Pocahontas Park, Vero Beach

Pocahontas Park, at 2200 14th Avenue in downtown Vero Beach, has a playground, an exercise trail, picnic tables, restrooms, a bike rack, shuffleboard and pickleball courts (2026 City of Vero Beach Recreation Program Guide).

Pocahontas Park is on the city list of parks inside the city limits, and the Recreation Department that answers park questions is at 2266 14th Avenue, phone 772-567-2144 (City Parks Information; Recreation Department). The 2026 guide files Pocahontas Park under inland recreational parks rather than the parks on the Indian River (2026 Program Guide).

The Pocahontas Park shuffleboard courts sit at the corner of 14th Avenue and 21st Street, and the 2026 city guide lists pickleball courts in the same park (2026 City of Vero Beach Recreation Program Guide).

The 2026 guide also lists the Vero Beach Shuffleboard Club at those courts, as one of the programs it marks with an asterisk, meaning programs organized by private instructors not employed by or affiliated with the City of Vero Beach and not sponsored by the Recreation Department (2026 Program Guide, program listings and contact page note).

The guide's Pocahontas Park entry names pickleball courts without a separate schedule or fee (2026 Program Guide). The National Register nomination for the Vero Beach Community Building described a playground and tennis courts next to the building (National Register nomination); the city's current Pocahontas Park entry names shuffleboard and pickleball courts and does not name tennis courts (2026 Program Guide).

For indoor space beside the courts, the city rental page describes the Heritage Center, seated in Pocahontas Park, with a stage for music, performances or presentations and free WiFi (Rental Facilities).

Pocahontas Park holds two National Register buildings, the Heritage Center (listed as the Vero Beach Community Building, built 1935) and the Vero Beach Railroad Station, moved into the park in 1984 (City of Vero Beach National Register list; Florida historical marker).

The National Park Service record for the Vero Beach Community Building gives 2146 14th Avenue, 1935 as its significant year, W.H. Garns as architect and a publication date of January 19, 1993 (NPGallery record 92001746). The Vero Beach Community Building nomination describes a one-story Frame Vernacular municipal building in the middle of Pocahontas Park, and pairs it with the Indian River County Courthouse as the only Federal Emergency Relief Administration projects left in downtown Vero Beach (National Register nomination). The city's rental page describes the main hall's open beamed cathedral ceiling, pine wood floors and coquina stone fireplace, and gives 772-770-2263 for availability (Rental Facilities). A separate Digital Towns guide covers the Vero Heritage Center.

The Vero Beach Railway Station marker, placed in 2017 at 2336 14th Avenue, records that the county historical society bought the passenger station from the FEC and relocated it in 1984 to city land in Pocahontas Park, northwest of where it first stood, on a parcel that had carried a deed restriction for that move for sixty years (Florida historical marker, Vero Beach Railway Station). Both buildings are also on the city's Local Register under Ordinance 2008-08 (City of Vero Beach Local Register).

Pocahontas Park dates to 1920, when the Indian River Farms Company donated the land to the City of Vero for municipal use, according to the National Register nomination of the building at the park's center (National Register nomination).

The same nomination places the park among the municipal improvements of the 1920s Florida land boom, along with a central power plant, and notes that Vero incorporated in 1919 and added Beach to its name during the 1920s (National Register nomination). The nomination points readers to a 1936 aerial photograph of the Vero Beach Community Building at the center of the park (National Register nomination).

The park also shaped the Vero Beach courthouse block. Per the city's history timeline, the courthouse land on 14th Avenue across from Pocahontas Park was a City of Vero Beach donation of July 1935, that construction began in April 1936 with Public Works Administration funding, and that county officials moved into the completed Indian River County Courthouse in March 1937 (A Timeline of Vero Beach History 1919-2019). The old Indian River County Courthouse guide covers that building.

Pocahontas Park hosted the opening of the City of Vero Beach Diamond Jubilee on June 10, 1994, a four hour celebration of the 75th anniversary of incorporation (A Timeline of Vero Beach History 1919-2019).

The Vero Beach timeline lists a ceremony, birthday cake, food vendors selling at 1919 prices, music and dance, and pioneer settlers sharing first hand stories inside the Heritage Center, with the six month celebration continuing through the Fourth of July, Labor Day, Veterans Day and the Christmas Parade (city history timeline). Two years earlier, in July 1992, Vero Heritage, Inc. held an open house and fish fry fundraiser at the Heritage Center after a group of residents fought to save and restore the old community building (city history timeline).

Pocahontas Park follows citywide rules: no alcohol, no smoking or vaping, no permit for groups under 50 without special requests, and a permit plus at least $50 plus tax for larger groups (City of Vero Beach FAQ; Recreation Department).

The Vero Beach FAQ says alcoholic beverages are not allowed at any City park, with the only exceptions being two reservable pavilions in Riverside Park, and that restrooms open at dawn and close at dusk, generally 7 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. (City of Vero Beach FAQ). Bounce houses and water amusements are limited to Riverside Park, MacWilliams Park and Charles Park, so Pocahontas Park is not on that list (City of Vero Beach FAQ). The Recreation Department page describes its facilities and playgrounds as free of substances, tobacco and vaping, and bars smoking in any area (Recreation Department).

Dogs are a different matter in Vero Beach. The city FAQ says no animals are allowed in city parks or beaches except trained guide dogs, unless prior permission has been given and insurance provided, and then cites Resolution No. 2014-07 for leashed dogs in listed parks (City of Vero Beach FAQ). Resolution No. 2014-07 authorizes leashed dogs in the city parks listed as on-leash parks, and that list names Royal Palm Pointe Park, Riverside North Park and MacWilliam Park, not Pocahontas Park; the off-leash option is the Vero Beach Dog Park (City Parks Information). Last verified: October 22, 2026, for Pocahontas Park: the 2026 guide's park and program listings, the nomination text, the station marker, the NPS record, the city register lists, the rental page, the FAQ and the timeline entries were each reread.