Fairpoint Peninsula
The Fairpoint Peninsula is located in Northwest Florida between Santa Rosa Sound (the location of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway's route through the region) and Pensacola Bay.
History
In 1559, Tristan de Luna arrived in Pensacola Bay with 500 Spanish soldiers. The first settlement was abandoned due to diseases, disasters and hostile Indians, but other Europeans followed. In the late 1700's, the British occupied the peninsula and named it Town Point.
By the early 1930's, bridges between Pensacola and Gulf Breeze and Gulf Breeze and Pensacola Beach were completed. The current route of U.S. Highway 98 was also completed, operated as a toll road between 1939 and 1946. [1] Gulf Breeze's namesake was established in 1936 when the Gulf Breeze Cottages and Store opened a post office branch where Live Oaks Plaza now stands.
The Naval Live Oaks Reservation was the home of America's first experimental tree farm, established by President John Quincy Adams in 1828. It was established to provide raw material to support shipbuilding for the Navy in the area. Today, Naval Live Oaks is part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore, a unit of the National Park Service.
Other Information
Communities located on the Fairpoint Peninsula:
- Gulf Breeze, Florida - Population: 6,333
- Navarre, Florida - Population: 20,967