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Seaside Timeline: 35 Important Happenings

Posted on Sep 01, 2016 in Timeline , History , September-October 2016 , 35 Important Notes

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.

Seaside Timeline: 35 Important Happenings

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.