Hobe Sound - Hutchinson Island - Jensen Beach - Jupiter Island - Palm City - Port Salerno - Sewall's Point - Stuart

About the Town:

Hobe Sound is an Atlantic coastal village in southern Martin County. The area’s approximately 12,000 residents take pride in their unspoiled beaches, parks, and championship golf courses. Located 25 miles north of West Palm Beach, the town’s crown jewel, Jonathan Dickinson State Park, is one of Florida’s finest nature preserves, offering more than 11,000 acres of camping, canoeing, boat tours and fishing. Other points of interest include the Hobe Sound Nature Center and the nearby Blowing Rocks Preserve, where breaking waves crash through erosion holes in the Atlantic Coast’s largest Anastasia limestone shoreline, spraying skyward at heights of up to 50 feet.

History:

Hobe Sound is an unincorporated community in southeastern Martin County. Its name is the English rendition of the Spanish work Jove or Jupiter, meaning a body of water and referring to the southern end of the Indian River Lagoon and the nearby Jupiter Inlet.

The area has a long and colorful past starting with the grant of 11,000 acres including the barrier island from King Ferdinand VII of Spain to Don Eusbio Gomez in 1815.

In 1821 when Florida became U.S. territory, Gomez sold most of his land which then passed through several ownerships, all of whom dreamed of founding agrarian communities except for the island, which seems to have been destined as a winter home for the very wealthy.

Hobe Sound and the Town of Jupiter Island are joined at the hip in history, each supporting the other.

The most ambitious plans for Hobe Sound were laid out in 1924 when the Olympia Improvement Company said it would build three cities, Gomez, planned for 20,000 people working small farms and fisheries on the north; Picture City in the center, which would have become what Hollywood is today but for a depression and anti-movie sentiment in the state; and Olympia on the south, another grand community whose streets exist today in the community of Hobe Sound. The Olympia project was to include the barrier island and what is now the Town of Jupiter Island.

No matter the grand plans which failed, Hobe Sound has until recently existed principally to support the wealthy islanders by providing homes for workers, plus shops and repair facilities.

In the process, it has developed some landmarks, such as Harry and the Natives, an eclectic restaurant on Bridge Road and U.S.1; Algozzini’s, a fruit stand and clothing outlet begun during World War II; and Diamond’s Limousine and repair service which provides transportation for many people.

During World War II, it was also the home of the U.S. Army Signal School, a top secret Army base training radar operators that is now Jonathan Dickinson State Park.

Plans for multiple cities, movie-making facilities and so-on may not have panned out, but Hobe Sound is now home to more than 12,000 people, many of whom live in top flight, gated, golf course communities. It is home to the new, private The Pine School, and Hobe Sound Bible College.

Fast Facts:

• Jonathan Dickinson State Park is the second largest state park in Florida.

• The name of Hobe Sound is derived from the Indian “jove or jobe” pronounced “ho-bay”.

• Apollo School, originally named the Olympia School, was built in 1924.

• Hobe Sound National Wildlife Refuge has scrub, dune and mangrove habitats.

• The 7th annual Hobe Sound Festival of the Arts featured over 200 artists.

• Greg Norman, left, opened the Medalist Golf Club here in 1995.

• Hobe Sound Summer Sizzler Fishing Tournament is a popular annual event.

• Hobe Sound Bible College is a private four-year college founded in 1960.

• Camp Murphy, now Jonathan Dickinson State Park, was a WWII Army training base.

• Vince “Trapper” Nelson was known as the “Wild Man of the Loxahatchee”.

Hobe Sound - Hutchinson Island - Jensen Beach - Jupiter Island - Palm City - Port Salerno - Sewall's Point - Stuart