Hopkins, Florida

Last updated April 07, 2019

Hopkins, also known as South Melbourne, is a former town in Brevard County, Florida, United States. It is part of the present-day city of Melbourne.

Brevard County is a county in the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2010 census, the population was 543,376, the 10th most populated county in Florida. The official county seat has been located in Titusville since 1894. Brevard County comprises the Palm Bay–Melbourne–Titusville, FL Metropolitan Statistical Area. It is located along the east Florida coast and bordered by the Atlantic Ocean.

The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico. The State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The extremely diverse geography, climate, and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.

Melbourne is a city in Brevard County, Florida, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 76,068. The municipality is the second-largest in the county by both size and population. Melbourne is a principal city of the Palm Bay – Melbourne – Titusville, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. In 1969 the city was expanded by merging with nearby Eau Gallie.

Town of Hopkins, Florida

The former town of Hopkins was developed by George W. Hopkins after he formed the Union Cypress Company on the south side of Crane Creek in present-day Melbourne, Florida. This is where Hopkins constructed cypress and pine sawmills in the years between 1910 and 1915. Hopkins also purchased nearly 100,000 acres (400 km²) in southwestern Brevard County and Osceola County. Hopkins constructed the Union Cypress Railroad to transport timber from Deer Park in Osceola county to his mills south of Melbourne. The Hopkins operation became the company town of Hopkins, employing up to 500 men at its peak, complete with a company store, hospital, post office and FEC railroad depot.^[1]

George W. Hopkins was a lumberman involved in the removal of tens of thousands of acres of virgin forests in Michigan and Florida.

The Union Cypress Company operated a three-story double-band sawmill in Melbourne, Florida, built in 1912. The small company town of Hopkins, named after its owner George W. Hopkins, was built at the site. The company built a private railroad, often known as the Union Cypress Company Railroad, west from a connection with the Florida East Coast Railway in Melbourne across the St. Johns River to Deer Park. From there, where the logging operation was based, branch lines fanned out into the bald cypress swamps.

Crane Creek is a 3.3-mile-long (5.3 km) stream in Melbourne, Florida, United States. It is a tributary of the Indian River, with its mouth in the vicinity of Front Street.

Hopkins Lumber Products

Hopkins became the most successful businessman in Brevard County in the early 1900s. He worked with his son-in-law, William H. Kempfer, to promote the settlement of Deer Park. His products were shipped throughout the state on the Florida East Coast Railroad. Many of the original bridges, including the first to span the Indian River at Cocoa, were built with Union Cypress products.^[2] The Hopkins cypress mill burned to the ground in 1920, but was rebuilt. The mill continued to operate after George Hopkins died in 1925, supplying lumber and building products for the building boom of the twenties. The Hopkins sawmills finally closed after the Deer Park site had been stripped of its most valuable timber. The Kempfer Sawmill continues to operate near Deer Park, providing cypress and mulch for Brevard and Osceola Counties.^[3]

Indian River (Florida) waterway in Florida

The Indian River is a 121-mile (195 km) long brackish lagoon in Florida, and is part of the Indian River Lagoon system, which in turn forms part of the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway.

Cocoa is a city in Brevard County, Florida. The population was 17,140 at the 2010 United States Census. It is part of the Palm Bay–Melbourne–Titusville Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Notes

↑ Nance, Ellwood C. et al., The East Coast of Florida, p. 320-321; "Brevard County," East Coast Advocate, Illustrated Supplement, Apr. 4, 1916, p. 4;
↑ "Completion and Opening of a Great Bridge," Cocoa Tribune, Jul. 26, 1917
↑ Eriksen, John M. Brevard County, Florida : A Short History to 1955 Chapter 9.

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References

McCarthy, Kevin M. (2007). African American Sites in Florida. Pineapple Press. p. 18. ISBN 1-56164-385-8.

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[1] Nance, Ellwood C. et al., The East Coast of Florida, p. 320-321; "Brevard County," East Coast Advocate, Illustrated Supplement, Apr. 4, 1916, p. 4;

[2] "Completion and Opening of a Great Bridge," Cocoa Tribune, Jul. 26, 1917

[3] Eriksen, John M. Brevard County, Florida : A Short History to 1955 Chapter 9.