The Historic Driftwood Resort in Vero Beach

The Historic Driftwood Resort is an oceanfront interval ownership resort at 3150 Ocean Dr. in Vero Beach whose two oldest buildings, the Driftwood Inn and the restaurant now called Waldo's, are listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

The operator lists the resort at 3150 Ocean Dr., Vero Beach, FL 32963, with hours of 8:00 am to 10:00 pm and a front desk line of 772-231-0550, and asks guests to call for room availability (Historic Driftwood Resort). Its property page says the inn and restaurant still rent rooms to the public on a daily or weekly basis and serve lunch and dinner beside the pool and the ocean (Driftwood property page). So the landmark is a working Vero Beach hotel, not a museum.

The National Park Service record names the listed property the Driftwood Inn and Restaurant, at 3150 Ocean Dr., Indian River County, with National Register Information System ID 94000751 and Waldo Sexton named as architect (NPGallery record). The City of Vero Beach lists the same place as the Driftwood Arcade, adding the inn's historic name, The Breezeway (City of Vero Beach National Register list). Last verified: October 18, 2026, against the National Register form and record, the city and county pages, and the operator's own site for hours and rooms.

Waldo Sexton built the Driftwood Inn in Vero Beach around 1935 as his family's beach house, added wings in 1937 and 1939, and built the separate restaurant in 1947.

The 1994 registration form says the inn began about 1935 as a beach home for the Sexton family and that, within a short time, Mrs. Sexton was running it as a small resort hotel; the north wing followed in 1937 and the south wing in 1939, and the original house became the central section (National Register registration form). The restaurant went up on adjacent property in 1947 to serve guests of the inn. The form says the original house was called the Breezeway because of the opening through the center of the first floor, with two rooms originally flanking it, one on each floor, and a kitchen in the central room above the opening.

The operator tells the start slightly differently: its history says construction of the house began in about 1935 and was completed in 1937, and that Mrs. Sexton began cooking breakfast for guests in the family kitchen because no restaurant stood nearby, which led to the restaurant (Driftwood property page). The federal form treats 1937 as the year of the first addition rather than the year of completion; both accounts agree on about 1935 and on 1947 for the restaurant, although the operator's home page and property page also say Sexton built both buildings in 1935 (Historic Driftwood Resort).

The Driftwood buildings were assembled from cypress logs, weathered timber and salvaged objects without blueprints, and the operator says nothing at the Vero Beach inn seems square or level.

The registration form describes both as two-story frame vernacular buildings with irregular plans and outer walls mostly of cypress logs and vertical board and batten timber (National Register registration form). The inn forms an irregular U on yellow pine poles sunk into the sand, under three gabled roof sections and two brick chimneys. Visitors enter from the west through a courtyard framed by two stone walls with two old cannon set into them and ceramic tiles underfoot. The breezeway itself carries applied ornament, among it a metal car from the Jacksonville Austin Healy Club, part of a wood mantel and graffiti left by visitors, and a deck across the ocean side ends in a stairway to the sand.

The restaurant building has a shed roof extension wrapping three sides, carried on log posts two stories in height, with three outrigger type timbers at its south end, and its second floor holds five rental units opening onto the balcony, the form says. Sexton reportedly built without a master plan, by shouted verbal orders to the builders, and amassed 250 bells from churches, trains, ships and schools (registration form).

The Driftwood Inn and Restaurant were listed in 1994 for their role in turning Vero Beach into a resort town and for their link to Waldo Sexton, under National Register Criteria A and B at the local level.

The form, prepared by the Bureau of Historic Preservation in Tallahassee, says the buildings matter under Criterion A for their impact on the local economy and the growth of Vero Beach as a resort and tourist center, and under Criterion B for their connection to an important Vero Beach businessman (National Register registration form). It counts two contributing buildings on approximately 2 acres, records the Florida Master Site File number 8IR00787, and states that by 1991 the Driftwood Resort was generating $2 million annually for the local economy. The NPS record lists the period of significance as 1925 to 1949, significant years 1935 and 1947, and a publication date of 8/6/1994 (NPGallery record).

Locally, the City of Vero Beach Historic Preservation Commission reviews National Register nominations inside the city, and the city's list of 13 listed properties includes the Driftwood alongside the Vero Theatre and the Indian River County Courthouse (City of Vero Beach National Register list).

The Driftwood complex in Vero Beach grew with apartment buildings in the 1960s, became interval ownership in 1979, and was repaired after hurricane damage in 2004.

The operator's history lists a small office in 1949, a row of fishing shacks moved in that year as guest rooms, a 15 unit apartment building west of the Breezeway in 1963 and a four story building to the south in 1965, and says every unit was converted to interval ownership in 1979 (Driftwood property page). The registration form confirms the 1979 conversion and says virtually all of the inn's windows and most of its doors were replaced then; it adds that the Breezeway interior layout has been considerably modified, with some of the open trusses, wood beams, porthole stained glass and cypress paneling retained (registration form).

The shoreline has moved too. The 1994 form notes that early photographs showed the inn's first floor a foot or two above a wide beach, while erosion had left it about twelve feet above the sand by the time of the nomination (registration form). The Driftwood's beach lies in Indian River County's Sector 5, which runs 2.6 miles through the City of Vero Beach from about half a mile north of Tracking Station Beach Park to about a quarter mile south of the Riomar Beach Access and is the most densely developed part of the county coastline, with hotels and resorts; its Beach Preservation Plan recommends beach and dune renourishment every 5 to 7 years, contingent on funding (Indian River County beach management sectors).

The way to see the inside of the Driftwood in Vero Beach is a meal at Waldo's or a stay at the resort, reached from Ocean Drive, with the city's Humiston Beach Park also on Ocean Drive at 3000 Ocean Dr.

The operator's home page lists Waldo's Restaurant for lunch and dinner oceanside with happy hour seven days a week, and the resort's line, 772-231-0550, for rooms (Historic Driftwood Resort). The registration form places the buildings about 200 feet back from Ocean Drive, the main north and south road along the Vero Beach beachfront, with a swimming pool and wood deck between the inn and the restaurant (registration form). The operator says anyone is free to ring a bell or two (Historic Driftwood Resort).

For a public beach day on the same road, the City of Vero Beach lists Humiston Beach Park at 3000 Ocean Dr., Vero Beach, FL 32963, with the Recreation Department, 772-567-2144, as its contact (Humiston Beach Park listing). Opening hours, prices and room rates at the Driftwood itself come only from the operator, which asks guests to call 772-231-0550 for room availability (Historic Driftwood Resort).