The civic and industrial history of Melbourne, Florida — from Cornthwaite Hector's 1878 trading post on Crane Creek, through the 1969 merger with Eau Gallie, to the rise of Florida Tech and the L3Harris aerospace corridor.https://oldmelbourne.com/enhttps://oldmelbourne.com/blog/what-old-melbourne-means/https://oldmelbourne.com/blog/what-old-melbourne-means/Why this site exists, what we mean by 'old,' and the editorial standard we hold ourselves to. Under 1,200 words.Wed, 28 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe Old Melbourne TeamEditorialhttps://oldmelbourne.com/blog/melbournes-black-community-booker-t-settlement/https://oldmelbourne.com/blog/melbournes-black-community-booker-t-settlement/The historic Black neighborhood west of the FEC tracks, organized around the Booker T. Washington School and a network of Black businesses and churches that operated under segregation from the 1890s through the 1960s.Tue, 27 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe Old Melbourne TeamCommunitieshttps://oldmelbourne.com/blog/l3harris-and-melbourne-defense-industry/https://oldmelbourne.com/blog/l3harris-and-melbourne-defense-industry/From Radiation Inc. in 1950 through Harris Corp. through the 2019 L3 merger, Melbourne has been the headquarters of one of America's mid-sized defense contractors for seven decades. Here's the corporate history and the city's stake in it.Mon, 26 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe Old Melbourne TeamIndustryhttps://oldmelbourne.com/blog/front-street-pre-1969-downtown/https://oldmelbourne.com/blog/front-street-pre-1969-downtown/Melbourne's pre-merger downtown ran along Front Street and New Haven Avenue, with hardware stores, drugstores, banks, the FEC depot, and a working commercial culture that mostly disappeared in the 1970s suburban shift.Sun, 25 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe Old Melbourne TeamNeighborhoodshttps://oldmelbourne.com/blog/melbourne-hurricanes-2004/https://oldmelbourne.com/blog/melbourne-hurricanes-2004/In a single twenty-day stretch in September 2004, Hurricanes Frances and Jeanne hit Melbourne with sustained tropical-storm conditions that lasted over a hundred hours combined. Here's what happened and how the city rebuilt.Sat, 24 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe Old Melbourne TeamWeatherhttps://oldmelbourne.com/blog/melbourne-fishing-village-1880s-1920s/https://oldmelbourne.com/blog/melbourne-fishing-village-1880s-1920s/Before the citrus boom and well before the railroad, Melbourne earned its money on mullet, trout, and the Indian River fishery. Here's the working economy of a coastal Florida town in its first forty years.Fri, 23 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe Old Melbourne TeamWaterfronthttps://oldmelbourne.com/blog/suntree-viera-planned-communities/https://oldmelbourne.com/blog/suntree-viera-planned-communities/Suntree opened in 1973. Viera began in the late 1980s. Together they account for tens of thousands of homes built on what was DuPont cattle ranch into the 2010s and 2020s. Here's how Brevard's north county exploded.Thu, 22 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe Old Melbourne TeamCommunitieshttps://oldmelbourne.com/blog/brevard-symphony-orchestra-1954/https://oldmelbourne.com/blog/brevard-symphony-orchestra-1954/Started in a Melbourne living room as a chamber group, the Brevard Symphony Orchestra has performed continuously for over seventy years. Here's the founding, the growth, and the role of a small-city orchestra in a county that didn't seem to need one.Wed, 21 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe Old Melbourne TeamCulturehttps://oldmelbourne.com/blog/william-gleason-and-melbourne-land-deals/https://oldmelbourne.com/blog/william-gleason-and-melbourne-land-deals/Florida's impeached lieutenant governor used federal land-agent appointments to assemble 50,000+ acres along the Indian River. Here's how the Gleason holdings shaped Brevard County for a century.Tue, 20 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe Old Melbourne TeamFoundinghttps://oldmelbourne.com/blog/melbourne-airport-1928-to-today/https://oldmelbourne.com/blog/melbourne-airport-1928-to-today/Naval Air Station Melbourne trained Navy pilots through WWII at what's now the Orlando Melbourne International Airport. The transition from grass strip to commercial gateway is one of Brevard's quiet success stories.Mon, 19 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe Old Melbourne TeamInfrastructurehttps://oldmelbourne.com/blog/eau-gallie-arts-district-egad/https://oldmelbourne.com/blog/eau-gallie-arts-district-egad/Forty years after the 1969 merger erased Eau Gallie as a political entity, the arts district called EGAD revived the old commercial core as a cultural neighborhood. Here's how a 2010s campaign rebuilt the identity.Sun, 18 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe Old Melbourne TeamNeighborhoodshttps://oldmelbourne.com/blog/indian-river-lagoon-at-melbourne/https://oldmelbourne.com/blog/indian-river-lagoon-at-melbourne/The lagoon at Melbourne is among the most degraded reaches of the Indian River system. Here's the seagrass collapse, the nutrient sources, and the recovery work still underway.Sat, 