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This project is for those who were born, lived or died in Titusville, Brevard County, Florida.
Official Website
This community was originally called Sand Point, and a post office was established in 1859, although it closed a few months later. Henry T. Titus arrived in 1867, intending to build a town on land owned by his wife, Mary Hopkins Titus, daughter of a prominent planter from Darien, Georgia. He laid out roads and in 1870 erected the Titus House, a large, one-story hotel next to a saloon. He also donated land for four churches and a courthouse, the latter an effort to get the town designated as county seat.
Local history says that Titus challenged Capt. Clark Rice to a game of dominoes to decide the name of the town. Titus won the game, and Sand Point was renamed as Titusville in 1873. The city was incorporated in 1887, the year construction began on St. Gabriel's Episcopal Church, as listed in the 1972 National Register of Historic Places. At one point, Titusville was nicknamed "The City of Churches".
The Atlantic Coast, St. Johns & Indian River Railroad reached Titusville in 1885, constructed from Enterprise, Florida. It was connected by a spur line to the Jacksonville, Tampa & Key West Railroad at Enterprise Junction in present-day DeBary, Florida. Henry Flagler extended his Florida East Coast Railroad south from Daytona, building a station at Titusville in 1892. Many tourists arrived by railroad to enjoy the mild winter climate.
In addition, the railroad was a means to ship area produce to northern markets, and the Indian River area increasingly became an agricultural and shipping center for pineapple and citrus goods. A wooden bridge was built east to Playalinda Beach in 1922.
In October 1918, Titusville officials were the first in the county to order closed all places of assembly, including schools, churches, and movies, to avoid spreading the Spanish flu.
Beginning in the late 1950s, the growth of Cape Canaveral, and later the Kennedy Space Center on Merritt Island, stimulated growth in the community's economy, population and tourism. The association with the space program led to the city's two nicknames in the 1960s: Space City USA and Miracle City.
Searstown Mall opened in 1966. Miracle City Mall opened in 1968, built on 32 acres. It had 275,000 square feet (25,500 m2) of covered floor space.
The jail at the county courthouse became overcrowded by the 1980s. A new jailhouse was built in Sharpes in 1986.
Computer Shopper was founded in Titusville in 1979 by Glenn Patch, first as a tabloid. It was later expanded as a magazine of over 800 pages per issue. It was published in Titusville until September 1989. That year operations were to be moved to New York City in a joint venture between Patch Communications of Titusville and Ziff Davis.
The A. Max Brewer Bridge, a 65 feet fixed high-level span on SR-406 connecting Titusville to Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and Canaveral National Seashore, opened on February 5, 2011 to replace the former swing bridge built in 1949.
In January 2013, Miracle City Mall closed, a victim of a declining local economy after the termination of the Space Shuttle program in 2012. In addition, county population had moved to the south, and changing shopping habits had adversely affected malls across the country. Demolition of Miracle City Mall occurred February 2015. The site has been redeveloped as a mixed-use outdoor shopping complex called Titus Landing.
Today, the economy is looking up and many people have moved to the city, proving it is a real "Miracle City".
Links
School History of North Brevard County
North Brevard/Titusville History
North Brevard Historical Society & Museum
American Police Hall of Fame & Museum
Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum