New Smyrna Beach

New Smyrna Beach carries one of the longest European settlement histories on Florida's east coast. In 1768, Scottish physician Dr. Andrew Turnbull established the colony of New Smyrna — named for his wife's birthplace in what is now Izmir, Turkey — importing roughly 1,400 indentured laborers, primarily from Minorca, Greece, and Italy, to cultivate indigo, sugarcane, and corn along the coast. The colony collapsed by 1777 under financial strain and poor conditions, but the Minorcan settlers who survived became foundational figures in the early settlement of St. Augustine and Volusia County. The irrigation canals Turnbull's colonists dug are still visible in the landscape.

Modern development took shape in the late 19th and early 20th centuries when the Florida East Coast Railway and the Intracoastal Waterway made New Smyrna a viable distribution point for citrus production. The mainland grew methodically while the barrier island remained relatively underdeveloped through much of the 20th century, which is precisely why the beach-side streetscape today retains a low-rise, low-density character that is rare among Florida coastal cities. The Atlantic Center for the Arts, established in 1982, formalized what had already been developing organically — a community that attracts working artists, independent thinkers, and people who genuinely prefer substance over spectacle.

The 2010s brought sustained pressure from buyers priced out of other Florida coastal markets, and the late 2010s and early 2020s saw a pronounced property boom, particularly on the island. Despite price appreciation, New Smyrna Beach has held its identity more successfully than most Florida coastal towns of comparable size.