe. The Bounty Bar upstairs (added in the expansion) feels older than the Main Bar downstairs. The food is good, and the location, a block up from the beach, makes it a good place to stop for a drink or bite.
The Riverview Hotel
Captain S.H. Barber’s 1885 hunting and fishing lodge is still welcoming guests. In 1910, to add a lobby and dining room, they raised the original structure and built underneath. In 1936, Fred Tyron, a former Flagler Hotel employee in St Augustine, purchased the hotel and added the west wing and in-room bathrooms. He renamed it the Riverview Hotel.
NSB South Beach
As Highway 44 crosses the causeway from the mainland to the island/peninsula, it becomes the Jimmy Buffett Memorial Highway.
Norwood’s Eatery & Treehouse Bar
Opening as a gas station and general store in 1929, Earl Norwood converted the site into a seafood restaurant in 1946. 80 years and several owners later, it is a local fixture. In 2015, they added the TreeHouse Bar. (Yes, there is an elevator)
E 3rd Avenue Drive-on Beach Access
Less than a 5-minute drive from Norwoods, this is the closest car access onto New Smyrna Beach. As of 2026, the cost was $30/car for the day. They do take Visa/Mastercard. Visit ParkVolusia for more information.
Just past 5th Avenue, Jimmy Buffett Memorial Highway / 44 merges into S Atlantic Avenue A1A.
27th Avenue Drive-on Beach Access
The southernmost beach access is in the 3600 block of S Atlantic Avenue. South of here, the beach is designated “no-drive” or “natural” zone.
Mary McLeod Bethune Beach Park.
In 1945, after repeatedly being turned away from “white-only” beaches in Volusia County, Daytona Black activist and educator Mary McLeod Bethune and developer George Engram, Sr., bought 2.5 miles of oceanfront and additional land along the Indian River. Located more than 7 miles south of Flagler Avenue, perhaps the white voters of New Smyrna Beach seemed to think this was a safe distance.
Here, Black families had a safe haven to beach, picnic, dance, and “be seen.” One of only three. Eventually, the area would feature the Welricha Motel for vacationing and a club called the Beach Casino, offering dancing and entertainment.
It was one of only four prominent beaches that Black people could enjoy in Florida during the segregation era. The other three are Amelia Island/Jacksonville’s American (Lincoln) Beach, St. Augustine’s Butler Beach on Anastasia Island, and Miami’s Virginia Key Beach Park, which was only accessible by boat.
After the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Bethune-Volusia Beach faded in significance. The hotel closed, and the few Black landowners sold their properties, often for undervalued prices. Today, the 2.5-mile area is known as Bethune Beach. Nothing remains from the 1950s except the beach and a marker. Today, Mary McLeod Bethune Beach Park at 6656 S Atlantic Ave, is only a block wide and deep. It does have restrooms, picnic tables, parking, and steps to the beach.
Canaveral National Seashore
Just over a mile south of Mary McLeod Bethune Beach Park is the Apollo Beach entrance to the National Seashore.
The Canaveral National Seashore (CANA) stretches 24 miles from New Smyrna Beach in Volusia County to Titusville in Brevard County. The park is home to unspoiled beaches, dunes, and mangrove wetlands. The Atlantic Ocean is its eastern boundary, and the Mosquito Lagoon Aquatic Preserve on the west. At over 57,000 acres, the CANA is home to more than 1000 plant species and hosts more than 300 bird species throughout the year.
There are 3 major beach sections in the seashore. The southern section is Playalinda Beach, accessible from Titusville.
Klondike Beach is in the middle and has no paved roads. It is only accessible to the public on foot or by boat. The hike from Playalinda’s northern parking lot to the southern tip of Apollo Beach is over 6 hours without facilities or fresh water sources. The area is a protected wildlife habitat, and a strictly regulated backcountry camping permit is required for overnight.
Apollo Beach is the northern section closest to NSB. After you enter the Seashore, parking for Apollo Beach will be on your left. There is a boat ramp and trailer parking to the right.
The Apollo Beach section of Canaveral National Seashore, accessible by car, is just over six miles.
