Getting to Port St. Joe: History & Rebuilding

A Town Erased and Rebuilt: Port St. Joe's Origins

The first settlement at this location was erased within three years. St. Joseph, the town that gave Florida its first constitution, was mostly abandoned in 1841 after a yellow fever epidemic, and a hurricane storm surge in 1844 destroyed what structures remained. The modern town carries the saint's name of the settlement that died here—St. Joseph, with Port added. This is not a beach town that happens to have history; it is a town that has been rebuilt over the grave of Florida's first constitutional capital. Understanding that layering is the only honest way to approach it.

Birthplace of the Florida Constitution: Where Statehood Began

Florida's statehood began here. Territorial delegates met at St. Joseph from 3 December 1838 to 11 January 1839 to write the state's first constitution. The town's motto is still Birthplace of the Florida Constitution. The site is preserved at the Constitution Convention Museum State Park, 14 acres outside town, with a reproduction convention hall and audio-animated recreations of the 1838 delegates. The building stands as a deliberate reconstruction, which is fitting for a place where the original is gone.

Port St. Joe Today: Census Snapshot of a Resilient Community

The census data describe a small, older, part-time population. Port St. Joe has 3,499 residents, with a median age of 52.9 years. Of the 2,037 total housing units, 270 are held for seasonal or recreational use, and 473 units are vacant. The median home value is $280,600, the median gross rent is $1,342, and the median household income is $60,347. The unemployment rate is 6 percent, and 33 percent of residents hold a bachelor's degree or higher. These are not the figures of a boomtown; they are the figures of a community shaped by cycles of abandonment and renewal.

Plan a Day: Constitution Museum and Cape San Blas

The Constitution Convention Museum State Park is the essential stop, but the broader landscape rewards a longer day. Cape San Blas and its lighthouse lie west of town in Gulf County, within easy reach for a drive out to the peninsula. The distance between the museum and the cape is short enough to combine in a single outing—history in the morning, the coast in the afternoon. Neither requires a full day, but together they give a sense of the place: a rebuilt town on a stretch of Gulf coast that has been erased and repopulated before.

Annual Events and Nearby Festivals Around the Gulf

Port St. Joe hosts the Florida Scallop, Music & Arts Festival on Labor Day weekend at Gulf County Veterans Memorial Park on Beacon Hill, run by the Gulf County Chamber of Commerce. It closes out the scallop season the coast is named for. Nearby towns offer their own annual events, all within reasonable day-trip distance.

What happened to the original town of St. Joseph? It died of fever in 1841 and was finished by storm in 1844. Where can you see the site of the first Florida constitution? At the Constitution Convention Museum State Park, outside town. How far is Port St. Joe from other Gulf County attractions? Cape San Blas is a short drive west. What is the town like today? Small, older, with a significant share of seasonal and vacant housing. Are there annual events? Yes—the scallop festival in town, and others in Apalachicola, St. George Island, Perry, Steinhatchee, Cedar Key, and Dade City, at increasing distances. Come for the history, stay for the coast, and do not pretend either is a secret.