Grant-Valkaria History Guide: From Grant Settlers to the 2006 Town

Grant was settled from 1880, when the Smith family became the first white settlers in the area, and the community was founded in 1891 with its first post office (National Register nomination, Jorgensen's General Store).

The steps came quickly once people arrived along this stretch of the Indian River Lagoon. The first one-room schoolhouse was built in 1884, John M. Samuels bought the tract that now forms much of Grant in 1886, and railroad service reached the area in 1890. In 1891 the Grant post office opened in the home of Edwin Nelson, the first postmaster, and the population doubled in 1892, according to the National Park Service nomination (NPS).

The nomination, published in 1999, still described Grant as an unincorporated fishing community about three and one half miles long and three miles wide with approximately 1,000 residents, just north of Sebastian across the Indian River County line (NPS nomination). That snapshot predates the 2006 town by seven years, so its size and population describe old Grant only, not Grant-Valkaria today. The Grant-Valkaria town history guide follows the story from the first homesteads to incorporation.

Grant leaned on fishing after the Big Freeze of 1894-95, when farmers and growers around the state suffered great losses; until then Brevard County was the pineapple capital of the world (NPS nomination).

Before the freeze, fishing, farming, orange groves and pineapple plantations were the main Grant industries. Afterward, Grant residents relied mainly on fishing to supplement what farming still earned (National Register nomination). By 1924 a tram road ran from the railroad across the store lot to the Jorgensen Fish House on the Indian River.

The Bensen family shows the mixed living. The Florida historical marker for the Bensen House records that Atley Bensen and his brother Adolph fished commercially, grew pineapples and operated the Jorgensen General Store (Florida Department of State marker). The Grant Seafood Festival history page says it is heading into the 60th annual festival, while its home page bills the 2027 event as the 59th; the organizer describes volunteer families working side by side across three and four generations (Grant Seafood Festival history; festival home page).

Jorgensen's General Store is the 1894 Grant trading post at 5390 US 1, listed on the National Register of Historic Places under NRIS ID 99000711 (NPGallery).

The building served at once as trading post, post office, telegraph office and railroad express office, standing just east of the railroad on the north side of 1st Street (Jorgensen's General Store nomination). Lars Jorgensen bought the trading post in 1911 and gave it the Jorgensen name. Carrie Jorgensen later worked as the railroad express agent and, the nomination states, was the first female telegrapher on the east coast.

Two later dates explain the building as it stands. When U.S. Highway 1 was built in 1929, the store's entrance, which had faced west toward the railroad and county road, was moved to the east side facing the Indian River; 1894 and 1929 are the two significant years in the National Register record (NPGallery asset detail). Post office work left the building in 1959, and its boxes were sold to the Wabasso post office in Indian River County (NPS nomination). The Jorgensen's General Store guide covers each owner and the building's details.

The Grant Historical House is the 1916 Bensen House on U.S. 1, a pioneer cracker house that became a museum in 1987 (Florida historical marker).

Atley Bensen paid $1,200 for precut yellow pine lumber that came by riverboat from Jacksonville in 1916 to build the house for his wife, Clara, a member of one of Grant's pioneer families. Their son Russell donated it to the Grant Historical Society in 1984. In 1985 the house was moved from its first site, about 300 feet south of 1st Street on the bank of the Indian River Lagoon, to 5795 S US Highway 1, the site of Grant's first house, built in 1894 (Bensen House marker, 2008).

Brevard County lists the Grant Historical House (Bensen House) among the named places of Commission District 3, along with Fisherman's Landing, Christenson's Landing and John Jorgensen's Landing (Brevard County District 3). A practical tip for visitors: the Grant Seafood Festival notes that the Grant Historical House is closed during the festival weekend, so a museum visit belongs on another day (festival information). The Grant Historical House guide has the museum's details.

Grant and Valkaria became the Town of Grant-Valkaria when voters approved the HB 1297 charter at a special election on July 25, 2006, by 1,149 votes to 591 (Brevard County Supervisor of Elections).

Turnout was 71.47 percent, with 1,741 of 2,436 registered voters casting ballots. The charter's preamble says the people ratified it to preserve their history, protect their future, maintain a rural quality of life and foster responsible, community-controlled growth (HB 1297, 2006). It named the Grant-Valkaria Preservation Committee-Steering Committee as the group to select an interim council, an interim Grant-Valkaria government for the period between approval of the charter and the interim council's dissolution.

One date needs care. The enrolled bill text refers to the town being created when approved at the August 1, 2006 special election, while the Brevard County Supervisor of Elections records the Grant-Valkaria vote on July 25, 2006. The elections office record is the vote itself, so July 25, 2006 is the date this hub uses. The Grant-Valkaria town history guide traces how the two old communities came to share one charter.

Three places tie Grant-Valkaria to old Grant: Jorgensen's General Store at 5390 US 1, the Grant Historical House and the community grounds on 1st Street (NPGallery).

The Grant Library at 4580 1st Street is not part of the Brevard County Library System; volunteers run it, and the Grant Community Club provides most of its funding, according to the Grant Seafood Festival, whose grounds share the address (festival information page). Brevard County lists John Jorgensen's Landing with Fisherman's Landing and Christenson's Landing as named places in Commission District 3 (Brevard County District 3).

For anyone tracing Grant history on the ground, the 1999 National Register nomination places the store on the west side of U.S. 1 at the north side of 1st Street, just east of the railroad, while the Bensen House stands at its 1985 location at 5795 S US Highway 1 (NPS nomination). Not every early building survived: the 1894 first house of Grant stood where the Bensen House sits now and burned down in the 1970s (Florida historical marker).

Three Grant-Valkaria history guides go deeper: the town history, Jorgensen's General Store and the Grant Historical House.