World’s Finest Beach, A Brief History of the Jacksonville Beaches offers glimpse into history of the beaches of Northeast Florida.
Written by Donald J. Mabry, a Fletcher Junior-Senior High School graduate and a professor emeritus of history at Mississippi State University, the book draws on many resources to paint a picture of the history and development of the Beaches area.
Broken down into six chapters, World’s Finest Beach explores each significant era in the growth and development of the beaches.
The book looks back to the beginning of the Europeans’ explorations into the area and moves quickly into the early history of Jacksonville and its growth and expansion, noting the impact of the growth of the railroad in the development of both Jacksonville and the Beaches.
Mabry then explores the regions development in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, periods that saw the area develop as a destination for tourists, and then proceeds on through the time frame of the Great Depression through to the onset of World War II and finally into the 1960s through the modern era.
As Mabry moves through the history of the beaches with historical data as well as excerpts from writings by visitors and many historical and modern photographs, the reader is not overwhelmed with dry and overly academic material.
World’s Finest Beach is an interesting and enlightening book about our beaches and the events and people who have shaped the area into what it is today.
