You'll get more out of American Beach if you know why it exists. Under segregation, African Americans were kept off most of Florida's beaches, and this community on the south end of Amelia Island was created to give them one. In 1935 the Pension Bureau of Jacksonville's Afro-American Life Insurance Company bought 33 acres of shorefront here. The company's president, A. L. Lewis, hosted employee outings on the beach, lots went on sale to the wider Black community in 1940, and later purchases grew the community to 216 acres.
After World War II it turned into a resort. Motels, guest houses, restaurants and nightclubs opened, among them the A. L. Lewis Motel and the Rendezvous, and excursion buses brought day-trippers from nearby Black communities. Then 1964 hit twice. Hurricane Dora damaged or destroyed many homes and businesses that September, and the Civil Rights Act opened other beaches to Black travelers. The crowds thinned, and most of the resort businesses closed.
What you can visit today:
- NaNa, the 8.5-acre sand dune at the center of the community. Activist MaVynee Betsch, the "Beach Lady," worked to protect it, and it's now National Park Service land within the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve, with exhibit panels on the beach's history.
- The A. L. Lewis Museum at 1600 Julia Street, which opened in 2014 and is open Friday through Sunday. Check its site for current hours.
- The beach itself, with restrooms at the county's Burney Park.
The original 33 acres are on the National Register of Historic Places. Most land here is still private, and the Park Service asks visitors to respect residents' privacy. The Evans Rendezvous building isn't open for tours.
If you own a home here, Dora is the local reminder that hurricane season is real on the south end, and hurricane prep covers the work before, during and after a storm. The American Beach area page goes further into owning in the neighborhood.