History of Rockledge, Florida
Rockledge takes its name from the ledges of coquina rock along its Indian River shore. Gardner S. Hardee, who came in 1868, named a tract Rock Ledge after the outcrop, and Rockledge was incorporated in 1887. The National Park Service's history of the town calls it Brevard's first incorporated municipality, though the NPS form for Titusville dates that town's incorporation vote to November 1886. Rockledge became a city in April 1925. It shares a boundary with Cocoa, its neighbor to the north, and in 1879 it was one of the two towns that lost the county-seat vote to Titusville.
It stayed small for a long time: the census counted 453 people in 1920 and 1,347 in 1950. The space program changed that, and by 1970 Rockledge had 10,523 residents.
Population, census by census
| Census | Population |
|---|---|
| 1920 | 453 |
| 1930 | 551 |
| 1940 | 725 |
| 1950 | 1,347 |
| 1960 | 3,481 |
| 1970 | 10,523 |
| 1980 | 11,877 |
| 1990 | 16,023 |
| 2010 | 24,926 |
| 2020 | 27,678 |
Every article, in order
Each article on this site, grouped by the period it covers.
Before 1900
- Rockledge incorporated August 7, 1887: how it became a town, and the Titusville question
- Hotel Indian River: Rockledge's winter resort hotel, from the 1880s to its 1920s rebuild
- The Indian River steamboats at Rockledge, 1880s to 1893
- The railroad reaches Rockledge, 1893
- Rockledge citrus before and after the 1894-95 freeze
1900 to 1949
- Rockledge Country Club: from the 1924 Poinsett Golf and Country Club to the Florida Historic Golf Trail
- The 1920s land boom at Rockledge: Valencia Road, a new city charter, and the bust
- Wuesthoff Hospital, 1941 to 2025: Rockledge's hospital, from founding to demolition
1950 to 1979
1980 to today
- Viera: the Duda family's ranch land and the planned community built on it since 1989
- Rockledge High School football: the Raiders and the back-to-back 3A titles of 2001 and 2002
Places, people and institutions
- Brevard County government at Viera, and why the seat is still Titusville
- Cocoa and Rockledge: two towns from one family's land, side by side ever since
- Rockledge Drive Residential Historic District: what's listed and why
- The 1950s and 1960s boom that made Rockledge a city of 10,000
- The coquina ledge that gave Rockledge its name
Sources for this page
- National Park Service, National Register Multiple Property Documentation Form, Titusville Multiple Property Group
- U.S. Census Bureau, 1970 Census of Population, Number of Inhabitants: Florida, Table 7 (1920-1970 counts)
- City of Rockledge, Community Redevelopment Agency 2023 Annual Report (2020 Census count)
- National Park Service, National Register Multiple Property Documentation Form, Historic and Architectural Resources of Rockledge
- U.S. Census Bureau, 1990 CPH-2-11, Population and Housing Unit Counts: Florida, Table 10 (1980 and 1990)
- U.S. Census Bureau, QuickFacts (2010 and 2020 census counts)