Turtle Mound Archaeological Site
Less than half a mile from the Apollo Beach entrance, on your right, is a prehistoric Timucuan shell midden (refuse heap). Dating from between 800 and 1400 B.C., it is composed of over 35,000 cubic yards of oyster shells. It is the largest of its kind on the U.S. mainland and measures 600 feet long by 50 feet tall. They believe it was also used as a lookout and as a place to go during high tides.
Apollo Beach Visitor Center
A two-minute drive further south is the visitor center. In addition to restrooms and drinking water, the center provides information on seashore flora and animal life. Manatees are sometimes present off the nearby dock.
The Eldora Statehouse (Moulton–Wells House )
Approximately 1 mile south of the visitor center, without warning, there will be a road to your right. There is no street sign, but there is a one-way arrow pointing right. Follow this road, always going left, until you see the sign for the State House pointing right. This road will take you into the parking area. From here, it is approximately a 250-yard walk to the house. If you are actually handicapped, ask at the visitor center for instructions on handicap parking.
Fairview, Florida, was founded in 1882. They renamed it Eldora in 1889 after the daughters of George Pitzer, Ellen and Dora. It was a successful settlement with a post office, a school, and a hotel for guests seeking health treatment. Most people were involved in the citrus industry or fishing.
Two disastrous freezes in the late 1890s and Henry Flagler’s railroad put citrus growing on the islands out of business. Some wealthy people began buying land in Eldora from the departing growers. But by 1910, most of the town was abandoned. It would become a seasonal destination through the 1950s.
Today, only two of its original structures remain.
The Moulton-Wells House, a Colonial Revival home, was built in 1913 for Marion Woulton. Dr. Benjamin Wesley Wells would buy it from her and live there with his family. In the 1940s-50s, Murray Sams, the Florida state attorney for Volusia County, used the house so often that it was nicknamed “statehouse.” From the 1950s until 1989, it sat empty until volunteers restored it.
The home is open only on select days. Check the National Seashore website (orange link above) for dates. It is worth a visit even if you only see the outside. It is like stepping back in time to Florida more than 100 years ago.
Apollo Beach Parking Lot 5
It is worth the drive as the barrier island is extremely narrow here and less than 100 yards wide in places. Without a building in sight, this is Florida as it was hundreds of years ago. Although basic with no running water, there are restrooms here. I highly recommend tissues and wet wipes.
At all beaches in the National Seashore, there is little to no shade unless you bring it.
Note: The section south of parking lot #5 is designated as a clothing-optional area. This area is appropriately marked. If this makes you uncomfortable, do not go south of parking lot 5.
New Smyrna Beach on the Mainland
A great place to start is the corner of Canal and Riverside Drive. Why? Because Canal Street separates north from south. Also, looking east at the water, then looking west down Canal Street, you can almost imagine what it looked like when Canal Street was actually a canal. Dating from Turnbull’s colony of 1767, goods moved on flat-bottom boats along a massive canal drainage system. Canal Street was originally the North Canal and was predominantly for drainage. There was a path alongside the canal. In circa 1920, they cover the canal for sanitation reasons, but parts of it remained underground. In the 1980s, during the area’s renovation, the city filled in the remaining parts under Canal St.
Old Fort Park
The ancient coquina foundation towards the middle of the park is the city’s puzzle. It seems to date to the time of Andrew Turnbull’s colony, but what was it? Some say it’s a fort, but it doesn’t really look like any other fort built by the Spanish or the British.
Some say it was the basement of Andrew Turnbull’s mansion. Another idea is that it was a storehouse. Take a look and see what you think.
Connor Library.
Now sitting in Old Fort Park, this building has an interesting history. Washington Connor commissioned the building as a library in 1905 at the corner of Washington and Faulkner Street. He also established Ronnoc Groves (his name backwards), a 450-acre citrus farm and winery, and built a toll bridge charging one cent to cross.
For 19 years, he bought books for the library and paid the librarian’s salary. By then, his bridge was showing signs of wear and needed costly repairs. What does that have to do with the library? He would sell the library to the city for $1 if they bought his bridge for $37,500. They did in 1924. It remained a library until 1940 when the Works Progress Administration built a new library and cultural center, today’s City Hall.
