Daytona Beach, Florida


Daytona Beach is a coastal resort city in Volusia County, Florida, United States. Located on the East Coast of the United States, its population was 72,647 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Deltona–Daytona Beach–Ormond Beach metropolitan area, and is a principal city of the Fun Coast region of Florida.
Daytona Beach is historically known for its beach, where motorized vehicles are permitted on some hard-packed sand beaches. Motorsports on the beach became popular, and the Daytona Beach and Road Course hosted races for over 50 years, replaced in 1959 by Daytona International Speedway. The city is the headquarters of NASCAR.

History

At the time of European contact, the area where Daytona Beach is located was inhabited by the Freshwater people, a branch of the Timucua. The town of Nocoroco in what is now Tomoka State Park was the most important in the region. The villages of Caçaroy and Cicale were a short distance south of there. The southernmost Timucua town was Caparaca, in present-day New Smyrna Beach. There were only small hamlets between Cicale and Caparaca. Turtle Mound, south of New Smyrna Beach, was the site of the town of Surruque, belonging to the Surruque people, whose territory extended south to Cape Canaveral. Like other Indigenous peoples in Florida, the Freshwater Timucua and Surruque were nearly exterminated by contact with Europeans through war, enslavement, and disease and became extinct as racial entities through assimilation and attrition during the 18th century. The Seminole Indians, descendants of Creek Indians from Georgia and Alabama, frequented the area prior to the Second Seminole War.
During the era of British rule of Florida between 1763 and 1783, the King's Road passed through present-day Daytona Beach. The road extended from Saint Augustine, the capital of East Florida, to Andrew Turnbull's experimental colony in New Smyrna. In 1804, Samuel Williams received a land grant of from the Spanish Crown, which had regained Florida from the British after the American Revolutionary War. This land grant encompassed the area that would become Daytona Beach. Williams built a slave labor-based plantation to grow cotton, rice, and sugar cane. His son Samuel Hill Williams abandoned the plantation during the Second Seminole War, when the Seminoles burned it to the ground.
The area now known as the Daytona Beach Historical District was once the Orange Grove Plantation, a citrus and sugarcane plantation granted to Samuel Williams in 1787. The plantation was situated on the west bank of the tidal channel known as the Halifax River, 12 miles north of Mosquito Inlet. Williams was a British loyalist from North Carolina who fled to the Bahamas with his family until the Spanish reopened Florida to non-Spanish immigration. After his death in 1810, the plantation was run by his family until it was burned down in 1835. In 1871, Mathias Day Jr. of Mansfield, Ohio, purchased the 3,200-acre tract of the former Orange Grove Plantation. He built a hotel around which the initial section of town arose. In 1872, due to financial troubles, Day lost title to his land; nonetheless, residents decided to name the city Daytona in his honor, and incorporated the town in 1876.
In 1886, the St. Johns & Halifax River Railway arrived in Daytona. The line was purchased in 1889 by Henry M. Flagler, who made it part of his Florida East Coast Railway. The separate towns of Daytona, Daytona Beach, Kingston, and Seabreeze merged as "Daytona Beach" in 1926, at the urging of civic leader J. B. Kahn and others. By the 1920s, it was dubbed "the World's Most Famous Beach".
Daytona's wide beach of smooth, compacted sand attracted automobile and motorcycle races beginning in 1902, as pioneers in the industry tested their inventions. It hosted land speed record attempts beginning in 1904, when William K. Vanderbilt set an unofficial record of. Land speed racers from Barney Oldfield to Henry Segrave to Malcolm Campbell would visit Daytona repeatedly and make the beach course famous. Record attempts, including numerous fatal endeavors such as Frank Lockhart and Lee Bible, would continue until Campbell's March 7, 1935 effort, which set the record at and marked the end of Daytona's land speed racing days.
On March 8, 1936, the first stock car race was held on the Daytona Beach Road Course, located in the present-day Town of Ponce Inlet. In 1958, William France Sr. and NASCAR created the Daytona International Speedway to replace the beach course. Automobiles are still permitted on most areas of the beach, at a maximum speed of.
Daytona Beach was severely damaged during the 2004 Atlantic hurricane season, especially by Hurricane Charley. In 2005, the city designated the several–mile radius around Main Street on the barrier island portion of the city as a blighted area and has targeted it for redevelopment by private developers. This follows the Supreme Court decision of the eminent domain case in Kelo v. City of New London, which upheld the right of municipalities to use eminent domain to take private property for redevelopment by private entities.