17 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe Old Melbourne TeamEnvironmenthttps://oldmelbourne.com/blog/melbourne-beach-causeway/https://oldmelbourne.com/blog/melbourne-beach-causeway/Melbourne Beach has its own causeway, separate from the main Melbourne Causeway, and the distinction trips up visitors. Here's why both exist and how the barrier-island roads developed.Fri, 16 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe Old Melbourne TeamInfrastructurehttps://oldmelbourne.com/blog/eau-gallie-schools-pre-merger/https://oldmelbourne.com/blog/eau-gallie-schools-pre-merger/Eau Gallie ran its own school district from 1907 through 1960. Here are the buildings, the consolidation, and what got preserved when the schools moved to county control.Thu, 15 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe Old Melbourne TeamSchoolshttps://oldmelbourne.com/blog/crane-creek-shipyard-wwii/https://oldmelbourne.com/blog/crane-creek-shipyard-wwii/Wooden 110-foot submarine chasers built in part on Crane Creek between 1942 and 1944. Here's the contract trail, the construction reality, and what the war did to Melbourne's small-boat economy.Wed, 14 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe Old Melbourne TeamWaterfronthttps://oldmelbourne.com/blog/melbourne-village-planned-community-1946/https://oldmelbourne.com/blog/melbourne-village-planned-community-1946/A decentralist utopian project founded in 1946 by Ralph Borsodi's followers, Melbourne Village still exists as a separately incorporated town inside the urbanized south Brevard county. Here's how it happened and what it became.Tue, 13 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe Old Melbourne TeamCommunitieshttps://oldmelbourne.com/blog/melbourne-causeway-path-to-the-beach/https://oldmelbourne.com/blog/melbourne-causeway-path-to-the-beach/From a wooden 1925 toll causeway to the modern two-span concrete crossing, the Melbourne Causeway is how the mainland city reaches its beach. Here's the construction history.Mon, 12 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe Old Melbourne TeamInfrastructurehttps://oldmelbourne.com/blog/melbourne-railroad-arrival-1893/https://oldmelbourne.com/blog/melbourne-railroad-arrival-1893/Henry Flagler's Florida East Coast Railway reached Melbourne in 1893 and changed the place from a four-day sailing trip out of Jacksonville into an overnight ride. Here's what arrived with the tracks.Sun, 11 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe Old Melbourne TeamInfrastructurehttps://oldmelbourne.com/blog/florida-institute-of-technology-1958/https://oldmelbourne.com/blog/florida-institute-of-technology-1958/Brevard Engineering College opened in a Quonset hut in 1958 to teach evening classes to the engineers working at Cape Canaveral. Sixty-plus years later it's a research university with 9,000 students.Sat, 10 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe Old Melbourne TeamInstitutionshttps://oldmelbourne.com/blog/henegar-center-1919/https://oldmelbourne.com/blog/henegar-center-1919/Melbourne High School opened in 1919 as a yellow-brick neoclassical statement. Eighty years later it was abandoned, condemned, and almost lost. Here's the building, the rescue, and the second life as a 580-seat performing arts hall.Fri, 09 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe Old Melbourne TeamCivichttps://oldmelbourne.com/blog/1969-melbourne-eau-gallie-merger/https://oldmelbourne.com/blog/1969-melbourne-eau-gallie-merger/Two adjacent Florida cities, separate schools and separate police, voted to combine in 1969. Here's why it happened, how close it came to failing, and what Melbourne is still living with.Thu, 08 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe Old Melbourne TeamMergerhttps://oldmelbourne.com/blog/eau-gallie-founding-1860s/https://oldmelbourne.com/blog/eau-gallie-founding-1860s/How a Reconstruction-era Florida official named William H. Gleason picked a stretch of pine flatwoods on the Indian River and put a town on it before Melbourne had a post office.Wed, 07 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe Old Melbourne TeamFoundinghttps://oldmelbourne.com/blog/crane-creek-working-waterfront/https://oldmelbourne.com/blog/crane-creek-working-waterfront/Boat-building, citrus shipping, mullet fishing, and the seventy-year stretch when Melbourne's tidal creek was a paying industrial address.Tue, 06 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe Old Melbourne TeamWaterfronthttps://oldmelbourne.com/blog/hectors-and-the-melbourne-name/https://oldmelbourne.com/blog/hectors-and-the-melbourne-name/How an Australian family named a Florida town after their adopted city, and what the Hector papers say about why Cornthwaite picked Crane Creek over a dozen other open Indian River frontages.Mon, 05 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe Old Melbourne TeamFoundinghttps://oldmelbourne.com/blog/melbourne-founding-1878-1888-incorporation/https://oldmelbourne.com/blog/melbourne-founding-1878-1888-incorporation/How a Cornthwaite Hector tent on Crane Creek in 1878 became an incorporated city ten years later, and why the name points to Australia instead of England.Sun, 04 Jan 2026 00:00:00 GMTThe Old Melbourne TeamFounding