It was 1981. Seaside was barely a town — just two cottages on a road called Tupelo Street and a whole lot of white sand dunes. There were no shops, no restaurants, no foot traffic to speak of. But Daryl had a feeling that if she could create a reason for people to stop, something might begin to grow.
She was right.
What started as a simple fruit and vegetable stand on Highway 30-A slowly became the heartbeat of a community finding itself. Fresh flowers, French baguettes, blackberries she picked herself on Fridays — and eventually, a tapped keg on Saturday afternoons that drew neighbors, strangers, and anyone curious about this unusual little town rising from the dunes. The Seaside Saturday Market was born, and with it, the spirit of everything The Seaside Style would one day become.
This is that story.
“In 1981, the first two Seaside cottages were underway on Tupelo Street,” says Daryl Rose Davis. “They became known as the Yellow House and the Red House. The Red House was designated as our sales office (in case we had any sales), and the Yellow House became our residence and served as a model house.”
During that primordial time, when Seaside was in infancy along the twenty-four-mile stretch of Scenic Highway 30-A, activity was scarce. The founders and town planners sought to create a community that would open its arms to artists, teachers, fellow visionaries, and families who shared their version of the American Dream. This pristine beach town welcomed new ideas while honoring old values. It was Daryl who became the catalyst for gaining some traction for the burgeoning town when she started a small roadside fruit stand near what would become the center of town, in front of Bud & Alley’s restaurant.
“One day, I came across two large spools that were abandoned on the side of the road by the electrical company,” Daryl recalls. “I realized if I turned them on their sides, I could use them as tables for my fruits and vegetables. We hauled them back to the center of Seaside, bought a couple of umbrellas somewhere, and I had the makings of a location for my first business.”
She continues, “I collected peach baskets from a fruit stand on Highway 331 and put colored tissue paper in them to display my veggies. I purchased fresh produce from a wholesale company called Dew Brothers and blackberries from Davis Blackberry Farm (no relation), which I had to pick for myself on Fridays. To prepare for my market days, I drove to Fort Walton Beach, thirty miles due west, to accumulate my wholesale veggies and fruits, French baguettes, and fresh flowers.”
After a while, the “Seaside Saturday Sunset Scene,” as Robert called it, began to catch on. A big draw was the free beer, he admits. They would tap a keg each weekend and enjoy brews with those who stopped by to pick up produce and admire the beach. In turn, the word began to spread about this unusual little community sprouting from the white-sand dunes, and the weekly gathering eventually became known as the Seaside Saturday Market.
“I think that the market was an attempt to begin a downtown and to compress the history of the evolution of a town, because towns almost always start at a crossroads with people buying and selling things,” says Robert. “Our crossroads was 30-A and a path to the beach that the folks at Seagrove Beach had carved over the years—we named it George’s Gorge”
The crossroads also became a center for family-friendly, good old-fashioned Americana with activities put on by the Davises and the locals who became the first Seaside fans. “We sponsored volleyball on the beach, sailboat regattas from Seaside to Grayton Beach and back, tall-tale contests, sandcastle-building contests, hayrides, watermelon seed–spitting contests, dancing under the stars, piano recitals on the bluff overlooking the Gulf at sunset, and outdoor movies,” Daryl recalls. A friend had passed on to Daryl a sixteen-millimeter projector that used massive film reels. Daryl ordered movies for the town’s visitors and locals and learned to be the projectionist, showing them on a handmade screen outdoors.
Daryl’s simple, organic idea to hail passersby with fruits and vegetables sowed the seeds that would sprout into a bustling beachside town. It was a way of making something happen and creating activity through some of the most basic human desires—community and kindness.
“On Sundays, Robert and I started cooking up the leftover produce from the stand into tomato sauce, strawberry jam, banana bread, and whatever else remained,” Daryl says. “What we didn’t anticipate was the effect of these aromas on house sales. We had visitors coming through our house—the Yellow House that doubled as the sales model. These smells created a strong association between Seaside and hominess.
Robert calls the concept of the market and the emotional connections it created “at least as important—probably more important—than the physical attributes of building a place.”
A veggie stand. Two electrical spools. A tapped keg on Saturday afternoons.
It wasn't much, until it was everything. The Seaside Saturday Market didn't just draw a crowd. It laid the foundation for a town, a community, and eventually, a brand built on the simple idea that life is better when it's lived together.
That idea still lives at the heart of The Seaside Style today.