Vero Beach Places Guide: Nearby Towns, Gifford, Historic Districts and the Airport

Indian River Shores and Orchid are separate municipalities with their own town halls, not Vero Beach neighborhoods.

The Census Bureau lists both as towns (U.S. Census Bureau, 2024 Gazetteer place file for Florida), and Orchid describes itself as a small municipality on the barrier island (Town of Orchid, Quick Facts).

The Town of Indian River Shores runs its government from 6001 Highway A1A, Indian River Shores, FL 32963, phone 772-231-1771 (Town of Indian River Shores). The Indian River Shores guide explains what the town handles itself and what it buys from the City of Vero Beach, and the John's Island guide covers the large club community inside the town.

The Town of Orchid is bounded by Windsor to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, the Indian River Lagoon to the west and County Road 510 to the south, and covers 1.87 square miles. It was incorporated in 1965, when only 17 registered voters lived there, and now has between 400 and 500 residents, about 80% of them out of state in the summer months (Town of Orchid).

One Orchid detail trips up visitors: its town hall is not inside the town. The office is at 9301 Highway A1A, Suite 201, on the south end of Wabasso, open Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the town says the only property it owns inside its own boundaries is 109 streetlights (Town of Orchid). The Orchid guide covers the town and the Orchid Island Golf & Beach Club community it encompasses.

For an address that could fall either way, the City of Vero Beach offers an Am I a City or County Resident? lookup linked from its planning pages (City of Vero Beach, Neighborhoods). The Town of Orchid's own town hall carries a Vero Beach, Florida 32963 mailing address (Town of Orchid), so a Vero Beach 32963 address does not by itself place a property inside the city limits.

Gifford and Winter Beach are census-designated places, not towns or cities, and Gifford's neighborhood plan is a county plan.

The Census Bureau lists both as census-designated places rather than towns or cities (U.S. Census Bureau, 2024 Gazetteer place file for Florida), and Gifford's neighborhood plan is approved by the Indian River County Board of County Commissioners (Indian River County, Gifford Neighborhood Plan).

Gifford has its own county plan. Indian River County describes the Gifford Neighborhood Plan as a grass roots effort by the Progressive Civic League of Gifford, the Board of County Commissioners and Gifford residents; the first plan was undertaken in 2002, and the commission approved the updated Gifford Neighborhood Plan 2014 at its July 15, 2014 meeting (Indian River County). The newest yearly report card posted on that county page is the 2017 one, so the page shows the plan's start more clearly than its current progress.

Hosie Shumann Park, at 1760 39th Street, Vero Beach, holds the community's school history. The land was donated in 1901 to establish a school for the Black community of Gifford, and with support from the Julius Rosenwald Foundation the Gifford School grew from an elementary school into a high school; the two acre park now has a playground, a basketball court and picnic area, open daily from 7:00 a.m. until sunset (Indian River County, Hosie Shumann Park). The Gifford guide covers the community's settlement and present day.

Winter Beach began as Quay. A 2019 Florida historical marker records that in 1923 a road with bridges opened across the Indian River at the Narrows, running from Quay, later renamed Winter Beach, east to Jungle Trail on Orchid Island, and that the Winter Beach Bridge burned after World War II, leaving only pilings (Florida Division of Historical Resources marker). The Winter Beach guide covers the community, its pioneer cemetery and the bridge road.

The City of Vero Beach lists 13 properties on the National Register of Historic Places, from the Osceola Park Historic District and the Vero Beach Railroad Station to the Vero Theatre and the Vero Beach Diesel Power Plant (City of Vero Beach, National Register).

The rest of the Vero Beach list is the Driftwood Arcade, the Indian River County Courthouse, the Judge Henry F. Gregory House, the Maher Building, the Old Palmetto Hotel, the Pueblo Arcade, the Royal Park Arcade, the Vero Beach Community Building (now the Vero Heritage Center) and the Vero Beach Woman's Club. The city's Historic Preservation Commission reviews National Register nominations inside the city (City of Vero Beach).

The city's preservation history traces the town behind those buildings to the Indian River Farms Company, which bought 44,000 acres in present-day Indian River County in 1912, the final plat of the original Town of Vero was adopted in 1913, the City of Vero was incorporated in 1919, and in 1925 Vero became seat of the new Indian River County and was re-incorporated as Vero Beach (City of Vero Beach, A Brief History).

The Osceola Park Historic District guide covers the only historic district on the Vero Beach list, and the Riomar guide covers the 1919 golf colony neighborhood, which does not appear on the city's National Register list. The single buildings, such as the Vero Theatre, the railroad station and the diesel power plant, have their own guides in the Vero Beach landmarks section.

The place to research Vero Beach history is the Lowenstein Archive Center and Genealogy Department, on the second floor of the Indian River County Main Library at 1600 21st Street, Vero Beach, phone 772-400-6324 (Indian River County Library, Genealogy).

The Vero Beach Main Library opened on 1 February 1991 after a donation from the Julian W. Lowenstein family, and the archive department, named for Mr. Lowenstein, now fills 4000 square feet. It offers genealogy and newspaper databases, local history collections, microfilm and maps, and a document and photo scanner, and it relies on volunteers for indexing (Indian River County Library).

Much of the Indian River County indexing is searchable online before a visit. The county IRC History page posts keyword-searchable PDF indexes, including an index to more than 32,000 photographs printed in newspapers and other news media, with most of the items held in the vertical files of the Archive Center (Indian River County Library, IRC History indexes). The Archive Center guide covers its directories, pioneer family files and research tips.

Three airlines fly from Vero Beach Regional Airport as of October 15, 2026: Breeze Airways, JetBlue to Boston Logan, and American Airlines to Charlotte (Vero Beach Regional Airport, Airline Information).

Breeze serves the most Vero Beach routes: White Plains, Islip on Long Island, Providence, Hartford, New Haven, Washington Dulles and Raleigh Durham, plus Pittsburgh and Baltimore from October 1, 2026, Atlantic City from October 2, 2026 and Trenton from October 2026. JetBlue's Boston flights connect to New York JFK, and American adds seasonal Saturday service to Philadelphia beginning November 7, 2026 (Vero Beach Regional Airport).

Long-term parking at Vero Beach Regional Airport costs nothing. The lots on Airport Drive across from the terminal are free to the public but park at own risk, with minimal lighting, and the limit is 21 days; travelers staying longer are asked to give the airport the car's make, model, plate and an owner phone number (Vero Beach Regional Airport, Parking). The Vero Beach airport airlines guide covers the routes, the single gate and the terminal in more detail.

Each common question about places around Vero Beach has a guide that answers it in depth, and the table below pairs the question with the key fact and that guide.

The nine guides in the Vero Beach places section are Gifford, the Archive Center and Genealogy at the Main Library, Indian River Shores, John's Island, Orchid, the Osceola Park Historic District, Riomar, flying from Vero Beach Regional Airport, and Winter Beach.