Tag Archives: American Beach

Along the A1A Ocean Islands Trail Jacksonville’s Beaches | Mayport | Broward House | Kingsley Plantation | Big Talbot | Downtown Fernandina Marlin & Barrel Distillery in Fernandina | The Pétanque Courts of Fernandina | American Beach: Under the Blue Bottle Tree with Marsha Dean Phelts | Amelia Island Culinary Academy | Amelia Island Downtown Tasting Tour | The First Coast’s Only AAA Five Diamond Restaurant: Salt at Ritz-Carlton Amelia Island   Every place has a story, stitched together with humble beginnings and historic figures to create a living narrative. In very few places can you travel along a timeline of a region’s history as it unfolds before you. The …

The expression “Life’s a beach” looks at the bright side of things, putting a sunny spin on a phrase that when substituting its more vulgar counterpart means the exact opposite, or at the very least a female dog. “A day at the beach” also serves as a unit of measurement to describe a pleasurable situation, but in an idiomatic sense denotes less than desirable circumstances, as in ‘she was no day at the beach’. What does a day at the beach mean to you? For some, it’s as simple and stretching out on a towel or lounge chair, turning the …

The tranquil American Beach breeze blows into Marsha Dean Phelts’ front lawn. It rattles the blue bottles stacked along a palm tree. Phelts says the beach is much quieter now than it was in its heyday. She recalls a time when, she says, “There was always a party going on. American Beach was a place everybody could enjoy and feel a sense of belonging.” For as long as she can remember, has vacationed at on . Until the Civil Rights Act’s passage in 1964, North Florida’s beaches were segregated. American Beach was the among the largest and most frequented black-only …

Abraham Lincoln Lewis, or , Florida’s first black millionaire and a founder of the , founded in 1935, specifically for “recreation and relaxation without humiliation.” American Beach is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The A.L. Lewis Historical Society welcomes you to “The Sands of Time: An American Beach Story,” their new exhibit in a museum with a tin roof and a long porch lined with rocking chairs. In 1935, Jim Crow laws undermined blacks with “separate, but equal” dogma. This short-changed people access to places for family recreation, such as Jacksonville Beach and other sites to enjoy …