LIVING HISTORY
HISTORIC PIER, HOMESTEAD
NOW A PUBLIC TREASURE
Messages scrawled on the side of Jones Pier shed tells boaters the daily rate is $10 and electricity is $3 but the amenity is “iffy.” Mileage is posted to the
CVS store (four miles south), the Disney Resort (two and a half miles north) and other destinations boaters might need.
When a pioneer settler named Seaborn Jones
22
cleared out some jungle along a thin stretch of
the Indian River known as the Narrows in 1889,
he had the area pretty much to himself. He
planted vegetables and citrus and also scraped out a living
selling mullet from the river for two cents a pound to feed
workers building Henry Flagler’s railroad on the other side
of the river.
For more than a century, Jones and his descendants lived on
the homestead in what is now Indian River County. The property,
with a simple house built about 1921, a cottage and the
iconic Jones Pier, borders Jungle Trail, a nationally designated
historic greenway on the barrier island. The homestead is a
picture-perfect vista of Old Florida, with lovely sunset views
ED DRONDOSKI PHOTOS
across the river and coconut palms and tropical vines that
thrive in the temperate riverfront setting. It’s also a striking
departure from the luxury homes in gated neighborhoods that
now back up to Jungle Trail from one end to the other and, until
recent years, seemed ready to close in on the Jones property.
Jones’ grandson, Richard Milton Jones, told an oral history
interviewer a few years ago that developers were “waving
checks” at him in an effort to get him to sell his property to them.
But Jones, a widower with no children, decided to sell the
16 acres to the county for use as a preserve and historic site.
The price was $6.7 million. The county took possession after
Jones died in 2011 at the age of 92. Caretakers were hired to
live in Jones’ house while the county prepared to make the
property accessible to the public. The dock is being repaired
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BY JANIE GOULD