Unfortunately, the building sat empty for more than 40 years until a church next door offered to buy it in 1981, with one important clause: the city had to move or demolish the building within one year. They moved it and spent more than 10 years restoring it.
New Smyrna City Hall
As mentioned above, it began as a new library and cultural center in 1940, just west of Old Fort Park. However, the town government, scattered among several downtown locations, decided it wanted to be under one roof. For 20 years, the City Hall and the library shared the same building until the Brannon Memorial Library opened in 1966.
Masonic Lodge #149
On the north side of the Old Fort Park square is this 1950 building. It features Masonry/Frame Vernacular architecture, which was very popular post-war. Is its blue paint scheme a hat-tip to the area’s Greek ancestors? Please remember this is a private lodge. Entrance is by invitation only.
New Smyrna Museum of History
The former post office is now this small but interesting museum at 120 Sams Avenue is between the Old Fort Park and Historic Canal Street. Inside are three areas: pre-European, the Europeans, and the railroad as it pertains to Volusia County and the New Smyrna area. The museum is a great place to start your exploration. As a bonus, the Museum of East Coast Surfing has its collection here as well.
New Smyrna’s Historic Canal Street
Standing at the corner of Sams St and Canal, it’s hard to miss the Beaux-Arts structure across the street on the corner of Magnolia and Canal.
The State Bank and Trust Building
Built in 1906 at 145 Canal, its original tenant was the State Bank & Trust. As the bank grew, it took over the building at 200 Canal as an annex. Other financial institutions called it home until the city purchased it. Today, it is part of the Utilities department and is not open to the public.
Chamber of Commerce
Standing at 115 Canal St., the current Chamber of Commerce building dates from 1934. It is built in a style similar to the Sarasota School of Architecture (mid-century modern). Besides the Chamber, the Artists’ Workshop is located here and offers painting and pottery lessons.
405 Canal Street
Hiding behind a thick canopy of vegetation is this lovely two-story Italianate Victorian structure from the early 1900s. Beginning as a single-family home, it is currently home to an antiques shop.
Little Drug Company
Built in 1923 as the Victoria Theater, the building at 412 Canal St has an interesting history. The theater, named for John & Jane Sheldon’s (yes, those Sheldons) daughter, was a Vaudeville house for live stage and movies. In 1963, Little Drug (founded in 1922) moved into this larger building. Little Drug remained in business at this location until late 2021, when box-store competition and pandemic pressures forced it out.
The former fountain portion of the drug store is still a soda fountain. While not operated by the Little family, the Little Griddle is worth a visit from anyone who has ever eaten at a drug store fountain. When was the last time you had a grilled cheese and shake while spinning on a counter stool?
Donnadine Miller Preservation Award
Donnadine Miller was an active member of the New Smyrna Beach community and Chair of The Historic Preservation Commission (HPC). Both sites are great detours for those seeking more historical structures. A drive down Faulkner or Magnolia Streets will reveal many of the structures from these two sites.
Mary S. Harrell Black Heritage Museum
Built in 1899 as the St. Rita’s Colored Mission, the structure at 314 N Duss Street today houses the museum started by Mary Harrell.
Mary S. Harrell was an educator, historian, and community pillar in New Smyrna until she died in 2014. Her museum preserves the history, culture, and stories of NSB’s African American community. Please check the website for opening hours. (Closed Sundays & Mondays)
S. Riverside Drive
Featuring many structures listed on the Historic Preservation Commission (HPC) List, Riverside also has a close link to New Smyrna’s first community.
426 S. Riverside Dr.
This 1909 American Four-Square home is on several historical lists. It is still a private residence.
Old Stone Wharf
In the 700 block of South Riverside Dr. and Clinch St. (turnabout) are the few remaining remains of the 1768 coquina structure built by indentured servants for Turnbull’s colony. The few foundations are only visible at low tide along the bank.
The King’s Road, the first graded road in the region and constructed between 1766 and 1775, extended from here to Colerain, Georgia, on the St. Marys River. (Today, the state line between Georgia and Florida). It followed an old Indian trail along a high sand ridge paralleling the ocean. Today, much of it is under modern roads.
