Founding and Growth of Cocoa Beach

The Town of Cocoa Beach was established on June 5, 1925, by a local attorney from Georgia whom the city's own timeline calls Gus Edward in one row and Gus Edwards, City Founder, in the next (city History at a Glance timeline).

Before the town, the Cocoa Beach timeline lists Native Americans as the first settlers, followed by freed people after the Civil War, and records that in 1888 a group of Cocoa men bought the entire tract of land; development started only after the attorney arrived (city History at a Glance timeline). The city's list of past mayors puts Gus C. Edwards first, serving from 1925 to 1931 (city list of past mayors). His name runs through the later Cocoa Beach minutes too: in 1953 he wrote that he wished to give the town a park of suitable size, and in 1959 the commission agreed to accept his proposed deed for part of the ball field if certain deed restrictions were released, and reviewed his plans for a library building (city 1950s minutes page).

The racing row is the most striking on the Cocoa Beach list: the city states that cars drove up to 180 miles per hour on the sand in 1924, when the beach was then known as the world's greatest speedway (city History at a Glance timeline).

Cocoa Beach had 49 residents in 1939 and 246 in 1949, according to the city timeline, and 12,000 in 1968 (city History at a Glance timeline).

The Cocoa Beach figures do not climb in a straight line: the timeline shows 12,000 in 1968, then 9,442 in 1970 and 12,000 again in 1975 (city History at a Glance timeline). The 1970s minutes record a January 1971 discussion in which the "forecasters of doom" were said to be overestimating the length of the economic recession and the city's future was called very promising (city 1970s minutes page). Lot prices tell the same boom story on the Cocoa Beach timeline: $100 a lot in 1922 and $750 to $900 a lot in 1951 (city History at a Glance timeline).

Services arrived in step. Cocoa Beach got water lines and a police department with one part-time officer in 1947, telephone lines in 1951, its first motel (100 rooms) in 1956, and its first bank and store in 1957 (city History at a Glance timeline). By 1973 the Land Development Plan, the first update to the comprehensive plan since 1966, found Cocoa Beach 75% developed with 585 acres vacant (city 1970s minutes page).

Cocoa Beach grew beside two federal sites: Naval Air Station Banana River, commissioned in October 1939, and the missile range at Cape Canaveral (city History at a Glance timeline).

The Cocoa Beach timeline says the naval station was commissioned in October 1939 and renamed Patrick Air Force Base in 1948, and that on May 11, 1949, President Harry Truman created a Long-Range Proving Ground for missiles at Cape Canaveral (city History at a Glance timeline).

The war years show up in the Cocoa Beach minutes as practical problems. In 1940 the town endorsed building the harbor at Canaveral, in 1942 it weighed rental houses for officers and employees at the Naval Air Base, and in June 1942 the war made road oil hard to get (city 1940s minutes page). In September 1955 a Convair representative urged Cocoa Beach to expand for incoming personnel at Patrick Air Force Base, saying the area was on its way to becoming the guided missile test center of the world (city 1950s minutes page).

The first American human spaceflight is dated differently by two government sources. The Cocoa Beach timeline gives May 6, 1961, for Freedom 7 and says many watched from Cocoa Beach's beaches (city History at a Glance timeline). NASA's history office dates the flight May 5, 1961, after weather scrubbed a May 2 attempt, and says half a million people gathered on nearby beaches; the flight lasted 15 minutes 22 seconds (NASA history article). Both dates are stated here as each source gives them.

Crowds kept coming to Cocoa Beach for launches. The city timeline counts more than 75,000 people in 1962 for John Glenn's Friendship 7 orbit and lists Apollo 11's launch on July 16, 1969 (city History at a Glance timeline). For Apollo 14 the commission expected 7000 visitors and directed that the beach be cleaned up, according to the January 21, 1971 minutes (city 1970s minutes page). The timeline also notes that the 1965 television pilot of I Dream of Jeannie set its astronaut character's home in Cocoa Beach (city History at a Glance timeline).

Cocoa Beach changed from a town to a city in 1957, according to the city timeline (city History at a Glance timeline), and the City Commission page says citizens adopted the Commission and City Manager form of government on June 19, 1958 (City Commission page).

