DOWNTOWN
GROWING PAINS
When Vero was formally incorporated in 1919, the city council
named A.W. Young, grandfather of City Councilman Tony Young,
as its first mayor. The first newspaper, Vero Press, started publishing
Beach Journal, was started by John F. Schumann in1926. Then
in 1927 he merged the two newspapers into the Vero Beach
Press Journal. It operated for years in the same location south of
Pocahontas Park on 21st Street until it was moved to modern new
headquarters on U.S. 1. The paper was sold by his grandson, John
J. Schumann Jr., to the E.W. Scripps Co. in 1997. The original Press
Journal building is the home to Ironside Press.
Also in 1919, one of Vero’s most admired city fathers, Alex Mac-
William, arrived from Cleveland, Ohio. He came for his health after
surviving a mustard gas attack in World War I and stayed to leave
a lasting mark on the community.
Among his accomplishments, MacWilliam helped create and
name Indian River County; created the Indian River County Mosquito
Control Board; served as mayor for 18 years; was a state legislator
for five terms; introduced building-height restrictions; helped bring
commercial air service and the Brooklyn Dodgers to Vero; created
Memorial Island and what would become Riverside Park during
Army Corps of Engineers dredging operations on the Indian River
Lagoon; and had the legislature set aside money for the original
Barber Bridge, which opened in 1951. The popular MacWilliam Park
was created in his honor.
In 1925, Indian River County and the City of Vero Beach were
76
as a weekly in September of that year. A rival paper, the Vero
created. Irene Redstone, who moved to the area that year and
lived until she was a 104, recalled, “My uncle, B.T. Redstone, son of
C.G., was the last mayor of Vero and the first mayor of Vero Beach.”
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
The name change came after a wooden bridge was opened
that year connecting the mainland and barrier island. Also in that
year an incident occurred that is legendary in Vero’s history. After
officials from St. Lucie County closed down Vero’s only movie
theater one Sunday for operating in violation of county blue laws,
a large delegation of city leaders visited Tallahassee requesting
approval to create Indian River County. The request was approved
and Vero Beach became the county seat.
That theater closed in 1985 after 61 years, but the building it
was housed in is part of today’s Theater Plaza on 14th Avenue. In
fact, the east side of 14th Avenue, from Vero Furniture Mart north
to 21st Street, has been restored to its original 1920s look.
Pocahontas Park is still central to downtown as is the Pocahontas
Building built in 1926. The old county courthouse next door,
which was built in 1937 during the Great Depression and served
from then until the current county courthouse opened in 1998,
is known as the Courthouse Executive Center. One of the city’s
historical figures, attorney James T. Vocelle, helped secure federal
funding in 1934 to build the courthouse in the county he helped
create back in 1925. His son, County Judge Louis B. Vocelle,
helped design its replacement. His grandson, Louis B. Vocelle Jr.,
practices law in Vero Beach.
City of Vero Beach 1919-2019 VeroBeach100.org
PHIL REID
Farmer’s Bank opened in 1914 and was replaced with another building in 1925 that is today the Vero Furniture Mart.
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