Old Cocoa Beach

About this publication

Cocoa Beach was incorporated in 1925. The rockets came later.

The first settlement on this stretch of island was Oceanus, made by freed slaves after the Civil War. Cocoa men bought the land in 1888, Gus C. Edwards bought out his partners in 1923, and the town was incorporated on June 5, 1925, with Edwards as its first mayor. Its pier went up in 1962. Between 1960 and 1970, with the missile range and NASA next door, its population went from 3,475 to 9,952. Kelly Slater was born here in 1972.

The seven Mercury astronauts in a group photograph.
The Mercury Seven, photographed in 1963 at Ellington Air Force Base in Houston. Ramon's restaurant in Cocoa Beach honored them. NASA (S63-18853). Public domain.

What this site covers

Oceanus, Gus Edwards and the 1925 incorporation. Patrick, the Navy seaplane base next door that became the missile range's headquarters in 1950. The 1960s boom, the restaurants and motels of the space age, from Bernard's Surf to the Glass Bank. The Cocoa Beach Pier, built in 1962 as the Canaveral Pier and renamed in 1984. Kelly Slater's eleven world titles. The hurricanes, the federal beach renourishment that rebuilt the shore in 2000-01, and the sea turtles that nest on Brevard's beaches by the tens of thousands.

The beach at Cocoa Beach, Florida.
The Atlantic shore at Cocoa Beach. Pom' via Wikimedia Commons. CC BY-SA 2.0.

Corrections welcome at hello@oldcocoabeach.com. We log every correction with a date and updated citation.