Terry is the best and most popular person here on the island! At Christmas despite the super long…read morelines, she maintains a cheerful disposition and is extremely patient with everyone. A real asset!

Best post office I have ever been to. Terry is always cheerful, helpful, and great at her job…read more Makes you forget about all the sullen postal workers with attitudes you have encountered in the past. Worth driving a distance to avoid getting jerked around.

I like this library its associated with the Indian River State College. There is plenty of seating…read morewith work stations. During the school year seating may be tight, but during the summer theirs plenty of seating. There are plenty of public computers. I would have given the location a 5 but during school workstations are not a commodity.

Fort Capron was a U.S. Army post established in March 1850 by Captain Erastus A. Capron, a U.S…read more Army officer during the Second Seminole War. Fort Capron was built to replace Fort Pierce which burned down in 1843. During the 3rd Seminole War, the log fort provided housing for the soldiers. The fort remained in existence for 8 years and had three commanders. The first commander was Lieutenant Jonathan Ridley, followed by Lieutenant Ambrose Powell Hill who would go on to serve in the confederacy under Stonewall Jackson. General Jesup used Fort Capron along with a string of other forts to drive the Seminoles into the Everglades. The road used by patrols for the military from Fort Capron to Fort Dallas in Miami is known as Military Trail in Palm Beach County. Captain Abner Doubleday, the last commander of the fort evacuated the post on June 14,1858. The civilians who remained in the area around the fort for protection stayed and formed St. Lucie Village. A stone monument in St. Lucie Village marks the site of the fort where Chamberlin Rd. meets the Indian River. The marker is not in the exact spot of the fort which was located a short distance away in a southwest direction. The marker was put in place on July 4, 1925 by a chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

Zora Neale Hurston (January 7, 1891 - January 28, 1960) was an African-American Harlem Renaissance…read moreauthor, folklorist, anthropologist, story teller, dramatist, and filmmaker. She sought to portray the experience and prejudice faced by African Americans in the early 20th century American South. Her most famous novel is Their Eyes Were Watching God which was published in 1937. She also wrote more than 50 short stories, plays, and essays. Hurston was born in Notasulga, Alabama, grew up in Eatonville, Florida, and spent the last two years of her life in Fort Pierce. She passed away in a St. Lucie welfare home after suffering a stroke. She is buried in the Garden of Heavenly Rest. She was largely unrecognized during her lifetime and came to prominence in the 1970's. The Zora Neal Hurston Branch Library was named for the author and is the first stop on the the Zora Neale Hurston Dust Tracks Heritage Trail, a series of 8 stops that were important in the life of Zora Neal Hurston during her time in Fort Pierce. Dust Tracks on a Road is the name of Zora Neal Hurston's autobiography. There is a large kiosk about Hurston outside of the front of the library. The library has a large resource of audio and visual material related to Zora Neal Hurston. On the walls of the library hang Ade Rossman's "Zora Art Series," a series of paintings that were commissioned in 2006 by the St. Lucie County Cultural Affairs Department. The library hosts lectures about topics relating to Hurston. The library also has other materials not related to Hurston that one would expect to find at a public library.

