American Beach was established in January 1935 when the Afro-American Life Insurance Company purchased 33 acres of land with a 1000-foot shoreline. That year this Masonry Vernacular home was built for company president Abraham Lincoln Lewis by local African American shipbuilder William S. Rivers. Lewis, Florida's first African American millionaire, had the first home built on the beach. The resort community attracted thousands of African American vacationers until 1964, when the Civil Rights Acts desegregated beaches everywhere and tourists sought closer or more popular beaches. Later that year Hurricane Dora devastated the area, destroying homes and businesses, and many residents chose not or could not afford to rebuild. In the 1970s, one of Lewis' great granddaughters, MaVynee Betsch, lived in the house and, with other property owners, fought to protect the community's heritage from beachfront development. Rising property taxes and declining health reduced the population of American Beach's permanent residents. In 2002, the American Beach Historic District was listed in the National Register of Historic Places, with the Lewis house as a contributing structure.