09/29/2026
Our community is full of so much history!! https://www.rentingthecoast.com/port-cottages
Florida's very first state constitution was written in a town that no longer exists. 📜
In the late 1830s, St. Joseph on the Gulf coast was booming. It was founded by folks who had fallen out with neighboring Apalachicola, and they built fast: hotels, wharves, a racetrack, and one of Florida's earliest railroads to haul cotton to the bay. For a moment, it was one of the biggest towns in the territory.
In December 1838, delegates from across Florida gathered there to draft the constitution that would carry Florida into statehood. Imagine the scene, with frock coats and cotton bales and schooners bobbing in St. Joseph Bay. 🌅
Then everything turned. Yellow fever swept through in 1841, the economy was already shaky, and a powerful hurricane in 1844 finished off much of what was left. People scattered, buildings were hauled away, and the town simply faded into the pines and sand.
Today, Port St. Joe sits nearby and a small state museum marks the spot where it all happened. It is one of the strangest facts in Florida history: our founding document was born in a ghost town. 🏚️
If you could walk the streets of old St. Joseph for one afternoon in 1838, what would you most want to see?
