Sebastian Centennial + 10 Year Celebration - March 1975 By Sally Maio

Sebastian Centennial + 10 Year Celebration - March 1975  

By Sally Maio (with information from George Keyes timeline and Sebastian Area Historical Society Tales of Sebastian - Lenora Park Article) 

December 8, 2024, recognizing the day the Town of Sebastian was officially incorporated, won’t be the first time that Sebastian townspeople will celebrate a centennial.  

In 1974 an idea to celebrate 1975 as a City Centennial which would become known as “Sebastian Centennial + 10 Years” came to fruition and the City began planning in earnest.  

As I prepared a few stories for the 2024 Centennial, reviewing Council minutes over the past 100 years for reference, I kept seeing references to the “Sebastian Centennial + 10 Years” in 1974 and 1975 Council minutes. What I could not find was its purpose. While I knew December 8, 1924 was the official date of incorporation of the Town of Sebastian, I couldn’t figure out what had happened 110 years before 1975 in 1865.   

I reviewed newspaper articles from the Press Journal from that time in a binder given to the Clerk’s office by the Flood family that included articles and photos of the 1975 celebration. I also recalled an ashtray that was in the Clerk’s office years ago that had Sebastian Centennial + 10 Years imprinted on it with a depiction of an old open roadster (since given to the Historical Society). We actually used it back in the day (1980s) when you could still smoke in public buildings in Florida (see photo). Always wondered what that logo represented.   

July 8, 1974 minutes state that in 1974 Mayor Cragg and members of Council appointed members to assist in preparation of a Centennial Celebration which was scheduled for March 1975. Throughout the rest of 1974 planning began in earnest for a three day celebration, funding was budgeted, a committee was formed and a parade and carnival were scheduled. A congratulatory letter from then President Ford was received in response to the City’s invitation to him to attend.  

In early 1975 minutes state “Vice Mayor (Cliff) Hoose reported on Centennial +10 celebration and parade and Miss Sebastian contest; urged everyone’s participation in arts and crafts contest, pie and caking baking contests and amateur talent show”.   

In April 1975 minutes state “Mayor signed proclamation on “Facial Growth,” passed in the spirit of a fun attitude, calling on all males over 18 years old to grow moustaches and beards, including mutton chops, van dykes, etc., as were common 110 years ago (1865) for the Centennial +10 celebration”. 

In reaching out to people in town who were here in the 70s for their thoughts and recollections, most remember it as a wonderful celebration but were not sure what it was for. They remember a celebration that took place with a carnival, a wonderful parade, with activities in the “new” Community Center (opened in 1974), the Main Street park area adjacent to then City Hall and south in the area of Riverview park or the newly obtained Sebastian Yacht Club property. No newspaper article or Council minutes mentioned the purpose. A letter from then President Gerald Ford was sent to the City in recognition of the City’s Centennial + 10 Years but still did not specify the origin. 

Thanks to the work of former resident George Keyes, who was a member of a group that started the Sebastian library in 1983 and then became a founding member of the Sebastian Historical Society in 1985, and compiled historic research into a timeline of Sebastian history covering the years 1605-1986, which I discovered soon after arriving at City Hall in 1986, I was able to find an answer to the significance of 1865. That timeline would become a helpful tool to me as it is to this day and is to everyone in Sebastian when searching our history. 

In that timeline and in a story from the Sebastian River Area Historical Society, the first volume “The Tales of Sebastian” written by Lenora Park about the August Park family, it is noted that August Park was the first permanent settler in the town of Sebastian arriving in the year 1865. Though there were a few settlers in the area around the Sebastian River prior to that year, the Park family were the first in what is still today the City limits of Sebastian. They settled along the Indian River Lagoon adjacent to today’s Sebastian Municipal Cemetery, land which was deeded to the City in later years.  

I remember the Park sisters when I first came to Sebastian in 1986. August Park was their grandfather. They were lovely ladies who would occasionally visit City Hall (the old schoolhouse from 1983 to 2004). I did not yet understand the contribution the Park family had made to the City of Sebastian but with duties of oversight of the Sebastian Cemetery I would soon discover. The area they settled is still known today as August Park Subdivision in legal records. 

There is no other event that I can find that would indicate a reason for the Sebastian Centennial Celebration + 10 years in 1975 other than celebrating the arrival of August Park and his family in 1865 as the first City settlers of what today is the City of Sebastian, and the major impact they have even today in this beautiful paradise we all call home.  

Apparently by all accounts a good time was had by all and Sebastian still knows how to have a good time.