The Titus House Hotel, built circa 1884 by Henry Titus, founder of Titusville, sat south of here at today’s 1210 S Riverside Dr. Later, it was renamed the Hotel Indian River and was a premier Victorian-era luxury winter resort for guests like Grover Cleveland. Today, private homes sit on the property.
Riverside Park
In the 200 block of S Riverside Drive (near Canal), this lovely park has a playground but limited places to sit.
Odyssey Greek Memorial
Built in 2000, this white granite memorial is dedicated to New Smyrna’s first immigrants who endured hardship while seeking freedom and a better life.
N. Riverside Drive
Home to many more historic structures in New Smyrna, they include the E.K. Lowd House (ca. 1885), 508 N. Riverside Dr. (1893), and the Spanish Colonial Revival El Real Retiro (1923). Please respect these private residences.
New Smyrna Beach’s Northside
Dairy Queen
An ice cream parlor can’t be on any historic or architectural list, but this one is. Retaining much of its original 1953 decor, this operating DQ at 729 N Dixie Fwy is the oldest in Florida.
New Smyrna’s Historic West Side
Grand Canal Marker
At 2078 FL-44 (at Walker Dr), across from an auto part store, is this marker, and a small section of what was Turnbull’s Grand Canal, the main north-south artery of his canal system. While still in use today as drainage, the canals’ size and importance are nothing like they were.
Cruger-dePeyster Plantation Sugar Mill Ruins
The sugar mill, built circa 1830 from local Coquina stone, was part of the Cruger-dePeyster Plantation, established in the early 19th century. This 17-acre historic site contains the ruins of the coquina sugar factory that was raided and burned to the ground by the Seminole Indians in 1835. This 17-acre site is all that remains from the 600-acre plantation.
North of New Smyrna
Port Orange.
On the ground north of the original colony, in 1804, Patrick Dean began a plantation that later became Dunlawton Plantation. Like all plantations, it did not last past 1836.
Circa 1867, post-Civil War, abolitionist Dr. John Milton Hawks founded the Florida Land and Lumber Company. He brought 500 freed slaves to own and work public lands along the Halifax River. He called the area “Orange Port.”
A year later, he moved the town inland to where it remains today and named it “Port Orange.” At first, the town really struggled. The historic Freemanville area was established as a community for freed slaves. Due to poor planning and unproductive harvests, the settlement had failed by 1869. Only nine families remained, but their descendants can still be found today. Unfortunately, the only thing remaining from Freemanville besides the history is the small Mount Moriah Baptist Church..Port Orange would continue as a town reliant on citrus, lumber, boatbuilding, farming, and even oystering. But it would never be a major player like nearby Daytona or New Smyrna Beach.
Dunlawton Sugar Mill Gardens
A botanical garden, usually full of brides and photographers, surrounds the ruins of the sugar mill in this beautiful setting. The mill ruins are to the right as you enter under a roof. The garden is at 950 Old Sugar Mill Rd.
Port Orange Depot Park
Praise to Port Orange, one of the very few towns in Florida that saved something (anything) from its railroad history. At 415 Herbert Street is the Port Orange, Florida East Coast (FEC) Railway Freight Depot. This wood-frame structure dates from 1894 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Originally, it was 2 separate buildings, a passenger station and a freight depot. In 1938, several years after passenger trains stopped calling at the station, they combined the two buildings into a single freight depot. Today, the station is 500 feet north of its original location. It is one of the few remaining FEC wood-frame depots in Central Florida.
Mount Moriah Baptist Church
The last remaining building from historic Freemanville still has a small congregation and services on Sunday mornings. (possibly not inside this structure.) Freemanville is a post-Civil War neighborhood of freed slaves and is part of the Florida Black Heritage Trail. The church is at 945 Orange Ave.
Ponce de Leon Inlet Lighthouse & Museum
Dating from 1887, at 175 feet in height, it is the tallest lighthouse in Florida. Located at 4928 S Peninsula Dr, in Ponce Inlet, the Dunlawton Avenue bridge in Port Orange is the closest crossing from the mainland. An admission ticket and a climb of 203 steps will reward you with views north to Daytona Beach and south to New Smyrna.
