The Old Vero Beach Train Station and Museum

2336 14th Avenue
Vero Beach, Florida 32960
Phone: 772-778-3435

www.

irchistorical.org
Hours: 1:00 - 4:00 Monday through Friday

AT A GLANCE: The Old Vero Beach Train Station and Museum
Date of Visit:	Saturday, March 17, 2017
Parking	On-street parking
Amount of time needed to peruse exhibits:	10 minutes.
Amount of time needed for gift shop	5 minutes
The “must have” souvenir	A railroad engineer’s cap
Online shopping	Yes, and it’s run by the Indian River County Historical Society Gift Shop. If you see something you like it, buy it at the museum. Link: http://www.irchistorical.org/Gift-Shop-Indian-River-Historical-Society.html
Kid friendly shopping	Definitely
Kid friendly	Yes
Dress code	Casual shorts, t-shirts (no slogans) and sandals are perfectly acceptable, as well as dressing up in fancy summer attire. Sassy hats flourish here.
Be sure to…..	1. Call before you go to verify hours or that someone will be there to unlock the door 2. Ask to see the model train in motion.
Nearby/other establishments to visit	Pelican Island, the nation’s first wildlife refuge McKee Gardens McLarty Mel Fisher Pocahontas Park Indian River Citrus Museum.
Walkability, general downtown area / amount of traffic	There are restaurants in the few blocks around the Train Museum.
Safety, in terms of type and number of crimes committed in general area	This is a generally safe area. However, practice good sense and stow your valuables out of sight and lock your car.

MISSION STATEMENT

The Indian River County Historical Society is chartered to
preserve, restore and maintain in a cooperative effort
the historical resources of the county and state.

Besides Winter Park, Vero Beach is another town that I love in Florida. One of the only differences is that Vero Beach isn’t a walkable town in the same sense as Winter Park. However, it’s a vibrant art community, the seat of Indian River County government, bustling with ballets, live plays, and fine arts. This vibrant community has everything that a visitor could want. Not only does Vero Beach routinely host new art exhibitions, they have three walkable shopping areas. An odd thing about this town, given all of its finery and such, is also home to an outlet mall located just off I-95. I hope that’s not the only reason to visit Vero Beach, because it offers much more. Whatever you want, Vero Beach has you covered.

Sign out front of train station

To be honest, reading my blog up to this point takes more time than an actual visit to the Train Station and Museum. It’s not a “destination” museum, but a fun add-on. Visit the Indian River Citrus Museum, and then walk two blocks to the Train Station. Pocahontas Park separates the two facilities and offers delightful shade to sit and rest a bit. Public restrooms are on the north side of the park, housed in a cute building that’s almost as big as my house.

In my opinion, these three blocks reveal Vero Beach’s brand of artistic creativity, culture and education. The Old Vero Beach Train Station and Museum showcases these characteristics in a small museum in a polite and courteous way. The following charming quote is from the Visit Florida website regarding the museum:

“These tracks were built in the late 1800’s.
But there was no station here —
you had to “whistle stop” the train so it would stop to pick you up —
until Florida pioneer Henry Flagler built a stopping place in 1903.”

http://www.visitflorida.com/en-us/cities/vero-beach/vero-beach-old-train-station-and-museum.html

Vero Beach showcases opportunities for educational, cultural, and environmental opportunities. Spend a long weekend here, if you can, and visit McKee Gardens, Vero Beach Art Museum, the Indian River Citrus Museum, and Schacht Groves while there.

The back story of the Old Vero Beach Train Station includes commerce, military, and agriculture. And money. Lots of money. The northern part of Henry Flagler’s Florida East Coast (FEC) Railway began in St. Augustine, located 75 miles south of the Florida / Georgia border, on the Atlantic Ocean. The mainland portion of it ran about 350 miles south, running parallel to the Atlantic Ocean coastline. The FEC mainly hauled citrus products prior to the 1930s, and were a boon to farmers, giving them the opportunity to ship their citrus products and other crops north to waiting markets. Farmers weren’t the only ones to benefit, though. Businessmen and land developers swarmed the area buying land the lay near the FEC Railway. They had the intention of building hotels and high-end shops near the railway to entice wealthy northern visitors to stop and spend money. Numerous railway stations appeared, in hopes that they would lure these well-to-do folks to stop. After a time, these various stations became the central meeting place of a community for Florida’s southeast coast, which had been fairly deserted at that time. The Vero Beach station was one of the last depots built by Henry Flagler during Florida’s boom times in the early 1900s.

Four decades later, Vero Beach housed a naval air station during World War II in the 1940s, and was at a constant hum transporting troops and navy freight, along with oranges from the Indian River area. Tourists began riding the FEC railway in the 1950s and 1960s, and it seemed as if all was well. It was…until the labor disagreements of 1968. Sadly, passenger service was halted along the entire FEC in 1968 because of those disagreements. Freight continued until 1979, until that, too was terminated. The tracks closed, but the railway station at Vero Beach remained, abandoned becoming derelict dilapidated and almost forgotten.

The Indian River County Historical Society came to the rescue in 1984 and purchased the depot from FEC for a sale price of……$1. After three years of renovation and restoration from volunteers, builders, and architects, the railroad reopened as the office of the Historical society, and as a railway museum. The State of Florida nominated the Vero Beach Railroad Station in 1987 for a spot in the National Register of Historical Places. It became the first structure in Indian River County to receive this designation.

“The trains no longer stop in Vero Beach,
but the first railway station that has served the city through pioneer times,
boom and depression
and two world wars,
is still here.”

http://www.visitflorida.com/en-us/cities/vero-beach/vero-beach-old-train-station-and-museum.html

http://www.saatchigallery.com/museums/full-museum-details/permanent_collection/ac_id/516

By the way, there is a wooden whistle for sale at the museum to channel your inner engineer.