Wabasso — Sebastian, Florida

Wabasso is an unincorporated community in Indian River County on the west shore of the Indian River, between Sebastian to the north and Vero Beach to the south. It has never been a city. When federal writers compiled the 1937 WPA Historical Sketch of Indian River County, they named Vero Beach, Fellsmere, Sebastian and Wabasso as the county's four principal towns, placed Sebastian and Wabasso on the Indian River north of Vero Beach, and noted that all were incorporated except Wabasso. That status continues: the community is governed by the Indian River County Board of County Commissioners.

The Wabasso name reaches across the lagoon. The Wabasso Causeway and bridge on County Road 510 connect the mainland community to Orchid Island and Wabasso Beach, where the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service places the southern end of the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge. Inland, the Wabasso Scrub Conservation Area carries the name onto the Atlantic Coastal Ridge. The origin of the name itself is not documented in the state markers, county pages or WPA sketch consulted for this page.

The earliest people on this shore left their mark at Two Dollar Bluff. The Florida Department of State marker for the A.B. Michael (Wabasso) Bridge states that the bluff, prominently featured on the U.S. Geodetic Map of 1887, was considered a navigational aid for ships on the Indian River, and that it was an Ais Indian midden. By 1927 the midden's shell, pottery shards and bones were almost gone, taken for use as road material.

Pioneer settlement followed the river mail routes. The 1937 WPA sketch records that New Haven, now Sebastian, was the first post office established between Melbourne and Fort Pierce, and that later the Narrows post office near the present town of Wabasso was established. The same sketch names the first settlers of the Wabasso site as George Sears; George King, who built the first house; Stephen Michael; and Frank Forester. The bridge marker adds settler and citrus grower A.B. Michael, whose property at Two Dollar Bluff became the site of the Michael family dock on the Indian River.

Citrus shaped the early economy around Wabasso. The WPA writers described citrus fruit as Indian River County's principal crop in 1937, with oranges and grapefruit from the Indian River section bringing high prices in northern markets.

The crossing began as the Michael family dock. According to the state marker, the dock was replaced with a narrow wooden bridge with a metal swing span that crossed to the community of Orchid. That bridge allowed Indian River citrus to travel from the Orchid Island groves to the railroad on the mainland, and it opened the northern part of Indian River County to tourism and land development.

The marker records two later turning points. During World War II, the Wabasso bridge was limited to those who lived on the island, and the bridge tender checked the credentials of everyone who crossed. In 1970 the old bridge was replaced with a causeway and a high-arch bridge over the main channel, named the Wabasso Bridge. In 2020 the bridge was renamed the A.B. Michael Bridge, after the settler whose bluff and dock started the crossing.

Today the causeway is parkland. Indian River County lists Wabasso Causeway Park at 3105 Wabasso Beach Road (CR 510), a 13.4 acre park made up of four lobes along the causeway, with a boat ramp and restrooms on the south east lobe, pavilions, grills and lagoon shoreline for fishing and canoe launching. Sebastian Daily reported in June 2017 that the old Wabasso fishing pier beside the causeway, damaged by Hurricane Matthew in October 2016, was scheduled for demolition at an estimated cost of $1.1 million, with its material slated for an artificial reef about three miles offshore.

Wabasso's best documented institution is Allen Chapel AME Church. The 2016 Florida Department of State marker states that Beulah African Methodist Episcopal Church was the first house of worship in Wabasso affiliated with a national congregation. Its founders settled in Wabasso in the early 1900s as laborers in agriculture, lumber, turpentine and construction, the industries that formed Indian River County's early economy. Three congregants, John Knowles, Sam Caswell and Thomas Jackson, donated the land for the church and a school.

Education followed worship on the same tract. The original Wabasso sanctuary was built in 1916 and also served as a classroom until the congregation drew the attention of the Julius Rosenwald Fund, which provided seed money for Douglas Elementary School, built on the donated land in 1927. Fisk University's Rosenwald Fund collection holds a school card for the Wabassa School, also listed as the Wabasso School, in Indian River County. The marker records that the church was renamed Allen Chapel AME Church in 1943 and that the sanctuary dedicated in 1957 is the third built on the site.

Wabasso has its own county corridor plan. The Indian River County Wabasso Corridor Plan page explains that, faced with the prospect of growth, residents, property owners and business owners in Wabasso prepared a plan whose purpose is to set standards for development and redevelopment in the corridor. The county posts both a Wabasso Corridor Plan from 2000 and an update approved by the Board of County Commissioners on April 4, 2017. The update was shaped at community meetings on August 2, 2016 and October 3, 2016 at the Dasie Hope Center, 8445 64th Avenue, and on February 6, 2017 at Allen Chapel AME Church.

Basic infrastructure arrived through a state partnership. The Florida Department of Health in Indian River County reports that it became involved in Wabasso with its first Protocol for Assessing Community Excellence in Environmental Health (PACE-EH) project in 2004, work it credits with new water systems, three phases of sewer, park improvements, paved roads, drainage, streetlights and sidewalks, and more than 20 rehabilitated homes. The department returned to Wabasso with a second PACE-EH project in 2021 and now operates a Wabasso satellite location with a mailing address of 8445 64th Avenue, Wabasso, FL 32970, offering services with Indian River County Human Services and other partners.

The largest is the Wabasso Scrub Conservation Area, which Indian River County describes as a 111 acre conservation area purchased in 1995. It includes 53 acres of sand pine and scrub oak and scrubby flatwoods, 15 acres of wet prairies and 41 acres of pine flatwoods, communities the county identifies as threatened by historic development along the Atlantic Coastal Ridge, and it supports Florida scrub jays and gopher tortoises. The Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail directs visitors to the trailhead in West Wabasso Park and describes a 1 mile hiking trail through the Wabasso scrub.

On the barrier island, Indian River County lists Wabasso Beach Park at 1820 Wabasso Beach Road, a 0.46 acre guarded beach with lifeguards on duty from 9:10 a.m. to 4:50 p.m., pavilions, showers and an ADA crossover. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service describes the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge, established in 1991, as stretching across 20.5 miles of beach between Melbourne Beach and Wabasso Beach in Brevard and Indian River counties, which places the Wabasso shoreline on the same refuge coastline that extends north past Sebastian Inlet toward Melbourne Beach.