Surfside Dance Hall and Bathhouse

From the early 1900s, Surfside "Casino" stood as an entertainment center within the Capo family’s 165-acre resort destination. Visitors traveled from St. Augustine on the yacht Pauline II up the North River to Capo’s Landing at the west end of Surfside Avenue, where they could stay at Capo’s Hotel and eat a five course meal at a 120-seat restaurant for 25 cents. A horse drawn trolley carried them to Capo’s Beach, where Surfside offered an upstairs dance hall, a downstairs bathhouse, and a setting for horse races, organized sports, and picnic events, and where bathing beauties might have their photographs taken in front of a biplane on the beach. In 1939, the North Shores Improvement Association began meeting there to improve life on the barrier island. During and after World War II, Surfside drew military personnel who enjoyed local bands and jukebox music, and it remained a favored place for young people’s parties through the 1960s before the aging building was torn down in the 1970s and the site became a county oceanfront park.

Vilano Beach, Florida · United States