Mayport Waterfront Partnership Earns Statewide Planning Award
By Jennifer Ashley
“We are deeply grateful to APA Florida for recognizing our ongoing efforts to preserve Mayport’s rich history, protect its working waterfront, and build a vibrant future for generations to come."
The Mayport Waterfront Partnership has received the 2026 Outstanding Public Interest Group Award from the Florida Chapter of the American Planning Association, known as APA Florida.
Wiatt Bowers, Florida planning project director for AtkinsRéalis and a fellow of the American Institute of Certified Planners, accepted the award on the partnership’s behalf at the Florida Planning Conference, held Oct. 13-16 in Miami. Partnership Chairman Mitch Reeves thanked Bowers for representing the group.
“We are deeply grateful to APA Florida for recognizing our ongoing efforts to preserve Mayport’s rich history, protect its working waterfront, and build a vibrant future for generations to come,” the partnership said in a statement.
APA Florida is the state’s professional organization for urban and regional planners. The Outstanding Public Interest Group Award honors a citizen-based or nonprofit group that has advanced planning in their community. Groups cannot nominate themselves, and nominees are judged on how well they built public understanding of planning and turned ideas into results.
The honor typically goes to one group a year. Past recipients include Metro Jacksonville, Miami’s Friends of the Underline and Gainesville Citizens for Active Transportation.
The partnership formed after the state named Mayport Village one of Florida’s first three Waterfronts Florida communities, with a goal to guide the revitalization of Mayport and Duval County’s eastern shore. Now a nonprofit, it brings together public and private stakeholders that include residents, business owners, civic leaders, the Naval Station Mayport and National Park Service. Mayport, one of the oldest fishing villages in Florida, remains home to an active shrimping and commercial fishing fleet, which the partnership has worked to keep at the center of any redevelopment.
The partnership oversaw a $4.2 million sewer and water line upgrade in Mayport Village’s commercial district and wrote the Mayport Village Overlay Zone regulations, which guide development to protect the village’s character by shaping how new buildings look, fit and function alongside the existing historic fabric.
In 2020, the partnership began the Mayport Action Plan, a master plan that envisions a mixed-use village built around education, historic and working waterfront districts, parking and resiliency along the St. Johns River. The resiliency component responds to the flooding and storm-surge risk facing low-lying waterfront communities along the river and Atlantic coast.
Recently the partnership signed a $21,000 agreement with The Haskell Company to update the Mayport Action Plan. Reeves said, “this update will establish a concept for Phase II redeveloping the core waterfront area into a vibrant, mixed-use village centered around three distinct districts: Education, Historic, and Working Waterfront.” The update will build on the 2020 plan and reflect changes in the village since it was adopted.
The group also launched the Mayport Waterfront Market in fall 2025, a community market featuring crafts, produce and other goods from local vendors. The market gives residents and visitors a regular reason to come to the village while supporting small businesses and local makers.
Its largest current project is relocating the St. Johns River Lighthouse from Naval Station Mayport to a city-owned waterfront site. The lighthouse, a historic navigational landmark, would move out of a secure military installation to a location where the public could visit it more easily.
The award recognizes nearly three decades of resident-driven work to shape Mayport’s future.
Mayport Getting A Second Ferry
It was widely anticipated for several months, and we are thrilled to see it finally come to fruition. Thank you Nat Ford, Jacksonville Transportation Authority.
A huge thank you to the U.S. DOT and Secretary Sean Duffy for the $15.6 million grant to bring a second St. Johns River Ferry, improving the connection between Mayport Village and Ft. George Island.
The introduction of this second vessel will reduce wait times, minimize detours, and provide a more reliable transportation option for the community, strengthening the future of mobility along the St. Johns River.
Helen Cooper Floyd: Keeper of Mayport’s Memory
Helen Cooper Floyd was more than a historian—she was Mayport Village’s living memory. Born and raised in Jacksonville, Florida, Helen devoted her life to chronicling the layered, salt-sprayed history of Mayport and its founding families: the Singletons, Tuttles, Floyds, and others whose names still echo through the docks and oyster beds of the St. Johns River.
With a tape recorder in hand and a storyteller’s heart, Helen captured the voices of the “old timers”—river pilots with weathered hands, shrimp boat captains who navigated by instinct, and their formidable wives who ran households like ships. She knew them personally, often sitting with them on porches or in cluttered kitchens, coaxing out stories that might otherwise have vanished with the tide. Her anecdotes were rich with humor and grit, revealing the iconoclastic personalities that shaped Mayport’s fiercely independent spirit.
Helen’s oral history project, a treasure trove of audio tapes, was donated to the University of Florida in Gainesville. These recordings—now digitized and available to the public (see link below)—offer an intimate portal into mid-20th century life in the village. Listeners can hear the cadence of old Mayport, the laughter, the arguments, the pride.
