Red House, is built on Tupelo Street. The house serves as the original sales office.
35 important notes and historical happenings that made Seaside what it is today
1981
Seaside’s first house, the Red House, is built on Tupelo Street. The house serves as the original sales office.
1982
The Seaside Institute opens. Its purpose is to document the founding and development of the community of Seaside, which is widely considered the birthplace of new urbanism.
1984
Started by Seaside co-founder Daryl Davis, Perspicasity opens as a Saturday market offering shrimp, fresh baked bread and produce.
1988
The first six Honeymoon Cottages, designed by Scott Merrill, are built. Inspired by Thomas Jefferson’s honeymoon cottage, they are built into a hill so that it appears to be one story from the lawn above and two stories from the hillside below.
1988
Pizitz Home & Cottage opens as the town’s stylish home décor shop.
1988
Dawson’s Yogurt & Fudgeworks opens, just in time for Seaside’s Independence Day celebrations.
1989
Modica Market opens as Seaside’s gourmet grocery store, with three family generations to continue the tradition of providing top quality foods and Southern hospitality.
1990
Suevaneer’s (now called Seaside Classic) opens.
1990
The Seeing Red Wine Festival, the only event of its kind in the South Walton area, is a forerunner to other fine wine tasting festivals that follow.
1992
4Kids (now called Seaside Kids) opens as the original children’s store, with fun fashions, toys and accessories.
1993
The first Seaside Prize is awarded to Vincent Scully, Andrés Duany, and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk.
1993
Escape to Create (E2C) begins as a multidisciplinary artist residency program, offering two-month-long creative retreats for emerging and established artists.
1994
Following the architectural accolades for the first group of Honeymoon Cottages on the east side of town, the second set of cottages on the west side is built.
1994
Bud & Alley’s Waterfront Restaurant premiers the Rooftop Bar, where customers have the best view in town of the Gulf’s most spectacular sunsets, heralded each evening by the ringing of a brass bell.
1994
Airstream Row opens with Frostbites, and will eventually feature a line of Airstream trailers that serve as tiny restaurants.
1995
Hurricane Opal ravages Northwest Florida with 115-mph winds and a storm surge of 8-14 feet. Yet Seaside is virtually undamaged, thanks to the town plan of building Gulf-side cottages behind the sand dunes.
1996
The Seaside Neighborhood School opens with 36 students in grades 5 through 8, two faculty members and one administrator.
1996
Filming begins for “The Truman Show,” with many locals acting as extras for the movie.
2001
The Seaside Repertory Theatre (The REP) is founded as Northwest Florida’s premier professional theater company.
2001
The Seaside Interfaith Chapel is built. The church board asked only that the design serve all members of the community, that it have an element that could be seen from a distance, and that it is made of materials characteristic of the region.
2007
Seaside Beach opens, adding to the group of Seaside Style shops.
2008
The Seaside Farmers Market opens, offering locally grown vegetables, fresh baked bread, grass-fed beef and other goods.
2009
The Shrimp Shack opens on the Gulf side of town, servingfresh shrimp and delicious lobster rolls.
2012
Seaside founder and patron of the arts, Daryl Davis invites Alpharetta Dance Theatre to perform the first Nutcracker in Seaside. And with the second year’s performance, Davis makes the Nutcracker a Seaside annual holiday tradition.
2013
The Academic Village opens, allowing the Seaside Institute to focus on its mission of providing continued leadership in the multi-disciplinary field of new urbanism and educating other practitioners in the fields of planning, architecture and development.
2013
The Seacoast Collegiate High School campus opens at capacity, with 80 students in grades 9 and 10. In 2014 grade 11 is added. Grade 12 is added the following year.
2013
Seaside is named The World’s Best Beach for Families by Travel + Leisure magazine.
2014
Seaside announces a new, private-label collection of wines from Kokomo Winery in Sonoma County, Calif., called The Seaside Wine Project. Hand-selected by Seaside founders Robert and Daryl Davis, there are seven varietals sold by Seaside merchants.
2015
Seaside is awarded the Travel Channel’s “World’s Best Beach for Families.”
2016
Seaside is featured on the Cooking Channel’s “Emeril’s Florida” and on “10 Towns that Changed America,” airing on PBS.
2016
The Seaside Visitors Bureau and Information Center opens in the Holl Building.