Ponte Vedra Beach is an unincorporated seaside community in St. Johns County, Florida, United States. Located eighteen miles (29 km) southeast of downtown Jacksonville and 26 miles (42 km) north of St. Augustine, it is part of the Jacksonville Beaches area. It is an upmarket tourist resort area best known for its association with golf. The Sawgrass development is the home of the ATP Tour, the PGA Tour, and The Players Championship, played at the TPC at Sawgrass.
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The area is known for its resorts including the Ponte Vedra Inn and Club (a AAA five diamond resort), the Lodge and Club (four diamonds), and the Marriott at Sawgrass (three diamonds). It also lies in the third wealthiest county in Florida, ranking just behind the Palm Beach and Naples areas. Ponte Vedra Beach is affectionately known as the Palm Beach of North Florida.[1]
Most of the beaches have limited public access, with the exception of Mickler's Landing and Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve. Golf, tennis and boating are other popular activities.
What is now North Florida was visited several times by European explorers in the 16th century, but there is little evidence for them coming to Ponte Vedra Beach specifically. It may have been sighted by Juan Ponce de Leon during his voyage to Florida in 1513, but as his precise landfall is unknown, this claim may be made by many communities on the east coast of Florida.
The area remained sparsely populated through the late 19th century, even as other seaside communities began to develop to the north. In 1914 minerals were discovered, and a community known as Mineral City grew up around the mining operations there. Titanium (ilmenite) extraction was significant, as well as that of zircon and rutile.[2] These minerals were recovered from beach sands by a private commercial firm called National Lead Company, directed by Henry Holland Buckman and George A. Pritchard. During World War I titanium was a component of poison gas, and therefore a strategic mineral.
After the war, mineral demand dropped, so the National Lead Company changed its focus to building a resort community. The name of the community was changed to Ponte Vedra, apparently after the city of Pontevedra, Galicia, (Spain). The actual reason is unknown, but there was a rumor that one of the developers read a newspaper article that erroneously claimed Christopher Columbus was born there.[3]
In the early 1920s, the National Lead Company had built a 9-hole golf course and 12-room clubhouse constructed of logs for the use of their employees.[4] After the company left Ponte Vedra, that real estate became the foundation of the Ponte Vedra Club. Stockton, Whatley, Davin & Co. was a developer of Ponte Vedra Beach in the early 1930s and owned the Ponte Vedra Club.[5]
During World War II the German submarine U-584 debarked four saboteurs at Ponte Vedra as part of the failed Operation Pastorius.[6] The four German spies, all of whom had previously lived in the United States, came ashore on the night of June 16, 1942 carrying explosives and American money.[7][8] After landing they strolled up the beach to Jacksonville Beach, where they caught a city bus to Jacksonville and departed by train for Cincinnati and Chicago. The invaders were captured before they could do any damage. They were tried by a military tribunal and executed.[9]
In 1972 developers broke ground on the 1,100-acre (4.5 km2) Sawgrass development. Around the same time, Deane Beman, the Commissioner of the PGA Tour, was looking for a permanent home for the Tournament Players Championship. Many areas around North Florida were considered. In an attempt to bring positive attention to the area the Sawgrass developers offered a 400-acre (1.6 km2) tract of land to Deane for only $1. He couldn't refuse this One Dollar Deal and so Sawgrass became the home of the Tournament Players Championship and the headquarters for the PGA Tour.
Median household income in Ponte Vedra Beach is $82,688[10], and median family income is $109,181.[11] The population (including surrounding areas) in 2005 was given as 35,400. The Ponte vedra area in known for being a very influential area of North Florida, and boasts one of the best school districts in Florida.[11] Ponte Vedra Beach was 50th on the list of 100 finalists for CNN and Money Magazine's 2005 List of the Best Places to Live. It was the first place in Florida to be named in that year and one of only four areas in the state to make the cut.[11]
The average house costs around mid-500,000 dollars.[12]
Famous past and present residents of Ponte Vedra:
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