Things to Do in Cocoa

Cocoa's draws are its historic riverfront downtown, the Indian River boat ramps and boardwalk, a cluster of Black history sites on Blake Avenue, state historical markers, and two neighborhood parks with a heated pool and new sports fields.

The city's visitor page describes downtown as a shopping district whose stores and restaurants have waterfront views, and its list of historic landmarks includes Porcher House, Derby Street Chapel, the Moore Center and the Village Playhouse (City of Cocoa Visitors page). Cocoa lies in Central Brevard County and is reached by Interstate 95 as well as State Roads 528, 520 and 524, within minutes of Port Canaveral, Kennedy Space Center and the beaches and a short drive from Orlando International Airport (City of Cocoa Visitors page). Cruise visitors come too: the city says several hundred cruise passengers a week arrive in the Village by bus (Discover Cocoa).

Historic Cocoa Village is for walking the old downtown, a look inside Porcher House on a weekday, and the paper archive of the Florida Historical Society.

The Historic Cocoa Village Playhouse, a private theater in the old downtown, draws nearly 30,000 visitors a year by the city's count (Discover Cocoa). The same city page points to the Florida Historical Society, located in Historic Cocoa Village, which the city describes as one of only two libraries in Florida that archives paper documents today (City of Cocoa History and Culture page). For architecture on foot, the city singles out Riverside Drive and its old Florida mansions (City of Cocoa History and Culture page).

Porcher House is a city facility, with Leisure Services as its listed contact. The city says it is open to the public to view and available for rent, with the upstairs rented as offices, and lists its hours as Monday to Friday, 8:00am to 5:00pm, except for reserved special events (City of Cocoa Porcher House page). The same page says evenings and weekends are reserved for special events, so a visit has to fall on a weekday (City of Cocoa Porcher House page). The Historic Cocoa Village guide covers the Village boundaries, its marked buildings and parking in detail.

Lee Wenner Park on Riveredge Boulevard is the city's boating park on the Indian River, open dawn to dusk with four boat ramps, day slips and a way onto the Indian River Boardwalk (Lee Wenner Park page).

The park's address is 300 Riveredge Blvd., and the city also lists fishing, parking, a covered picnic pavilion and restrooms there (Lee Wenner Park page). The boardwalk is reached from the same park, so a visit does not need a boat. Questions about the ramps and slips go to City of Cocoa Leisure Services at 321-639-3500 x4 (Lee Wenner Park page). Concerts are hosted at the Cocoa Riverfront Amphitheater, and the city counts more than 65 special events in downtown Cocoa Village and Cocoa Riverfront Park (Discover Cocoa). Ramp details, park rentals and the fountain schedule are in the Riverfront Park and Lee Wenner Park guide, and the event calendar is explained in the Cocoa Village events guide.

Two Blake Avenue buildings in Cocoa tell the story of Monroe High School, which served Black students under segregation: the Moore Center, being made into a city museum, and the Monroe Center, which carries a state historical marker.

According to the city, the building dates from 1924 and was Monroe High School's first campus; the city calls Monroe the Cocoa community's first all African American school and the only African American high school still standing in Brevard County, and says the building took the name of civil rights leader Harry T. Moore in 1954, once the high school had moved out (City of Cocoa museum facility page). In 2015 the city received state Division of Historical Resources grants to restore the roof, floors and interior for use as a museum, and the Leon and Jewel Collins Museum of African American History and Culture was dedicated there in 2017 (City of Cocoa museum facility page). The facility page still lists its hours as not yet open to the public, with the Community Services Department at 321-433-8577 as the contact (City of Cocoa museum facility page), so a call before a visit is the practical step.

Farther along the street, at 705 Blake Ave, the state marker for the Historic Monroe Center says the newer Monroe High School was built in 1954-55 as one of three segregated high schools serving Brevard County, served Black children in grades 7 through 12 from throughout Central Brevard until 1966-67, when area public schools were integrated, and now houses the Children's Village, a set of educational and social services for children and families (Florida Division of Historical Resources markers, Brevard). The marker also records that the street, first called Avocado Street, was renamed for Virgil Blake, a community activist who lived on it.