On the campus of Indian River State College you can visit the historic 1910 home of Florida poet…read moreand author Laura Riding Jackson. She was a famous author, critic, poet, and novelist. Laura was born to immigrants on January 16, 1901 in New York City. Her first husband was history graduate student Louis Gottschalk. The couple moved to Kentucky where Laura began to publish her poems in The Fugitive, a literary magazine founded by writers from Vanderbilt University. During this time she began corresponding with an English writer Robert Graves who was also published by the magazine. In 1926 she went to England to work with Graves on his book a Survey of Modern Poetry. That same year her first book of poetry, The Close Chaplet was published. Over the next ten years she published 20 volumes of fiction, essays, and poetry. Laura and Roberts moved to Mallorca and their house became a gathering place of some of the most celebrated writers of the time. The Spanish Civil War caused Laura to return to the United States where she met her next husband Schuyler B. Jackson, a poetry critic for Time magazine. Today Laura Riding Jackson's papers are at her alma mater Cornell and Harvard Universities. In 1968 Laura completed Rational Meaning: A new Foundation for the Definition of Words which she worked on with her husband Schuyler and finished after his death. Laura continued to live in this house until her death on September 2, 1991. The simple but beautiful home is an example of the cracker type of vernacular architecture that was popular in Florida during this time period. The term cracker came from the sound whips would make as pioneers drove cattle. The home was originally built a few miles north of Vero Beach in Wabasso, Florida in a hammock near the railroad tracks. The home features a wide and deep screened in porch with some of the original furniture and lots of oversized windows for cross ventilation to cool the home before air conditioning was a standard feature. Another cooling feature is that the house faces east to catch ocean breezes. The oldest part of the house is the center portion made of Florida pine. In the 1950's Jacksons later added the North bedroom and bathroom and installed indoor plumbing. The second floor of this house was used as a guest room. Laura's bedroom is in the front of the house off of the sitting room where you can see the remains of her personal library. Many of her belongings are still in the room. Like all cracker homes, this house has a tin roof that was pitched so the rain could run off. Today the house is propped off the ground on cinder blocks but when it was built it sat on wood logs. This helped the air to circulate under the house cooling it. Chickens could get protection in this area and when the floor was swept the dirt would fall through the area where the floorboards came together, allowing it to escape from the house. Until 1989, Laura lived in the home without electricity. She relied on kerosene for heat and light and propane for cooking. In the back of the house is a pole barn that was part of the Jackson's organic citrus business. Here they would pack fruit and send it by train up north to their clients. Today it a welcoming area to enjoy a picnic lunch or the area can be reserved by groups. Surrounding the barn is a garden. The home is registered as a Friends of the Library USA National Literary Landmark and is listed on the Florida Literary Map. After Laura Riding Jackson passed away in 1991, a group of individuals created the non-profit Laura (Riding) Jackson Home Preservation Foundation to save the home because of its important connection to literature, history, architecture, and the environment. On August 9, 1994 this home was moved to the Environmental Learning Center. After they decided they wanted to use the land for something else, Indian River State College stepped up and donated the land the house now sits on. On July 14, 2019 the home was moved to it's current location on the Mueller Campus. The Foundation raises the funds to preserve the home. One way they do this is by opening for public tours and requesting a $5 donation. This year the house is open for tours from November through April each year on the second Sunday of each month from 1pm-5pm and every Tuesday from 1pm-5pm. You can also arrange for private tours from the foundation. As a fan of famous literary writers, history, and architecture I really enjoyed my visit to this historical landmark. It is the little touches like the cans in the kitchen cabinet or seeing Laura's actual slippers laid out in front of her bed that make you feel like you stepped back in time.

The Arcade building is a historic building in downtown Ft. Pierce. Built in 1926 in a Spanish…read moreColonial Revival style by architect Willis Irwin, it was the largest commercial building at the time. It acted as the fore runner of the shopping mall. Lots of different businesses were gathered under one roof. The building suffered a fire in the 1950's and a more serious fire the 1980's that damaged a third of the building. Bob Brackett who renovated other buildings in the area took on the task of restoring the Arcade Building and it reopened in 2002. Colorful murals on the outside of the building depict the building's former tenants like Canaday's Drugs and the Ranchland Clothing Store. The Arcade Building was added the National Register of Historic Places on October 12, 2001. Once again it houses retail space on the first floor and offices on the second floor.

Rotary was started Paul Harris, a Chicago attorney who formed the Rotary Club of Chicago on…read moreFebruary 23, 1905 so professionals with different backgrounds could exchange ideas and form lifelong friendships. Through the years Rotary expanded to include humanitarian missions. Today Rotary International is a network of 1.4 million people who work together to promote peace, fight disease, provide clean water, sanitation, and hygiene, save mothers and children, support education, grow local economies, and protect the environment. The original coquina rock Rotary fountain was built on this site in 1931. It was a Public drinking fountain in honor of Charles H. Pettibone, a minister from Colorado who organized the Community Church and the first Rotary club in Vero Beach. Eventually the fountain deteriorated and was torn down. In 2005, the five Rotary clubs of Indian River county came together to create this Centennial Fountain to replace the 1931 fountain and to commemorate the hundredth anniversary of Rotary International. it is now a lovely spot in downtown historic Vero Beach that reminds people of the great work of Rotary International while also serving as a popular backdrop in the photos of the people who come to visit.

We came here for a bluegrass festival and have never attended a venue like this before. We paid…read morefor reserved seating which was center stage. The problem was they packed you in so tight that there was no leg room to move. The sound system was very good. Next time I would just pay for general admission as the seats were fine.