History of the City of Cocoa Beach, Florida

The first non-native settlement in the Cocoa Beach area a family of slaves that were freed following the Civil War.  A few years later, in 1888, a group bought the entire tract of land, eventually being bought out in 1923 by one member of the original group who was also nearby Cocoa’s city attorney.  The Town of Cocoa Beach was established in 1925, and it held its first official meeting at the Cocoa Beach Casino.  A couple of short weeks later, plans for a pier were developed.  By 1939, the town had 49 residents, and in 1942 new residents moved in:  the men assigned to the newly opened Naval Air Station Banana River.

World War II brought devastating news to the region, as on May 1, 1942 the German submarine U-109 sank the La Paz off the shore of Cocoa Beach.  Local children assisted in the salvage efforts and helped rid the beach of the subsequent debris.  During this war, Cocoa Beach experienced money shortages for employees, and scarce funds to fix roads.

The post-war years brought several phases of development, both public and private.  In 1951, the city sought placed a stoplight, the city's first, at the intersection of what is now route A1A and the Minuteman Causeway.  In 1953, the city paved the A1A south from 520 down Orlando Avenue.  Then, in 1955, the city prepared to house the people that were going to be launching missiles from what is now Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.  On June 29, 1957, Cocoa Beach made the official transformation from a town to being incorporated into a city.

Cocoa Beach experienced a growth surge starting in the 1960s, with a 1000% population increase from the years of 1950 to 1960.  This boom was largely due to the personnel, their families, and peripheral careers that were drawn by America's space program.  NASA's John F. Kennedy Space Center is located approximately 15 miles north of Cocoa Beach, and many people moved to Cocoa Beach due to their jobs involving the space program, and in search of new opportunity.

As NASA's Apollo program came to an end, and yet the Space Shuttle program had yet to hit its stride, Cocoa Beach suffered significantly as a reaction to the numerous layoffs.  At the peak of that era’s layoffs, in 1975, unemployment was at a rate of 14.3%.  Many families lost their jobs or simply relocated to areas with more employment opportunity.  Many homeowners  could not sell their homes, and some even walked away from them, having no other options.

In the 1960s, Cocoa Beach regained its popularity as the setting for the sitcom “I Dream of Jeannie.”  Though the show‘s star Barbara Eden made only two visits during the entire run of the show's production, no episodes were actually filmed in Cocoa Beach.