Ponte Vedra Beach is a wealthy

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...

and suburb of

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville ( ) is the most populous city proper in the U.S. state of Florida, located on the Atlantic coast of North Florida, northeastern Florida. It is the county seat of Duval County, Florida, Duval County, with which the City of Jacksonv ...

in St. Johns County, Florida, United States. Located in the Jacksonville metropolitan area, southeast of downtown Jacksonville and north of St. Augustine, it is part of the Jacksonville Beaches area, and is situated on San Pablo Island. The area is known for its

seaside resort A seaside resort is a city, resort town, town, village, or hotel that serves as a Resort, vacation resort and is located on a coast. Sometimes the concept includes an aspect of an official accreditation based on the satisfaction of certain requi ...

s, including the Ponte Vedra Inn and Club, the Lodge and Club, and the Marriott at Sawgrass. It lies within St. Johns County, which is the wealthiest county in Florida. Ponte Vedra Beach is an upper-income tourist resort area best known for its association with golf and is home to the

PGA Tour The PGA Tour (stylized as PGA TOUR by its officials) is the organizer of professional golf tours in North America. It organizes most of the events on the flagship annual series of tournaments also known as the PGA Tour, the PGA Tour Champion ...

and

The Players Championship The Players Championship (commonly known as simply The Players, stylized by the PGA Tour as THE PLAYERS Championship) is an annual golf tournament on the PGA Tour. Originally known as the Tournament Players Championship, it began in 1974. The ...

, hosted at TPC Sawgrass.

History

The area remained sparsely populated through the late 19th century, even as other seaside communities began to develop to the north. Minerals were discovered in 1914, and a community known as Mineral City grew around the mining operations. These minerals, mostly titanium ( ilmenite), zircon, and rutile were recovered from beach sands by the Buckman and Pritchard Mining Company. The National Lead Company bought Buckman and Pritchard in 1921 and discontinued mining as demand dropped after

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

. In 1929 it began to develop the area to be similar to The Cloister in Sea Island, Georgia. Colonel Joseph C. Stehlin, who had been with the company in St. Louis, arrived on January 1, 1929, to manage development. The company wanted a more impressive name than Mineral City for its resort, so Colonel Stehlin and his wife, Elizabeth (''née'' Morton), went to the library in St. Augustine to research various possibilities for a new name. Since Florida had been under Spanish rule, they looked on an old map and found the name

Pontevedra Pontevedra (, ) is a city in the autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, in northwestern Spain. It is the capital of both the ''Pontevedra (comarca), Comarca'' and Province of Pontevedra, and the capital of the Rías Baixas. It is als ...

on the Atlantic coast of Spain at "approximately" the same latitude as Mineral City. (Pontevedra, Spain, however, is over 800 miles farther north at about the same latitude as

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

.) The Galician name of the town was derived from a Roman bridge ("pontis vetera" or "old bridge") that spanned the nearby Lérez River centuries earlier. Colonel Stehlin submitted the name to the National Lead board for approval and Mineral City became Ponte Vedra.

Ponte Vedra Club

In the early 1920s, the National Lead Company built a nine-hole golf course designed by Herbert Bertram Strong, one of the founders of the PGA, plus a 12-room clubhouse constructed of logs for the use of its employees. After the company left the area, that real estate became the foundation of the Ponte Vedra Club. Stockton, Whatley, Davin & Co., a local developer, became the owner of the Ponte Vedra Corporation in July 1934.

World War II

During

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

the debarked four saboteurs at Ponte Vedra as part of the failed Operation Pastorius. The four German spies, all of whom had previously lived in the United States, came ashore on the night of June 16, 1942 carrying explosives and American money. After landing they strolled up the beach to Jacksonville Beach, where they caught a city bus to Jacksonville and departed by train for

Cincinnati Cincinnati ( ; colloquially nicknamed Cincy) is a city in Hamilton County, Ohio, United States, and its county seat. Settled in 1788, the city is located on the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Ri ...

and Chicago. The invaders were captured before they could do any damage. They were tried by a military tribunal and executed.

Tournament Players Club at Sawgrass

In 1972, real estate developers broke ground on the Sawgrass development. In the mid-1970s, Deane Beman, the Commissioner of the PGA golf tour, was looking for a permanent home for the Tournament Players Championship. Many places in northern Florida were being considered. In an attempt to bring positive attention to the area, developer Paul Fletcher offered a tract of land to Beman for $1. Beman could not refuse this ''one dollar deal'' for the future home of

and the headquarters of the

. The Sawgrass Stadium Course has been the permanent home of

since 1982.

Geographics

Ponte Vedra Beach is wholly located east of the Intracoastal Waterway, south of the Duval County line, and north of Vilano Beach. The South Ponte Vedra Beach community is commonly considered to be a part of Ponte Vedra Beach. The Ponte Vedra area includes Ponte Vedra, Ponte Vedra Beach, South Ponte Vedra Beach (an area between the Atlantic and Guana Tolomato Matanzas National Estuarine Research Reserve), Sawgrass, and Palm Valley. In June 2006, the U.S. Postal Service designated an area to the south and southwest of the 32082 area as ''Ponte Vedra'' (as distinct from ''Ponte Vedra Beach'') and assigned it the ZIP code 32081.

