Seagrove Beach got its name from the thick
grove of windswept oak trees
along the beach. The trees were a perfect cover from the harsh
hurricanes that
landed along the coast of North Florida.
At the beginning of the 20th Century,
Seagrove Beach was known as Russ’s
Hammock. You could get here by taking a small road from the north by way
of
Point Washington, a small timber mill town. One of the few, original
property
owners to settle here was the McGee family in 1949.
Outside of a few cottages and the little
Seagrove Hotel, there wasn’t
much development at that time. The only way to drive to Seagrove was on a
sandy
trail from the paved, U.S. Highway 98. The current road 30-A, was just a
simple
dirt road a few hundred feet in both directions. Until they paved 30-A
there
was no connecting road from Seagrove to Grayton Beach, because the two
towns
were separated by Western Lake. The only way to get from either town to
the
other was by boat.
Recently, Seagrove Beach has shown an
increasing amount of traffic.
Residences, condominiums, shops and restaurants are springing up in the
area
and it is becoming a very popular destination for tourists.