She also authored several books on Mayport’s history, each one a tapestry of archival research, personal memory, and community lore. Her titles include:
- Mayport: A Village by the Sea
- Pilots and Pioneers: The Families of the River
- Shrimp Nets and Sunday Suppers: Life in Mayport Village
Helen’s writing captured the rhythms of village life—the scent of mullet frying, the clang of boat rigging, the hush of cemetery walks. She wrote not just as a scholar, but as someone who had lived it, loved it, and wanted it remembered.
Her legacy lives on in every story she preserved, every voice she recorded, and every reader who finds themselves drawn into the soul of Mayport. Through this digital archive, you’re invited to step into her world. Choose a tape, press play, and let Helen—and Mayport—speak to you.
Listen to the Voices of Mayport
Step into the heart of Mayport Village through the voices Helen Cooper Floyd preserved. This audio archive—donated to the University of Florida—features candid, unscripted conversations with river pilots, shrimp boat captains, and the strong-willed women who anchored the community. Helen recorded these tapes over decades, capturing the humor, hardship, and heritage of a vanishing way of life.
Each tape is a window into the soul of the village. You’ll hear stories of storms weathered, boats built by hand, family feuds, and Sunday suppers. Whether you’re a researcher, a descendant, or simply curious, this collection offers a rare chance to hear Mayport’s history told by those who lived it.
Browse the recordings below and select any tape to begin listening. No script, no polish—just real voices, real stories, and Helen’s gift of remembrance.
Link to audio tapes at the University of Florida, Gainesville: (https://ufdc.ufl.edu/title-sets/AA00090738/results?q=Helen%20Cooper%20Floyd%20) (Not all tapes are digitized. Some are available only in transcript form at the University)
Selected Bibliography of Helen Cooper Floyd
Helen Cooper Floyd’s books are a testament to her lifelong dedication to preserving the voices and stories of Mayport Village. Each title blends archival research, oral history, and personal recollection to illuminate the lives of river pilots, shrimpers, matriarchs, and the families who shaped the village’s character.
- Mayport: A Village by the Sea - A sweeping narrative of Mayport’s evolution from a fishing hamlet to a cultural landmark, featuring rare photographs and interviews with longtime residents.
- Pilots and Pioneers: The Families of the River - Focused on the Singleton, Tuttle, Floyd, and other founding families, this book traces their maritime traditions and contributions to Jacksonville’s development.
- Shrimp Nets and Sunday Suppers: Life in Mayport Village - A vivid portrait of mid-century village life, from boat launches to backyard fish fries, told through the voices of women who held the community together.
- Tales from the Riverbank: Anecdotes of Old Mayport - A collection of colorful stories and character sketches drawn from Helen’s personal conversations with Mayport’s “old timers.”
- The Cemetery by the Sea: Remembering Pablo and Mayport - A reflective work on the village’s burial grounds, including genealogical notes and oral histories tied to the Pablo Mayport Cemetery.
- Voices of Mayport: An Oral History Archive - Companion volume to her audio recordings, this book includes transcripts, commentary, and historical context for selected interviews.
- In The Shadow of the Lighthouse - A Folk History of Mayport, Florida Compiled by Helen Cooper Floyd
Mayport Stories - A Mayport Moment
The King House holds many secrets as witness to Mayport Village’s history over the decades since it was built sometime in the mid 1800’s.
Situated on Ocean Street directly across from the Ocearch Research Center, the two story southern gothic home with wrap around porches was built pre civil war by a river pilot, Captain William Arnau. It destroyed by fire in 1881 and reconstructed in the early 1900’s by Captain William Joseph King after he and Arnau’s daughter Clara married and began living there.
It was a constant through decades as Mayport’s main street sprouted hotels, as many as four, to accommodate beachgoers arriving by a Flagler built railroad, as saw mills flourished from the abundant timber nearby, and as fishermen and river pilots plied their trade on the St. John’s River and Atlantic Ocean. Through the years it has been more than just a home to one of Mayport Village’s most esteemed families. It once housed Roman Catholic services and sailors. It may have been the site of a murder by a jealous lover. It may be haunted.
The house is long reputed to have ghostly occurrences in with some King family members embellishing these rumors of the supernatural. In 1968, parapsychology researchers from Duke University examined the house and investigated recuring claims of ghostly sightings of a butler, a bride and a kitchen maid, among others. Their report concluded there was some "presence" within the house.
In the late 1970’s the pre-Civil War portion of the house was partially demolished in a failed attempt to convert the house into a restaurant. The home today is half the size it was originally built but the main part of Captain King's residence still remains, with its legacy of poltergeists, ghost stories, and architectural beauty.
