Indialantic Unveils New Sign As Riverside Park Is Renamed Ernest Kouwen-Hoven Riverside Park
By Space Coast Daily // March 26, 2016
Indialantic Town Council approved name change
BREVARD COUNTY • INDIALANTIC, FLORIDA – Family members and friends joined Indialantic town officials recently to unveil a new sign, previously referred to as “Riverside Park,” to reflect a new park name to honor “Ernest Kouwen-Hoven Riverside Park.”
In 1916, Ernest Kouwen-Hoven accumulated one square mile of sand and palmetto scrub envisioning an exclusive seaside resort community. He subdivided the land into residential lots, streets, areas designated for hotels, ferry slips, a golf course, and a public beachfront – and Indialantic-by-the-Sea was born.
From 1917 to 1921, Kouwen-Hoven sold 8 percent bonds for $100 to finance a toll bridge from Melbourne.
For an extra $20, bondholders received a 50-foot lot. Delayed by World War I, scarcities and financial problems, the wooden drawbridge dubbed “Kouwen-Hoven’s Folly” opened on May 26, 1921.
The high-rise span of the Melbourne Causeway was officially dedicated to Ernest Kouwen-Hoven in 1978, however, he was nowhere memorialized within Indialantic’s boundaries.
The Indialantic Town Council approved the name change of Riverside Park to Ernest Kouwen-Hoven Riverside Park on September 9, 2015.
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