Pacetti Hotel Museum
The Pacettis sold 10 acres of their land bordering the Ponce Inlet to the US Government in 1883. The government was going to build a light Station (lighthouse). The Pacettis used the $400 from the sale to build a small hotel, primarily for fishermen coming for the great fishing just outside the front door. The hotel was a hit and would continue to grow until Martha Pacetti’s death in 1917.
Olivia Gamble purchased the property in 1936 in memory of her father. Her dad, James (you may know him from the small company he and his partner, Proctor, started), was a fan of the Ponce Inlet area. The property, now in very poor shape, was restored and improved into a guest house for her friends and social events. Much of what you see today is from that salvation. Less than a 10-minute walk from the lighthouse, you can purchase a combo admission ticket to enter both structures.
While in the area, check out any one of the boat-friendly restaurants along the inlet.
West of New Smyrna Beach
Samsula Racing and Biker Bars
Sorry Charlie’s Corner
Just over a 10-minute drive west of the Grand Canal Marker on Highway 44 to Deland is this must-stop for bikers and biker bar fans. Sorry Charlie’s Corner, formerly known as Mike’s Corner, is a historic, well-known biker bar located at 3705 FL-44.
The building dates back to 1926. Johanna (Jennie) Luznar Machek, along with her husband, Mike Machek, established Mike’s Corner.
New Smyrna Speedway
Built in 1964 as a dirt track, they would pave it three years later. It is famous as a short-track venue. Its half-mile length and steep banking allow for high-speed racing. It has been a rite of passage for many NASCAR up-and-coming drivers. The track is less than 5 minutes west of Sorry Charlie’s. Unchanged:
Sopotnik’s Cabbage Patch Bar
Built by Joe Sopotnick around 1926, it was originally a general store and gas station. In 1936, Ronald Luznar (Jennie’s brother?) bought it from his father-in-law and opened Sopotnik’s Corner, a bar hoping to attract the growing number of motorcyclists visiting the area and nearby speedway. With the creation of the Daytona 200 motorcycle race in nearby Daytona Beach, the bar continued to grow into a must-stop for bikers. In the 1950s, he renamed the bar “Sopotnik’s Cabbage Patch Bar” as the area was famous for its local crop.
By the late 1980s, Ronald, looking for a sales gimmick, and a neighbor’s overabundant cabbage harvest led to the bar’s most enduring legacy: coleslaw wrestling. In a mixture of shredded cabbage and oil, Bikini-clad women wrestle for the title “Queen of the Pit.” While open year-round, cole slaw wrestling only happens during Daytona Bike Week. The bar is less than a 5-minute drive north of the Speedway.
South of New Smyrna Beach
Seminole Rest
Located within the Canaveral National Seashore Park, it is the lost child. Located on the mainland side of Mosquito Lagoon, it requires a drive of more than 40 minutes from the Parks NSB northern entrance. (20+ minutes from downtown NSB).
Going back 1300 centuries ago, the area was home to the Timucua Indians, who included the local clams as a major part of their diet. They would create large mounds from the used shells. Unfortunately, these mounds and any history they might have been holding became the foundation for railroads and roadways in the late 1800s.
Jon Lawd, trying to cash in on Florida’s citrus boom, purchased the area of the mound in 1857. He had more than 900 citrus trees and livestock. Had he not built upon the mound, it probably would be a roadway today. After numerous hard winters and several owners, the property was sold to Wesley Snyder in 1911. Snyder would name it Seminole Rest. The property would remain in the Snyder family until the 1980s. The two houses from the 1880s are still on top of the mound.
New Smyrna Beach Summary.
Sure, there is the beach, but even the beach has several options. From family-friendly to deserted.
There is a history reaching back to 2000 B.C.
Modern history reaches back over 100 years.
And there are many great bars and restaurants to try.
I hope this shows you that there is much more to New Smyrna Beach than just surfing and beaches.
Set aside at least a day to explore this small (yet big) beach town.
SEE NEW SMYRNA