Center of progress

Downtown pays homage to its early history despite modern transformation

BY MILT THOMAS

When walking the streets of downtown Vero Beach today, it is difficult for anyone to imagine the Vero of 100 years ago. By 1919, when the small hamlet of Vero was officially born (“Beach” would not be added to the name for six years), the population was less than 800 souls, for the most part farming families who came here to leave the cold north behind for the promise of a better life. What there was of downtown existed primarily at the intersection of Osceola Boulevard and Seminole Avenue, now 20th Street (State Road 60) and 14th Avenue.

Just eight years earlier, Iowa developer Herman Zeuch arrived by train. Looking over the pristine wetlands he saw his future. He formed the Indian River Land Co. with partners and bought 55,000 acres, then in 1912 they hired an engineer from Daytona named Robert Daniel “R.D.” Carter to do a feasibility study.

“My grandfather said when he arrived in Vero he could stand on the Indian River bank and looking west he saw nothing but swamp land as far as the eye could see,” said Marvin Carter, retired president of Carter and Associates.

Charles Gilbert Redstone, a saw mill operator, came by wagon following paths used by local Indian tribes and wild animals. His sons, Bayard Taylor and Ray, brought the mill down by flatboat. They set up shop by the railroad tracks where 60 Minute Cleaners is today. They would provide lumber for most of the structures in the emerging town including the Woman’s Club building, built in 1915, that served as the town’s first library and still stands across from today’s Main Library.

SLEEPY START
Sleepy Eye Lodge, built by the Indian River Land Co. in 1913 with wood from the Redstone mill, was surrounded by vacant land in the heart of downtown. A railroad station, first built in 1903 on the east side of the tracks, was improved over the years and after passenger train service ceased in the late 1960s, was eventually moved to a site just north of Pocahontas Park. Today it is headquarters for the Indian River County Historical Society.

Farmer’s Bank also opened in 1914 on the corner of Seminole and Osceola. It operated until failing during the Great Depression. The building later was occupied by Indian River Citrus Bank and today is home to Vero Furniture Mart.

Electricity was a luxury in pioneer days. The first power provider, Vero Utilities Co., was privately owned, but the town soon outgrew the operator’s ability to provide for it. So the plant was sold to the city in 1920. A new brick diesel building opened next to the railroad and continuously expanded until a new plant, nicknamed Big Blue, opened in 1961. The old diesel plant continued to operate during peak usage times until 1968. It sat vacant for many years, but in 2017 was renovated and became the American Icon Brewery. Big Blue ceased operations earlier this year and the entire city electric company was sold to FPL in 2018.

Mosquitoes were the scourge of pioneers’ existence. It was not unusual to see people and animals walking around with a black cloud swirling around them. Homes and businesses placed smudge pots at the front door or entrance to keep them away, substituting the black cloud with black smoke.

Pocahontas Park has been the Central Park of Vero Beach ever since Indian River Land Co. deeded it to the city in 1921, although the deed was not cleared until 1953. The town’s first community center, built in the park in 1935, served as a servicemens club for Navy personnel training at the airport during World War II. After the war, it was returned to its original use until a new community center was built just north of it. The original center became an office for the recreation department and was renamed Vero Beach Physical Arts Center. It is now The Heritage Center. A plaque outside the building commemorates the spot at Pocahontas Park where William Jennings Bryan on July 2, 1925, delivered a speech for the county’s inaugural festivities.

GROWING PAINS
When Vero was formally incorporated in 1919, the city council named A.W. Young, grandfather of City Councilman Tony Young, as its first mayor. The first newspaper, Vero Press, started publishing as a weekly in September of that year. A rival paper, the Vero Beach Journal, was started by John F. Schumann in1926. Then in 1927 he merged the two newspapers into the Vero Beach Press Journal. It operated for years in the same location south of Pocahontas Park on 21st Street until it was moved to modern new headquarters on U.S. 1. The paper was sold by his grandson, John J. Schumann Jr., to the E.W. Scripps Co. in 1997. The original Press Journal building is the home to Ironside Press.

Also in 1919, one of Vero’s most admired city fathers, Alex MacWilliam, arrived from Cleveland, Ohio. He came for his health after surviving a mustard gas attack in World War I and stayed to leave a lasting mark on the community.

Among his accomplishments, MacWilliam helped create and name Indian River County; created the Indian River County Mosquito Control Board; served as mayor for 18 years; was a state legislator for five terms; introduced building-height restrictions; helped bring commercial air service and the Brooklyn Dodgers to Vero; created Memorial Island and what would become Riverside Park during Army Corps of Engineers dredging operations on the Indian River Lagoon; and had the legislature set aside money for the original Barber Bridge, which opened in 1951. The popular MacWilliam Park was created in his honor.

In 1925, Indian River County and the City of Vero Beach were created. Irene Redstone, who moved to the area that year and lived until she was a 104, recalled, “My uncle, B.T. Redstone, son of C.G., was the last mayor of Vero and the first mayor of Vero Beach.”