City of Satellite Beach
50th Birthday Celebration
Percy Hedgecock
Satellite Beach Founding Father
& First Mayor
Percy Hedgecock was the son of a North Carolina bookkeeper-turned farmer. One of eight children, Percy passed though several jobs prior to purchasing a “beer joint” near where he grew up, removing all alcohol from the premise, and turning it into a successful alcohol-free general store. When a friend’s house burned, Percy rebuilt it in 10 days for 60 percent of what others quoted for the job. With this success, Percy became a builder as well as proprietor of the general store.
After 3 years operating a successful construction business, Percy became displeased with the harsh North Carolina winters. In 1952 he, along with two brothers and a first cousin, moved to Miami. Starting with four lots, the four did well constructing homes. However, he did not like the crowded conditions in Miami. After two years, on the advise of a friend, the four began looking for oceanfront property to purchase and develop in Brevard County south of Cape Canaveral. After several unsuccessful efforts to purchase oceanfront and south of Melbourne Beach, a plumber working for Percy offered to sell him a 130-acre tract extending from the ocean to the Banana River 3 miles south of Patrick Air Force Base in unincorporated
Brevard County. In a rising real estate market, Percy was offered $40,000 for the $5,00 deposit note he held on the property. In November 1955 Percy completed the purchase of the property.
In July 1956 the extended Hedgecock family moved from Miami to Brevard County and began building homes for themselves on their purchased property. It took over 3 months to get electrical service to the property and over 8 months to get telephone service – an instrument mounted on a utility pole along the coastal highway traversing the property, SR A1A. After 5 months they had completed their homes and three 1,500 square foot models. Within the first hour of opening day for their models they had sold two for cash. The next workday they began construction on three more houses. By design, the brothers and cousin were building larger homes for those space program employees who had the money to afford them. They were endeavoring to build an upscale community.
At that time Brevard County had no zoning, no building inspections, and no recreation program. All that was required to become a building contractor was $5 for a license. Percy and his relatives were concerned about the lack of zoning and building inspections and low level of support for recreational programs by the County, so they had a city charter drawn up and approved by the State Legislature in May 1957. On August 3, 1957, 56 of 57 eligible voters participated in a referendum on incorporation; the other individual was down range. The result was 46 to 10 for incorporation.
During the process of preparing the City charter (which needed to include an interim appointed Council and Mayor), Percy was nominated to serve as the first Mayor. He declined the nomination. He believed he was not qualified. Only after three days of people urging him to accept the nomination did Percy do so. He subsequently was elected Mayor in eight consecutive elections until he resigned in 1973. He had the longest continuous tenure as Mayor of any individual in Brevard County at the time. He stated on leaving that he had looked forward to resigning for three years, but remained in office until two major City projects, resurfacing streets and building a City detention center (jail), were completed. He supervised these projects, as he did all other City building projects until his resignation, to say the City the cost of contractor’ fees,
City business was run from the home of one of the original Council members, whose wife served as the first City Clerk. All the City officials served without pay. The tradition of volunteerism evident at the very first is the legacy, which remains with this City.
Percy repeatedly donated land to the City for public facilities, and he encouraged other large landowners to do the same. The result is a wealth of recreational facilities supporting active athletic programs for youth. During the 1960’s, 1970’s and 1980’s the Hedgecocks led the City in donating generously of funds and time to support and equip a multitude of youth and adult baseball and softball teams. These included eight national and world championship teams, both men’s and women’s from 10 years to adults. Two of the City’s players, were Percy’s daughters, Judy Hedgecock and Virginia Johnson, are in the Softball Hall of Fame. The city also has hosted 13 national and world softball tournaments, staffed entirely by volunteers from the community. In 1981 the Amateur Softball Association approved the City’s slogan, “Junior Softball Capital of the World”. Percy’s belief was that “Junior softball does the policeman’s job”.
While he served on the County School Board, Percy negotiated the sale of an 80-acre tract along the northern border of the City on which eventually was built a complete K-12 public school complex with associated athletic fields. The junior-senior high school initially built on this property was the first integrated school in the County. He sold a piece of land he owned in the center of the City to the School Board at a loss to ensure construction of the City’s first elementary school. Percy and citizens moved the furniture into the building to permit it to open at the start of the school year. The original City library (renovated into a new City Hall in 1991), an expanded Civic Center, and a ball field were built on land, which Percy acquired at a deep discount from a developer in the neighboring city. The City’s boundary was changed to accommodate the new property. Percy also convinced a large landowner in the City to donate 30 acres on a spoil island on the western boundary of the City for a public recreation park, Samsons Island (to which the City added a like amount by purchase. In the same spirit, the City donated a swimming pool to the City’s high school. Percy also was instrumental in acquisition by the County of over 6 acres of oceanfront property, which today is Pelican Beach Park.
Percy Hedgecock was generous both publicly and in private. When Percy won a new Edsel car that had been raffled off to pay for the City’s first civic center, he donated the car back to be auctioned off. The proceeds were used to buy lighting for a new baseball field. Privately, it was common for him to personally hold the mortgage on a house he had sold. After the owners had paid on the mortgage for a number of years and became well integrated into the community, he not infrequently relieved them of further payments. This was especially important for those families, which would otherwise have lost their homes due to bad health or loss of employment. The bulk of these transactions are known only to those directly involved.
In addition to his role as Pater Familis for the City of Satellite Beach, Percy was deeply involved in a wide variety of community affairs spanning Brevard
County:
- He made trips to Southeast Asia and the Soviet Union to seek out Americans missing in action from the Vietnam War and to promote international cooperation.
- 1981 inducted into the American Softball Association Hall of Honor for his support of youth athletic programs and sponsorship of championship teams.
- Charter official of the Lions Club
- Served on the Board of Directors for the South Brevard YMCA
- Served on the Board of Directors of the Brevard Training Center
- Charter Board director of the Brevard County United Appeal
- Contributed heavily to and helped raise funs to build the Brevard Hospital (now Holmes Regional Medical Center)
- Served on the Brevard County Board of Public Instruction (School Board) For 4 years
- Assisted with the founding of Brevard Engineering College, now Florida Institute of Technology
- Served on the Board of Trustees of FIT for six years
- Chairman of the school’s student affairs committee and athletic advisory council and founded the school’s scholarship fund
- In 1986, FIT named its gymnasium the Percy Hedgecock Gymnasium