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About Brevard County, Florida

Brevard County is located in the U.S. state of Florida, along the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. As of 2005, U.S. Census Bureau estimates the population is 531,250. Because of the presence of the John F. Kennedy Space Center, Brevard County is also known as the Space Coast.

The official county seat is Titusville, however nearly all county administration is performed from Viera. There has been no official change to the county seat since 1894. Since Brevard County extends so far from north to south, it has more than one county courthouse and police station. The government services are not centralized in one location, as they are in many American counties.

History:

Juan Ponce de León is said to have arrived in Florida at the shores of the future county in 1513.

The last naval battle of the American Revolutionary War was fought off the shores of Cape Canaveral in 1783, between the USS Alliance and the HMS Sybill.

"Mosquito County" was formed while the state was still a territory, and on some maps is absorbed into an unofficial "Leigh Read" county between 1839 and 1845. "Saint Lucia County" was created in 1844: it was renamed Brevard County in 1855 after George Washington Brevard: who served as Florida State Controller from 1854 to 1860. Between 1907 & 1910, St. Lucie County was created from the southern third of the county. There was a drive in the mid-1990s of creating a county out of the northern-third of the current county, but it did not pass.

In the 1800s the Hernandez-Capron Trail passed through the county.

In the early 1900's the Union Cypress Railroad was built from present day Lipscomb Rd and University Blvd west to Deer Park.

Starting in the early 1990s, there was discussion in the county, especially in the southern and central part of the county, to officially move the county seat from Titusville to what was at that time uninhabited cow pasture land, now called Viera. This move was surrounded by some controversy. While Viera provides a location for administration of the county nearer to the county's major population center (Melbourne and Palm Bay, the two largest cities in Brevard County, are 50 miles from Titusville), some suspected that the center of government was moved to enrich the owners of the once-valueless land. An amendment was put onto the ballot to default on the bonds which the county had issued to pay for the massive building project, but it failed.

In 1989, county administration was moved to a government complex at Viera, as part of a mid-county development project that included a Baseball Spring Training complex at Space Coast Stadium, and a master-planned community, known as Viera.

Interesting facts:

♦   Military installations in Brevard County include Patrick Air Force Base, near Satellite Beach, and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, adjacent to the Kennedy Space Center.

♦  Brevard County is the home of the Kennedy Space Center, as well as the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, the Canaveral National Seashore, the St. Johns National Wildlife Refuge, and the Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge.

♦  The area code for the entire county was made "321" in 1999: as in the "3...2...1... Lift Off!" countdown sequence.

♦  It is possible to observe a Cape Canaveral rocket launch or NASA Space Shuttle launch, from anywhere in the county, as well as experience related structural shuddering throughout most of the county.

Education

College education in Brevard County is provided by the Brevard Community College and Florida Tech in Melbourne, and the University of Central Florida in Cocoa and Palm Bay. The Brevard Community College is a two-year college, which has multiple campuses in the northern, central, and southern parts of this county. BCC also offers vocational programs that do not count for College credit and serve to meet the needs of the community. Florida Tech is a typical University which offers Bachelors, Masters, and Doctorate degrees, specializing in engineering and the sciences. There are also a few for-profit colleges such as Keiser College, Webster and Barry University. 

Make sure to check out our other neighborhoods: Viera, Suntree, Cape Canaveral,  Cocoa Beach, Merritt Island, Melbourne, Palm Bay, Satellite Beach, Titusville and the Brevard Beaches.