American Beach

American Beach is the most historically significant square mile on Amelia Island, and the easiest to drive straight past.

It was established in 1935 by the Afro-American Life Insurance Company of Jacksonville, whose president, Abraham Lincoln Lewis, bought oceanfront land so that Black Floridians — barred from Florida's public beaches under segregation — would have a shoreline of their own. Lewis was Florida's first Black millionaire. The community he founded became a resort in its own right, with hotels, restaurants and a nightclub, Evans' Rendezvous, that drew touring musicians through the 1950s and 1960s.

What is here now

A quiet residential neighbourhood, a public beach access, and two landmarks worth the detour.

NaNa is a dune roughly sixty feet high — the tallest in Florida — now protected as part of the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve. It is a dune, not a viewpoint: you look at it, you do not climb it.

The A.L. Lewis Museum interprets the community's founding and its decline after desegregation and Hurricane Dora in 1964. It is small, volunteer-supported, and its opening hours are limited — check before you drive down.

Visiting respectfully

American Beach is a living neighbourhood with private homes, not an attraction with a car park and a gift shop. Park at the public access, walk, read the historical markers, and keep off private drives and the dune itself.

Where it sits

American Beach is off Lewis Street and Gregg Street, east of A1A on the island's south end, between the Amelia Island Plantation resort area and Burney Park. Burney Park, immediately south, has the larger parking area and the restrooms.