Ormond Beach

Ormond Beach: the Casements

Ormond Beach, city, Volusia county, northeastern Florida, U.S. It lies on the Atlantic Ocean and the Halifax River (a lagoon separated from the Atlantic by barrier beaches), adjacent to Daytona Beach to the south. Primarily a resort, it has several miles of compact white sand, part of a beach that continues southward for 23 miles (37 km) along the Atlantic coast to Ponce de Leon Inlet.

Sugar plantations were established in the area in the 18th and early 19th centuries. About 1874 a colony from Connecticut settled the site and called it New Britain. When incorporated as a town in 1880, it was renamed for either James Ormond (who had died there in 1815 after coming from the Bahamas to live on a Spanish land grant) or his family. Henry M. Flagler, a railroad pioneer and resort promoter, bought and enlarged the Hotel Ormond (1888), and several large estates developed, including John D. Rockefeller’s winter home, the Casements (now a city cultural centre). Early in the 20th century industrialists Henry Ford, Ransom E. Olds, Louis Chevrolet, and others tested automobiles on the Ormond-Daytona beach, and several world land speed records were broken there.

Tourism remains the basis of Ormond Beach’s economy; manufacturing (including electrical equipment, metal products, sunscreen, and sunglasses) is also important. The Antique Car Show is an annual November event. The city is home to the Ormond Memorial Art Museum and Gardens; Tomoka State Park is to the north. Ormond became a city in 1930 and was renamed Ormond Beach in 1949. Pop. (2000) 36,301; Deltona–Daytona Beach–Ormond Beach Metro Area, 443,343; (2010) 38,137; Deltona–Daytona Beach–Ormond Beach Metro Area, 494,593.