The Dave Perry-Miller Real Estate Fine Home Collection Magazine is Hot Off the Presses…

Maybe you’ve been to Seaside, Watercolor, and Rosemary Beach along Highway 30-A in the Florida panhandle, a 28.5 mile corridor that hugs the Gulf of Mexico coastline in Northwest Florida’s Walton County and takes you back in time to the days when Florida was just a sleepy, beachy sand state. Along this road are sugar-white, soft sand beaches and rare coastal dune lakes. There is also some of the most beautiful beach houses in the world.

Here is where the cottages of Seaside were born, planting a standard-setting imprint upon New Urbanism. Consumers snatched up beachy homes and white picket fences, but also completely walkable communities where cars were parked and families could walk to everything from the beach to dinner. Each community is planned in a circular layout where everything is a 10 minute walk. In the 1980’s, New Urbanism wasn’t yet a concept. Buyers just knew they wanted a place so easy to get around, flip-flops would be a primary mode of transportation, and “congestion” was a cluster of kids on bikes.

Instead of high-rise condominiums, small cottages would be built with widows walks, each no higher than three stories. This would leave acres of uninterrupted ocean views, even as dunes were saved and protected to combat beach erosion.

The Stephens from Birmingham — Elton and Alys –summered with their family at nearby Seagrove Village in the 1950’s. It was an easy, pleasant life. In 1978, they bought, at auction, 158 acres of beachfront property along 30-A they thought might be good for employee getaways. With 1500 feet of Gulf Shore, they had snagged the last water-front property on 30-A.