Cocoa Beach is a town of almost 17,000 people on Florida's central coast. Its restored downtown area, Historic Cocoa Village, offers a wide variety of shops, an active calendar of events and a glimpse of life along coastal Florida long before families flocked to nearby Disney World, scientists turned the fantasy of space travel into reality and the area became the fictional home of television astronauts on I Dream of Jeannie.
Florida’s Space Coast, home to the famous Kennedy Space Center, is known for its adventurous and thrill-seeking side – it’s the only place in the country to blast people into outer space – but it also is a nature lover’s paradise. With 72 miles of unspoiled beaches, it’s the surfing capital of the country’s east coast. Most of all, the area is recognized for its southern charm that dates back to Cocoa Beach's first settlers.
Early Cocoa Days
Hidden in the midst of hundred-year-old majestic oak trees is a riverfront community dating back to the 1860s. Founded by fishermen, the town name is believed to have been attributed to an old woman’s old-fashioned hospitality. Records dating back to the late 1880s mention a woman who lived along the banks of the Indian River and welcomed sailors along the riverbank with a cup of hot cocoa. This hospitable gesture and the beverage led to the name Cocoa Village.
The village’s first commercial building was constructed during the early 1880s in what was then called Indian River City. The city survived a disastrous downtown fire during 1890. A brutal freeze during the winter of 1894-95 destroyed the area’s citrus crop and crippled the industry that had brought prosperity to the Florida coast.
The oldest commercial wooden structure in the village is the Sur Le Parc Building (translation: “On the Park”). Built during the 1880s, this structure reportedly was the only building on Delannoy Avenue to survive the 1890 fire. It now resides on Florida Avenue.
For home fix-it buffs who remember and relish the old neighborhood hardware stores that existed before box retailers, S.F. Travis Hardware at 300 Delannoy Avenue always welcomes visitors. Established during 1885, this old store provides necessary and hard-to-find gadgets and widgets. The operators are very helpful and respect the privacy of shoppers and browsers.
Many of the village’s early 20th century buildings remain. The Porcher House, included on the National Register of Historic Places, was built during 1916 by Edward Postell Porcher, a pioneer in the citrus industry. His wife was the first postmistress of nearby Merritt Island. The Masonic Temple, also known as the Village Tower, is a three-story brick building dating back to 1919. Allegedly a favorite watering hole during the prohibition period, it now houses several Cocoa Village businesses.
Shopping in Cocoa Village
Cocoa Village has many boutiques and shops. It also is home to antique stores and an outlet to purchase the long-gone LP record.
Antique Emporium of Brevard boasts a huge collection of unique vintage items that include furniture, glassware and a long list of collectibles. The A Cocoa Antique Mall can capture a person’s interest for half a day or more. Searches are constant for many of these same items plus sports memorabilia and gear, tools and jewelry. Caroline’s House of Records has more than 30,000 new and used LPs and 45s, along with a variety of record accessories that include protective covers, inner sleeves and the latest turntables that download music to computers in mp3 format.
Arts At Cocoa Village Playhouse
What is now called The Historic Cocoa Village Playhouse was built as the Aladdin Theater during 1924 for what then was an astronomical sum of $80,000.
An editorial in the Cocoa Tribune on August 14 of that year shared the residents’ sentiments about this new theater:
“... it is really a theater for the Cocoa of the future, the city that we can only faintly visualize. It is really the first building in Cocoa which reaches so far into the future of our city, but with its coming comes the promise of other fine structures which are to house various enterprises and which are to do their part in forming the Cocoa of the future. As the beginning of this city of our dreams, the Aladdin will always hold a unique place in our history. The Aladdin is also somewhat unique in being erected for theater purposes alone. It was not built to house various businesses and with the theater idea as a secondary consideration, but in spite of its great size, it is exclusively a place of amusement. It is a theater of which all may be proud.”
The Aladdin featured silent movies and later showcased the first “talkie,” giving the movie house the moniker as “the showplace of the Indian River Section.” As the place changed hands through the years, the theater featured vaudeville acts, served as a station for the American Red Cross during wartime and then became the State Theater featuring movies on the “big picture screen.”
Eventually, the building was purchased by the City of Cocoa and renamed. During 1984, Brevard Community College District Board of Trustees acquired the building for $1 with the understanding that the college would take the responsibility of ownership and operate it in the best interests of the community. Through donations from individuals, organizations and corporations, and with grants from foundations and the state, the playhouse was restored and began producing community based musicals during 1989 that featured local volunteer performers.
The playhouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and, according to local lore, it occasionally is haunted by a ghost named “Joe.”
For more information, visit a Cocoa Village website or Facebook.
Sources
- Florida Historical Society
- Cocoa Village Visitor Center
Mike Virgintino - Mike Virgintino is a marketing communications executive who has directed corporate, nonprofit and product branding initiatives that rely ...
