Welcome to the North End!
The term “north end” has several different meanings in our town. So let me clarify. First of all, it’s an actual geographic location in the City of Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island, and I’ll touch on the city and island nomenclature debate later. The north end is the neighborhood that sits north of Main Beach Park, east of Fort Clinch, and west of the Atlantic Ocean. A small strip of sand that is roughly a quarter mile wide and a mile and a half long. It’s filled with old and new houses, from the tiny and dilapidated to the humongous and obscene. For most of the tourism offseason, if there even is one anymore, a large portion of these houses sit vacant as vacation rentals or vacation homes for the visitors from the north. The only full-time residents being locals lucky enough to have carved out a small corner for themselves. Those few include legendary local surfers, musicians, small business owners, food truck owners, artists, craftsmen, and deer on their nightly hunt for sea oats. A large portion of the area is still unpaved, sandy roads. And a whole eastern portion of Fletcher avenue that runs along the beach has lost the land lots to the sand dunes. The city has deemed them unfit for construction and habitation, unless you’re a sea turtle building a nest. You can still buy and sell the lots, but it’s only for conservation and bragging rights at this point.
The north end also refers to a general surf spot in the same area. As in getting a text that says, “quick strike NE, you in?” It’s one of those typical Florida beach break surf spots. Fickle is putting it mildly, but with the right weather conditions it can be the best the island has to offer.
That brings me to the more controversial meaning of the north end. Amelia Island used to be referred to as Fernandina Beach. Some time ago, long before I got here, a certain group of people, decided that “Fernandina Beach” didn’t sound fancy enough. So a push was made to refer to everything as Amelia Island instead of Fernandina Beach. The City of Fernandina Beach basically encompasses the north half of the island, while the south half is under county rule. And therein lies the split and the controversy. The south half of the island is mostly made up of large expensive houses, golf courses, high end resorts, celebrity living, and an airport supplying private access.
The northern half of the island starts somewhere around Sadler road and extends up to the northern tip at Fort Clinch. This is the area that I like to refer to as the heart and soul of the island. There’s Downtown that hosts restaurants, shops, live music venues, Florida’s oldest bar, art galleries, gas stations turned into burger joints, an old school house turned into a boutique inn, bed and breakfasts, the main marina, historical houses, and many more attractions. There’s Old Town which is home to the rich history of the shrimping industry. Just south of Old Town is one of two paper mills and the adjacent “mill house” neighborhood. To the east is the “highland” neighborhood that runs adjacent to Egan’s Creek and also houses the lighthouse. And there is much more. But what holds all of these neighborhoods together is the people, the creatives, the small business owners, the entrepreneurs, the risk takers, the heart and soul of the Island. On our block alone there is a retired local shrimper, a small business owner, a retired City of Fernandina Beach commissioner, a landscaper, contractors, anglers, realtors, and five surfers. This pattern repeats itself in neighborhoods all over the north end of the Island.
That all being said, the south end has much to offer too. Being a relative newcomer to the island, I’m not caught up so much in the debate of what to call this little slice of heaven. The first time I drove down A1A to the end of the island and over to Talbot Island, I was rewarded with an absolutely stunning view of what old Florida must have looked like. I am told it is one of the few places on the eastern seaboard where you can still see the somewhat untouched beauty of Florida’s natural landscape.
My point is, this newsletter isn’t just about the north end geographically, but more about the heart and soul of the island, its people, and its surrounding areas. The heart and soul of Amelia Island, and Fernandina Beach is wherever the people here make it.