Seaside: 'Just as we envisioned it'

SEASIDE — More than thirty years ago, 81 acres sat vacant on a dirt road in South Walton County. Today, the town of Seaside has gained worldwide fame for its new urban architecture, famous visitors and the setting for a major motion picture.

The town with a different white-picket fence around each home and where no place is farther than a bike ride began with an idea to bring back classic America. It now has a life of its own, attracting tourists year round.

“The plan started with a kind of nostalgia for the old days, which I consider a positive,” said developer Robert Davis who co-founded Seaside with his wife, Daryl. “The best times of my childhood were spent on the beach with my family. We simply revived the physical framework so that the family could continue that tradition of simply relaxing and being together.”

The town where only 3 percent of the population are permanent residents sold its first parcel in 1981 for $15,000. That same property today has been estimated to cost about $500,000.

“Seaside is physically just as we envisioned it,” Davis said. “The houses are a bit bigger and a bit fancier, but its captures the simplicity that we wanted to allow visitors to experience.”

The town was designed with small-town urbanism architecture that called for creativity and classic designs. Each beach entrance has a different design, each home has a different name and each shop is individually owned.

Davis said the town captures the essence of thousands of towns from years ago. He said the experience of Seaside is unlike any other.

One house to start

Donna Spiers remembers the days before there were homes, shops or paved roads. Spiers, a Realtor for Seaside Community Realty was the first employee at Seaside.

Spiers said she remembers the days before she became a Realtor when she cleaned the red home on Tupelo Street, which is quite a contrast to the large office she shares with another Realtor today.

“I met Robert and Daryl in 1981 when I was visiting with my parents,” Spiers said. “My parents had a chuck wagon they would bring to Seaside Saturday Sunset Bizarre.”

She said she asked for a job after hearing plans for the land. After one year of cleaning the red home she became certified to sell real estate and has worked at Seaside ever since. She said the quest to develop the town was not an easy one.

“In the early days we got a lot of hate mail from our immediate neighbors,” Spiers said. “The locals weren’t happy.”

Davis continued to move forward despite the negative response.

“Their attempt to start the town center was very grass roots,” Spiers said. “I mean, it started with one little house. We started selling land in ’82 and broke ground the next year and used that house as our model.”

The idea of allowing guests to return to the old beach vacations seemed like a good idea, Spiers said. However, it was slow going in the beginning.

After an article appeared in Southern Living Magazine in 1984, Spiers said things started to take off and Seaside gained recognition.

“We realized we were big news,” she said. “It just took off and had its own life, and the number of people coming here just continued to increase.

“At first it was just a job for me,” Spiers said. “Most people didn’t realize the potential of the master plan. Really, I don’t think anybody realized the potential of what was to come.”

The road to recognition

Seaside may have started out as a dream, but in a few short years the town got exposure in ways Robert and Daryl Davis never imagined.

“We hit some national publications and national media after just a few years,” Spiers said. “Robert and Daryl were on the Today Show, which was a big deal, and people just started hearing about the new town in the old days.”

At first, the biggest exposure came through the architecture world. Bob Villa hosted his program “This Old House” from Seaside and dozens of other big-name architects came through to study the new urban architecture.

“We were very conscious that we were doing something different and important,” Davis said. “We felt that reviving the small-town urbanism might be a way of showing people we could build urban places centered on the simple act of walking to the beach or having the ability to walk to the store.”

Davis’ development has led to visitors from across the country and the world.

Prince Charles consulted with Davis for the Poundbury development in England. Seaside also has hosted several architecture schools and case studies.

“This place gives children back their innocence and families the ability to reconnect,” Spiers said. “It brings the visitors back to the way things used to be. Seaside brings everyone back.”

One of the higher profile visits came when the Paramount movie “The Truman Show” starring Jim Carrey was filmed in 1997. The film showcased the picturesque town as the fictitious Seahaven.

“What you get here is a different lifestyle and look than anywhere else,” Spiers said. “There isn’t one or two moments that have made me think, ‘We did it,’ ” Spiers said. “There’s been a culmination of things.”

Walking with the mayor

What most people don’t realize about the quaint pastel community is that few people actually live there. Glenn Seawell, who jokingly calls himself the self-appointed mayor, has lived at Seaside for nearly two decades.

He estimates he is one of 18 permanent residents.

“I had visited the area several times and I just got hooked with the mystique of Seaside,” Seawell said. “There’s a certain charm about this place that just can’t be explained.”

As “mayor,” Seawell gives visitors directions, takes photographs and picks up litter on the beach.

On a recent walk he waved to a post office worker and stopped to talk to a tourist who wanted to know if Seawell actually lived there.

Seawell smiles and said, “Yes, I do. What do you think of our little town?”

“This place is so special,” said Stephanie Minardi of Kentucky. “I’ve been out on my bike all morning. I just love the scenery.”

Minardi was given a list of places “she must go to” and was sent off to discover more of the town that Seawell says he has yet to completely discover.

“Every day, every single day, I find something new,” he said. “You can look at a building and discover a different color or a different angle. There is so much more to this place than most people realize.”

Charlie Modica ran around his Modica Market on a busy weekday recently as customers came and went. Modica’s parents were one of the first to set up shop at Seaside.

“This place kind of has an eclectic group of people. It’s not your average corporate environment,” he said as he restocked some shelves. “To see the success of the town, to see it blossom to what it is and know we helped create some of this ambiance is amazing.

“A lot of hard work went in to make people comfortable here and stay here. Robert and Daryl had a vision of seeing people talk to their neighbors porch to porch and they made that.”

Seawell lives above the art store Newbill Collection in a two-story apartment with a deck roof that looks out over the entire town. He looks from east to west, which is the order the town was built, and compares the older homes’ architecture to the newer homes on the west side.

“There’s only one word to describe living in Seaside: Utopia,” he said as he walked the streets and passed homes with names like Hakuna Matata, Sabbatical and even Serenity Now! “I don’t think Robert or Daryl knew what would come of this concept.

“They had a vision, a game plan, and it was right on target.”