Cocoa's early story, from first settlers around 1860 to the 1890 fire and the 1895 incorporation, is told on the city's history page, and a state marker at U.S. 1 and King Street recalls a Seminole War trail that passed just west of town.

In the city's telling, families first settled around 1860, the settlement was platted in 1882 as Indian River City, and by 1884 the name Cocoa was in permanent use. A fire in 1890 destroyed the business district, a railway extension in the early 1890s brought new growth, and the town was incorporated in 1895 (City of Cocoa History and Culture page). The same page records the Great Freeze of the winter of 1894-1895, which destroyed the citrus crop.

The Hernandez Trail marker, at U.S. 1 at King Street, says the trail ran one half mile to the west during the Seminole War and connected forts along the East Coast to Ft. Dallas in Miami and, from Ft. Pierce and Ft. Capron, across to Ft. Brooke near Tampa (Florida Division of Historical Resources markers, Brevard). The city's history page also suggests the Brevard Museum of History and Science, a private museum, for a broader look at the county's past (City of Cocoa History and Culture page).

Dr. Joe Lee Smith Park at 415 Stone St. has a heated 25-yard pool open year round and a gym, and Provost Park at 400 South Varr Ave. has new fields and pickleball courts; Brevard County is the contact for both.

Brevard County describes Dr. Joe Lee Smith Park as a 3.2-acre park two blocks south of SR 520 at Stone and Washington Streets, with a playground, a lighted outdoor basketball court, an 8,068 sq. ft. community center, a 6,762 sq. ft. gymnasium and a 25-yard swimming pool with heaters for open swim and lap swim, plus free parking (Brevard County Dr. Joe Lee Smith Park page). The center is open to the public Monday through Thursday, 3:00 PM to 8:00 PM, Friday 1:00 PM to 6:00 PM and Saturday 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM, closed Sunday, outside day camp sessions and some holidays; pool hours are on the county's Aquatic Activities page, and the park line is (321) 633-1872 (Brevard County Dr. Joe Lee Smith Park page).

Provost Park is open dawn to dusk with basketball, a multipurpose field, pickleball, a pavilion, a playground, restrooms and soccer (City of Cocoa Provost Park page). The City of Cocoa says it has invested $1.7 Million in the park: a new multi-purpose field and scoreboard, new pickleball courts, renovated basketball courts, more lighting and benches, and an expanded, paved Fiske Blvd. lot, with more upgrades coming, including accessible playground equipment and soccer mini-pitches (City of Cocoa Provost Park page). The pavilion is booked through Brevard County at 321-633-1872 (City of Cocoa Provost Park page).

No, by the college's own account: Eastern Florida State College said in 2022 that the old planetarium on its Cocoa campus is permanently closed after Hurricane Irma damage in 2017, even though the City of Cocoa visitor page still lists the Planetarium among community features.

The college said in 2022 that its Cocoa campus master plan includes $21.6 million to construct a new planetarium to replace the old structure, which sustained severe damage from Hurricane Irma in 2017 and is permanently closed, and that the old planetarium will be demolished after an engineering study found serious safety issues (Eastern Florida State College release). The city's visitor page still names the Planetarium among features of the community (City of Cocoa Visitors page), so that listing is out of date for anyone planning a show.

Two other changes matter for a visit. The Collins museum at the Harry T. Moore Center is restored but still listed as not yet open (City of Cocoa museum facility page), and the City of Cocoa lists accessible playground equipment and soccer mini-pitches as the next work at Provost Park (City of Cocoa Provost Park page). Events are the other moving part: the city says the Village hosts special events nearly every weekend (City of Cocoa Visitors page).

Last verified: October 21, 2026, place by place: addresses, hours and status were compared with the City of Cocoa visitor, history, Porcher House, Lee Wenner, Provost Park and Collins museum pages, the county's Dr. Joe Lee Smith Park listing, the Brevard entries in the state marker database and the 2022 college master plan release.