Demographics

Median household income in Ponte Vedra Beach is $150,646 and median family income is $109,181. The median age is 41.8. The Ponte Vedra area is known for being a very affluent area of North Florida, and boasts one of the best school districts in Florida. Ponte Vedra Beach was 50th on the list of 100 finalists for ''CNN and Money Magazine's 2005 List of the Best Places to Live.'' It was the first place in Florida to be named in that year and one of only four areas in the state to make the cut. As of April 1, 2024 the average house costs around $898,000.

Education

Public primary and secondary schools in Ponte Vedra Beach are administered by the St. Johns County School District. Ponte Vedra High School, which was constructed to relieve the overcrowding of Allen D. Nease High School, serves as the public high school in the Ponte Vedra Beach. Alice B. Landrum Middle School is the primary, public middle school in the area. The Ponte Vedra Palm Valley-Rawlings Elementary School serves as one of the primary, public elementary schools (K-5) in the area, as well as Ocean Palms Elementary School. Ponte Vedra offers private education (K-8) at the Palmer Catholic Academy. Also, the Bolles School has one of their two lower school campuses in Ponte Vedra Beach, and offers education from pre-kindergarten to fifth grade before transferring students to the middle and high schools located in

. Additionally, the St Johns County Public Library System has a Ponte Vedra Beach Branch library.

Notable people

Famous past and present residents of Ponte Vedra: * Kim Alexis, actress and model * Ehsan Bayat, Afghan American businessman * Jason Altmire, U.S. Congressman * Tony Boselli, professional football player * Caitlin Brunell, Miss America's Outstanding Teen 2008 (daughter of Mark Brunell) * Mark Brunell, professional football player and coach * Shelby Cannon, professional tennis player * Christina Crawford, dancer and professional wrestler * Ron DeSantis, 46th Governor of Florida and former U.S. Congressman for 6th district * Ron Duguay, professional hockey player and coach * Bob Duval, professional golfer and author * David Duval, professional golfer * Tim Finchem,

Commissioner * Todd Fordham professional football player * Alicia Fox, model, WWE wrestler, actress * Fred Funk, professional golfer * Jim Furyk, professional golfer * Dan Galorath, software developer, businessman and author * Brian Gottfried, professional tennis player * Michael Huyghue, United Football League Commissioner * Dan Jenkins, author and sports writer * Hamilton Jordan, White House Chief of Staff for President Carter * Jeff Klauk, professional golfer * E. L. Konigsburg, author * Billy Kratzert, professional golfer and commentator * Matt Kuchar, professional golfer * Bowie Kuhn, lawyer and former MLB Commissioner * Christian Laettner, professional basketball player * John Legere, former CEO of T-Mobile * Mike Lester, cartoonist, illustrator, author * Frank Lickliter, professional golfer * Todd Martin, professional tennis player * Len Mattiace, professional golfer * Brian Moorman, former professional football player * Mark McCumber, professional golfer * Craig McKinley, first

National Guard National guard is the name used by a wide variety of current and historical uniformed organizations in different countries. The original National Guard was formed during the French Revolution around a cadre of defectors from the French Guards. ...

four-star general * Ben Nowland, professional football player * Donna Orender, professional athlete and sports executive * Calvin Peete, professional golfer * Rick Rhoden, professional athlete * Fred Rogers, television personality, Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood * Theodore Roosevelt Jr., general and recipient of the

Medal of Honor The Medal of Honor (MOH) is the United States Armed Forces' highest Awards and decorations of the United States Armed Forces, military decoration and is awarded to recognize American United States Army, soldiers, United States Navy, sailors, Un ...

* Michael Russell, professional tennis player * Vijay Singh, professional golfer * Nancy Soderberg, foreign policy strategist * Damien Starkey, musician and entrepreneur. * Tim Tebow, professional football & baseball player * Bill Terry, baseball Hall of Fame member * G. Kennedy Thompson, former Wachovia CEO * Bobby Thomson, professional baseball player, star of the " Shot Heard 'Round the World" * MaliVai Washington, professional tennis player * Bobby Weed, golf course designer * Bob Wenzel, college basketball coach and broadcaster * Rick Wilkins, professional baseball player * Betty Williams,

Nobel Peace Prize The Nobel Peace Prize (Swedish language, Swedish and ) is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the Will and testament, will of Sweden, Swedish industrialist, inventor, and armaments manufacturer Alfred Nobel, along with the prizes in Nobe ...

recipient

References

External links

* * * U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District
St. Johns County, Florida, South Ponte Vedra Beach, Vilano Beach, and Summer Haven Reaches. Coastal Storm Risk Management Project Final Integrated Feasibility Study and Environmental Assessment
March 2017. {{Authority control Unincorporated communities in St. Johns County, Florida Seaside resorts in Florida Beaches of St. Johns County, Florida Unincorporated communities in the Jacksonville metropolitan area Unincorporated communities in Florida Populated coastal places in Florida on the Atlantic Ocean Beaches of Florida