neighborhood
Seaside
Seaside is the 80-acre town on 30A that started New Urbanism in 1981, with picket fences, brick streets and a central square on the Gulf.
A planned Gulf-front town on Scenic 30A.
Robert Davis inherited 80 acres from his grandfather, who had bought it in 1946 as a family summer retreat. In 1981 Davis and his wife, Daryl, started building with two houses, one street and a beach pavilion. Architects Andrés Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk drew the master plan and the town code that every house still follows.
What to notice
Every street ends at the Gulf, and each beach walkover has its own pavilion, no two alike. Houses sit close to the street behind porches and picket fences, so the place feels like a small town. A 1984 Southern Living feature put Seaside on the map, and it has grown to more than 300 homes plus shops and restaurants around Central Square.
The Truman Show
Seaside played the town of Seahaven in the 1998 film. The Truman House is on Natchez Street, and you can walk past it, but it's a private home.
Nearby
Watersound and Alys Beach are a few minutes east on 30A, and Rosemary Beach, designed 15 years after Seaside, is about seven miles east. Grayton Beach State Park is just west. Seaside's own site covers the town's history.
Explore nearby
Community in Walton County