William Joseph King came to Mayport from Delaware as a cook on a schooner in 1878. After serving an apprenticeship as a river pilot under Captain Arnaut, King joined the ranks as one in 1882. In 1913, Captain King decided to enlarge his residence into a more elaborate manor. He hired a builder from Fort George, who daily rowed across the St. Johns River to work on the two-story addition, which soon dwarfed by a two-tier veranda with turned posts, brackets, and a filigreed balustrade, which encircles the house on three sides.
At one time it was painted all white in keeping with the rest of the buildings in Mayport. Upon Captain King's death in 1940, his son John inherited it and lived there till 1977.
It is now owned by a non- profit LLC and in part houses a cat rescue program. The home is also occupied by private tenants and is not open to the public but its historic exterior is a Mayport Village landmark.
> Learn More About The King House
Feasibility Study Confirms Relocation of St. Johns River Lighthouse is Achievable
The Mayport Lighthouse Association (MLA) is pleased to share the results of a recently completed feasibility study evaluating the potential relocation of the St. Johns River Lighthouse. After extensive analysis by a team of architects, engineers, contractors, and historic preservation specialists, the study confirms that relocating the lighthouse from Naval Station Mayport to a City-owned waterfront site in Mayport Village is feasible, pending required approvals and permitting. To learn more about MLA, and our efforts to save and restore the St. Johns River Lighthouse, please follow our Facebook page and visit our website.
Why Relocation is Being Considered
The St. Johns River Lighthouse is currently out of service and not accessible to the public. It sits adjacent to an active runway and commercial vehicle inspection station on Naval Station Mayport. There are several inches of standing water at the base of the interior stairs, the original oil storage room is no longer present, and the historic entry door has been buried under fill dirt added during construction of the nearby airfield. The lighthouse is also listed on the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation’s “11 to Save” list of endangered structures. Relocation offers a path toward long-term preservation, restoration, and public access.
The Proposed New Site
The proposed location is a City of Jacksonville–owned waterfront parcel west of the Mayport Village ferry terminal and between Safe Harbor Seafood Restaurant and the parcel where OCEARCH is planning to build their new headquarters. The Jacksonville City Council unanimously passed Resolution 2025-43-A, expressing support for the feasibility study and MLA’s preservation efforts. Future plans include working with the Mayport Waterfront Partnership to utilize the nearby historic “cottage” at 4610 Ocean St. as a shared visitor center, museum, and gift shop space.
How the Move Would Work
The proposed move would travel approximately 0.6 miles along existing roadways, using the most direct path with the fewest utility crossings. To improve safety, the lantern room at the top of the lighthouse would be removed and relocated separately, reducing the height and weight of the structure during transport. The tower itself would be carefully prepared, supported by steel beams, and transported using self-propelled modular transporters designed to keep the structure level and secure. Approximately eight feet of brick masonry currently below grade would be removed in large sections and reattached at the new site. The original foundation would remain in place, and a new foundation would be constructed at the waterfront location. The active transport portion of the move is anticipated to take about one week, though the overall relocation process will extend longer.
Naval Station Mayport and Preservation Standards Approvals
In Summer 2025, Naval Station Mayport provided access to a team of architects and engineers to observe current conditions at the lighthouse and evaluate move paths off the base. The Navy is open to the relocation pending submission of a comprehensive plan, including proof of funding, The relocation must be approved by the National Park Service (NPS) and comply with the National Environmental Policy Act. The relocation plan has received provisional approval from the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) as of January 2026, pending additional reviews during future phases of work. All restoration work will follow the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties and remain subject to oversight by the SHPO and the NPS to maintain the lighthouse’s status on the National Register of Historic Places.
Estimated Costs and Next Steps
The relocation contractor has provided a Rough Order of Magnitude cost estimate of $4.8 million to $6 million. This estimate includes:
- The move itself, including design and permitting services
- Lantern room restoration and reinstallation
- Brick masonry and exterior restoration
- Electrical work at the new site
It is important to note that restoration will likely occur in phases as funding becomes available.
A Significant Milestone
Completion of the feasibility study marks a major milestone. It confirms that relocation can be accomplished safely, responsibly, and in coordination with local, state, and federal partners. The long-term vision remains unchanged: to fully restore the St. Johns River Lighthouse and make it accessible to the public once again.
The Mayport Lighthouse Association remains committed to transparency, careful planning, and preservation that honors the history of this 1859 structure while securing its future in Mayport Village.
The St. Johns River Lighthouse Feasibility Study was conducted by Michael Blake Architects, LLC.
→ The Mayport Waterfront Partnership meets on the second Wednesday of every month at 8:00 AM. These gatherings take place at the William “Bill” Gulliford Community Center, situated at 4875 Ocean Street, Jacksonville, FL 32233. The meetings are open to the public.
→ Our Community Adopt-a-Highway Cleanup takes place on the fourth Saturday of each month from 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM, excluding holiday weekends. The event begins at the William "Bill" Gulliford Community Center, located at 4875 Ocean St., Jacksonville, FL 32233. Volunteers always welcome to join us.
