BEACHES
86
IRC MAIN LIBRARY
The Dolphinettes, a synchronized swimming group, pose with dignitaries at
Jaycee Beach Park.
turned misfortune into opportunity and turned the building into
an officers club for the naval air station where Dodgertown is.
From the deck of the Ocean Grill, German submarines were seen
just a few hundred yards offshore.
At the end of the war the officers left and the restaurant reopened
City of Vero Beach 1919-2019 VeroBeach100.org
to the public. After several management changes the
Roplogle family moved from Milwaukee in 1965 to operate the grill
and today a second generation of the same family is at the helm.
BEAUTY PRESERVED
The beachside continued to be developed through the 1940s
and ’50s with careful planning to maintain its beauty. In 1947,
Mayor Alex MacWilliam designated an island in the Indian River
as a memorial park to honor local servicemen. A walking bridge
was built to connect it to the barrier island and in 1964 Memorial
Island was officially dedicated to the war dead. Wayside Park was
created when the new Merrill P. Barber Bridge opened in 1951
and was later named Alex MacWilliam Park and Jaycee Beach Park
was completed on the ocean in 1958.
With all the recreational improvements, a few restaurants and
hotels and even a smattering of retail shops on the island, it was
time for the real estate boom of the ’50s.
FLORIDA PHOTOGRAPHIC COLLECTION
Children frolic in the surf on Vero Beach in the 1930s.
>>
/www.angpools.com
/VeroBeach100.org