LIVING HISTORY
A REGION DIVIDED
10
VERO AT 100
INDIAN RIVER COUNTY MAIN LIBRARY ARCHIVES, INDIAN RIVER COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
The Vero Theatre opened October 1924 on 14th Avenue in Vero Beach and was the center of controversy when the sheriff raided the theater four times from
February to March 1925 for breaking Sunday “blue laws.”
The revolt of citizens in Vero Beach helped
create Indian River and Martin counties
in a break from St. Lucie
BY PAMELA J. COOPER
After much debate and quite a bit of rancor among
citizens and politicians alike, Indian River County
was born in 1925 through state legislation that
carved both Indian River to the north and Martin
to the south out of St. Lucie County, leaving three separate
counties in the place of one. Local legend has it that the
forced Sunday closing of the four-month-old Vero Theatre
(later the Florida Theatre and now Theatre Plaza) on 14th
Avenue in 1925 was the reason many Vero Beach citizens and
officials demanded the creation of a new county. However,
complex issues involving state law, moral codes and alleged
corruption played major roles in the separation.
LAW AND DISORDER
Sheriff James R. Merritt of St. Lucie County was a key
figure in raids made at the Vero Theatre because it illegally
remained open on Sundays. The sheriff from 1922 to 1929, he
was known for his tough law-and-order pursuit of people in
violation of the law. Arrests for possession or sale of alcohol
were common. A 1923 government bulletin praised St.
Lucie County for taking “quick action against law violators,”
according to the Vero Press. A month after the bulletin was
published, the sheriff killed an ex-prizefighter known as
“The Big Swede” for allegedly drawing his gun. In a dying
statement, the fighter declared he had no gun, but Merritt >>