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of, of which are covered by water.
The city of Daytona Beach is split in two by the Halifax River lagoon, part of the Intracoastal Waterway, and sits on the Atlantic Ocean. It is bordered on the north by Holly Hill and Ormond Beach and on the south by Daytona Beach Shores, South Daytona, and Port Orange.
Notable weather events that have caused damage or injury in Daytona Beach include Hurricane Donna in 1960, the 1998 Kissimmee tornado outbreak, and Hurricane Charley in 2004. In 1992, a long rogue wave with a high crest hit Daytona Beach, causing property damage and 75 reported injuries.

Climate

Daytona Beach has a humid subtropical climate, which is typical of the Gulf and South Atlantic states. As is typical of much of Florida, two seasons are seen in Daytona Beach - the warmer, wetter season and the cooler and drier season.
In summer, temperatures are relatively stable with an average of only 8 days annually with a maximum at or above ; the last reading was seen on August 2, 1999. The Bermuda High pumps hot and unstable tropical air from the Bahamas and Gulf of America, resulting in daily, but brief thundershowers. This results in the months of June through September accounting for most of the average annual rainfall of.
In winter, Daytona Beach has weather conditions typical of other cities on the Florida peninsula. On average, the coolest month is January, with a normal monthly mean temperature of. It is the only month where the average high temperature falls below. Occasional cold fronts can bring freezes, which from 1991 to 2020 were seen on an average of 3.0 nights annually; however, minima below are very rare, and were last seen on December 28, 2010. Like much of Florida, Daytona Beach often can be very dry in late winter and early spring, and brush fires and water restrictions can be an issue.
Official record temperatures range from on January 21, 1985, up to on July 15, 1981, and June 24, 1944; the record cold daily maximum is on Christmas Day 1983, while, conversely, the record warm daily minimum is on September 1 and 10–11, 2008, and August 25, 2020. Annual rainfall has ranged from in 2006 and 1956, up to in 1953. The most rainfall to have occurred in a calendar day was on October 10, 1924, which contributed to of rain that fell that month, the most of any calendar month.
Climate data for Daytona Beach-------------
MonthJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDecYear
Average sea temperature °F 61.0
59.0
64.9
71.4
76.5
79.5
80.1
80.4
82.6
77.5
71.1
64.9
72.4
Mean daily daylight hours11.011.012.013.014.014.014.013.012.011.011.010.012.2
Average Ultraviolet index468101011111097547.9
Source #1: NOAA Coastal Water Temperature Guide-------------
Source #2: Weather Atlas-------------

Demographics

2010 and 2020 census

As of the 2020 United States census, 72,647 people, 28,763 households, and 14,607 families resided in the city.
As of the 2010 United States census, 61,005 people, 25,093 households, and 12,234 families lived in the city.

2000 census

As of 2000, 18.0% had children under 18 living with them, 30.1% were married couples living together, 14.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 51.6% were not families. Of all households, 39.4% were made up of individuals, and 14.4% had someone living alone who was 65 or older. The average household size was 2.06 and the average family size was 2.77.
In 2000, 17.6% of the population was under 18, 16.6% was from 18 to 24, 25.6% from 25 to 44, 20.5% from 45 to 64, and 19.7% was 65 or older. The median age was 37 years. For every 100 females, there were 99.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 98.5 males.
In 2000, the median income for a household in the city was $25,439, and for a family was $33,514. Males had a median income of $25,705 versus $20,261 for females. The per capita income for the city was $17,530. 23.6% of the population and 16.9% of families were below the poverty line. Of the total population, 34.9% of those under 18 and 12.1% of those 65 and older were living below the poverty line.