Hobe Sound

General Contractor Serving Hobe Sound Florida

Hobe Sound got it’s name from the village name of Jaega, a Native American group that lived in the area before European settlement. The Spanish recorded the village name as Jobe or Jove until Jonathan Dickinson, was shipwrecked near the town in 1696, spelled the name of the village “Hoe-bey”.  Parts of Hobe Sound were included in the 12,000 acres (49 km2) of the Gomez grant given by Spain to Don Eusebio in 1815. In 1821, Gomez sold 8,000 acres (32 km2), including Jupiter Island, to Joseph Delespine for $1 per acre.

Shortly after the turn of the 20th century, Henry Flagler built his railroad along the east coast of Florida passing through Hobe Sound. This gradually created many opportunities including jobs, the birth of tourism, and other related industries.

During the land boom of the 1920s elaborate plans were announced for Hobe Sound by the Olympia Improvement Corporation.

Their goal was to create a town, in Greek style, where motion pictures could be produced. Street names bore the Greek theme with names such as Zeus, Saturn, Mercury, Mars, Olympus, Venus, Pluto and Athena. For a brief time Hobe Sound was renamed “Picture City” and plans were presented for a movie picture production center. The boom collapsed after the 1928 Okeechobee hurricane and the original name was restored. Street names remained, however, as did the cement streetlights along Dixie Highway.

In 1924, the building which soon would become the new schoolhouse in Hobe Sound was constructed. The Martin County Board of Public Instruction secured the use of the new school building from the Picture City Corporation in 1925, and in October of that year, the Olympia School opened. The school was designated the “Picture City School” of Martin County. It remained in use as a school until 1962.

Many reference points of the past are gone, including the ice plant, which was south of Bridge Road, and the old train station, which now, refurbished and relocated west of Hobe Sound, serves as an office building for Becker Groves and the Texaco station east of the Winn-Dixie plaza, which no longer supplies gasoline but continues to serve the community with car rentals and a livery service, operated by its founding family

Hobe Sound is located at the southern end of Martin County and is considered to be an environmentally sensitive area.  It has been stated that at Hobe Sound’s front door lies the Gold Coast and that at her back door lies the Treasure Coast. Thus, Hobe Sound can lend to both while retaining its proud heritage and unique personality. Hobe Sound’s proximity to the coast affords immediate access to the Atlantic Ocean and the deep-channeled Intracoastal Waterway, a 1,200-mile (1,900 km) water route that provides a sheltered passage for boats along the eastern seaboard.

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