The Cocoa Beach minutes record June 19, 1958 a little differently: on that date the commission agreed as policy that department heads would answer to the City Manager, and a resolution was proposed for a City Manager form of government (city 1950s minutes page). The commission page and the minutes summary therefore describe the same date as an adoption by citizens and as a proposed resolution; both are stated as written. The timeline adds that the first town manager was appointed in 1955 and served until 1957 (city History at a Glance timeline).

How the Cocoa Beach mayor was chosen changed in the same years. Before 1957, mayors were elected as commissioners and then appointed by a majority vote of the commission; the mayor who took over in 1956 became the last appointed mayor and the first elected one, winning the March 1957 election (city list of past mayors). That page spells his name both Fisher and Fischer; the Sidney Fischer Park guide covers the park named for him. Today five commissioners, one of them the mayor, are elected at large by Cocoa Beach voters (City Commission page).

One 1959 vote could have changed the name itself. A local radio station asked that Cocoa Beach be renamed Cape Canaveral Beach or Canaveral Beach, and the commission agreed to place the question on the next ballot (city 1950s minutes page).

Driving on the beach in Cocoa Beach was banned in 1969, according to the city timeline, which also records beach racing being welcomed in 1924 (city History at a Glance timeline).

The Cocoa Beach minutes show how long the argument ran. On July 6, 1950, a proposed ordinance to prohibit driving on parts of the beach was defeated due to overwhelming opposition from the public (city 1950s minutes page). A 1958 beach ordinance closing the sand to vehicles pending the opening of the street ends was tabled on June 5, and at a July 8, 1958 hearing 35 residents asked for closure while merchants spoke on the other side (city 1950s minutes page). In August 1958 the commission opened the beach from 1st Street South north to the city limits, in step with a county budget of $18,000 for lifeguards and beach policing north of Cocoa Beach (city 1950s minutes page).

The city timeline also records, without a date, that a portion of the Cocoa Beach shoreline was closed to driving after a fatal accident involving a young child (city History at a Glance timeline). Road speeds moved too: the town kept a 25 mph limit in 1953, raised it to 35 mph in 1955 except near Cocoa Avenue (city 1950s minutes page), and the timeline says, without a date, that the A1A limit was lowered from 45 mph to 35 mph after a fatal car accident (city History at a Glance timeline).

Cocoa Beach sold its water system to the City of Cocoa in 1957: the Bill of Sale was executed on November 8, 1957, according to the city's minutes (city 1950s minutes page).

The Cocoa Beach water story starts with lines installed on the island in 1947 (city History at a Glance timeline) and a 1951 survey ordered so the town could prove it had an adequate supply and stay in a designated Critical Defense Area (city 1950s minutes page). In November 1955 representatives of the City of Cocoa asked for a 30-year franchise to buy the complete Cocoa Beach water department, and in November 1956 Cocoa guaranteed water service to every customer in Cocoa Beach if the town sold its system for $54,000 (city 1950s minutes page).

Sewer stayed local. After septic tanks overflowed in 1954, Cocoa Beach planned a sewage treatment plant (city History at a Glance timeline), accepted a federal grant for the sewage system in November 1957 (city 1950s minutes page), and in August 1961 filed for a further federal grant of $107,100 to expand the plant and system (city 1960s minutes page).

Several Cocoa Beach places date from the 1960s, starting with the Cocoa Beach Pier, built in 1962 for $150,000 (city History at a Glance timeline).

The same Cocoa Beach timeline dates Cocoa Beach Junior Senior High School and the Surfside Playhouse to 1963, and the recreation complex to 1966, with a golf course added in 1968 (city History at a Glance timeline).

The Cocoa Beach minutes fill in the names on the map. In 1965 the high school asked that Cocoa Avenue be renamed Minutemen Blvd, and in November 1968 Resolution 68-22 named the road in front of the golf club house and swimming pool Tom Warriner Blvd (city 1960s minutes page). In January 1962, Ordinance #115 made the lands within the city a bird sanctuary (city 1960s minutes page).

The 1970s add two park entries. A May 1971 motion authorized deeding Fischer Park to the State in return for a 99 year lease (city 1970s minutes page), the timeline's 1975 row records a time capsule buried there with a reopening date of July 4, 2076, and in 1976 a Native American mound was found at South Orlando Avenue between 14th and 15th Streets (city History at a Glance timeline).

Last verified: October 21, 2026, by re-reading the City of Cocoa Beach History at a Glance timeline, its 1940s to 1970s minutes pages, the City Commission page and the list of past mayors, and NASA's Freedom 7 history article.