Writing
Notes, essays, and research from Old Melbourne.
- Industry
Harris Corporation in Melbourne: Radiation Inc. to L3Harris
Harris Corporation reached Melbourne through Radiation Inc., founded at the airport in 1950, and moved its headquarters here in 1978. L3Harris is still here.
- Editorial
What 'Old Melbourne' means
What this site covers: Melbourne and Eau Gallie from the freedmen who settled on Crane Creek in 1867 and the 1888 town charter, through the railroad, the river trades and the space-age boom, to the 1969 consolidation of the two cities.
- Neighborhoods
Front Street, the 1919 fire and the move to New Haven Avenue
Melbourne's first business district grew up north of Crane Creek along Front Street in the 1890s. A 1919 fire destroyed the commercial district along First Street, and by 1923 a new downtown was rising along Melbourne and New Haven Avenues, with auto businesses along the Dixie Highway.
- Weather
Frances and Jeanne in Melbourne, September 2004
Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne came ashore at the same spot on Hutchinson Island three weeks apart in September 2004. Jeanne's strongest sustained wind measured anywhere, 79 knots, was recorded at the National Weather Service office in Melbourne.
- Waterfront
Fish, ice and the railroad: Melbourne and Eau Gallie's working river, 1890s to 1920s
After the 1894-95 freezes, commercial fishing helped carry Melbourne and Eau Gallie. The railroad shipped fish north packed in ice; James W. Rossetter ran an Indian River fish company out of Eau Gallie from 1902; and Florida Power and Light built an ice plant on the Dixie Highway in the 1920s to serve the fishing fleet and the growers.
- Founding
William H. Gleason: the Reconstruction lieutenant governor who built Eau Gallie
William H. Gleason became Florida's first elected lieutenant governor in 1868, was ruled out of office by the state Supreme Court in 1869, and spent the rest of his life developing land. He bought 16,000 acres on the Indian River in 1870, platted Eau Gallie in 1884, and died there in 1902.
- Environment
The Indian River Lagoon at Melbourne: the 2011 blooms and after
In 2011 the Indian River Lagoon had two algal blooms at once, and the line between them ran through Eau Gallie: the record superbloom to the north and a lesser bloom from Eau Gallie south past Melbourne. Seagrass loss followed, and later the manatee die-off and the county's lagoon tax.
- Infrastructure
The railroad reaches Eau Gallie and Melbourne, 1893
Henry Flagler's railway reached Eau Gallie on May 20, 1893, and its first engine arrived on June 24; a ticket from Jacksonville cost $7. Eau Gallie was the end of the line for a time, and the tracks reached Melbourne months later.
- Institutions
Florida Tech's start: Brevard Engineering College, 1958
Florida Institute of Technology began in 1958 as Brevard Engineering College, the idea of Jerome P. Keuper, an RCA physicist on the Cape's missile range. Its first evening classes for missile-range engineers were held in rented rooms at Eau Gallie Junior High, starting September 22, 1958.
- Merger
The 1969 Melbourne-Eau Gallie merger
Melbourne and Eau Gallie grew side by side for eighty years and, by 1960, were nearly the same size. A 1966 study for NASA singled out their separate water plants on Lake Washington as an example of a divided county. In 1969 Eau Gallie was consolidated into Melbourne.
- Founding
Eau Gallie's founding: John Houston, William Gleason and the 1884 plat
Eau Gallie's first settler, John C. Houston, arrived in 1859. William H. Gleason bought 16,000 acres in 1870 and named the place, it was the Brevard County seat from 1874 to 1879, and Gleason laid out the town plat in 1884. It merged into Melbourne in 1969.
- Founding
Melbourne's founding: Crane Creek's freedmen, the 1886 plat and the 1888 town
The first settlers at Crane Creek were freedmen who came in 1867. William Camp filed Melbourne's first plat in 1886, and the Town of Melbourne was incorporated on December 22, 1888, named for its first postmaster, Cornthwaite John Hector, said to have come from Melbourne, Australia.