First Settlement in Cocoa Beach Was Founded By Freed Slaves Following the Civil War

Cocoa Beach came to life during the 1960s due to America’s space program

BREVARD COUNTY • COCOA BEACH, FLORIDA – The first settlement in Cocoa Beach, Florida, was started by a family of newly freed slaves following the Civil War, but a hurricane in 1885 discouraged settlement.

Then, in 1888, a group from Cocoa bought the entire tract of land.  The land remained untouched until attorney Gus Edwards arrived. He bought Cocoa Beach and began developing it.

The early history of Cocoa Beach is closely tied to the period immediately after the American Civil War.

Historical accounts indicate that the first non-Native settlement on the barrier island was established by a family of formerly enslaved African Americans who moved to the area seeking freedom, land, and opportunity after emancipation.

At the time, the area was remote, undeveloped, and largely inaccessible.

Before modern bridges and roads existed, the narrow barrier island consisted mostly of dunes, palmettos, marshes, and dense tropical vegetation between the Atlantic Ocean and the Banana River Lagoon.

The settlement was sometimes associated with the old name “Oceanus,” which predated the modern city of Cocoa Beach.

Very little documentation survives regarding the names of the freed families or the exact size of the community, a pattern common to many Reconstruction-era Black settlements in Florida.

Historians believe these settlers likely relied on fishing, small-scale farming, hunting, and trading with nearby mainland communities such as Cocoa. The isolation of the barrier island offered both opportunity and hardship.

The settlement’s future changed dramatically after a powerful hurricane struck the area in 1885.

The storm reportedly devastated the fragile community and discouraged further large-scale settlement on the island for several years.

Barrier islands in Florida were especially vulnerable at the time because they lacked seawalls, modern buildings, evacuation systems, or reliable transportation routes.

In 1888, investors from nearby Cocoa purchased much of the land on the island, though it remained mostly undeveloped for decades.

Later, attorney and developer Gus C. Edwards became the central figure in the development of the community that eventually became Cocoa Beach. The town was officially established in 1925 and later incorporated as a city in 1957.

This little-known chapter is significant because it places African American pioneers at the very beginning of Cocoa Beach’s modern history — decades before the space program transformed the Space Coast into an international destination.

The City of Cocoa Beach was established on June 5, 1925, and incorporated as a city on June 29, 1957.

Cocoa Beach came to life during the 1960s due to America’s space program, with NASA’s John F. Kennedy Space Center located approximately 15 miles away.

Cocoa Beach became home to many young families where one or both parents worked on some aspect of the space program, and kids raised there were sometimes referred to as “Cape Brats.”

The community was once so full of children that the schools overflowed, and portable classrooms were built to host them. It was not unheard of for there to be 45 children per classroom.

In the early days, after manned space flights, the town held Astronaut parades, and the entire town turned out to honor their heroes.

Before “Silicon Valley,” Cocoa Beach and other surrounding towns were full of the best and brightest technical minds. Today, many Kennedy Space Center workers still call Cocoa Beach home.

Cocoa Beach was also the setting for the 1960s sitcom “I Dream of Jeannie,” although only one episode was filmed there, Jeannie’s wedding.

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