09/07/2026
LABOR DAY FIND!
“Labor Day 1953: 6,000 People Show Up for the City Park Dedication, Known Then as Seaside Park”
From the Archives:
What a gem to find during Labor Day week! I am so happy to finally be back in the archives after years of hurricane repairs, exploring the many unknown boxes filled with “who knows.”
This 1953 newspaper clipping was one of my first discoveries—and what perfect timing.
The full Florida State News article, written by Times-Union Staff Writer Dennis Mason, is transcribed below for easy reading.
So much more to come!
Happy Labor Day!
—Anna White Hodges, Executive Director
Cedar Key Historical Society Museum
_____________________________________
Tuesday, September 8, 1953
Florida State News
Big Crowd Helps Cedar Key Celebrate Opening of Park
Coast Community in Levy Has One of Biggest Days in History as Seaside Project Is Put to Use
By Dennis Mason
Times-Union Staff Writer
CEDAR KEY, Sept. 7— Some 6,000 Central Florida neighbors today joined Cedar Key citizens in celebrating the opening of the city’s new recreational area, the State Road Department seaside park.
It was one of the biggest days in this community’s history, and it came off in fine bright weather. Mayor Bill Delaino and State Sen. Randolph Hodges concurred in declaring it the largest crowd the city had ever entertained during their lifelong residence here.
The festivities centered around the new park, recently completed as a joint state-county-city project at a cost of approximately $100,000. The park, some two acres in area, is located on the waterfront in the eastern part of the town.
Begun earlier in the year, under the direction of former Road Department Chairman Alfred McKethan, the project has just received its finishing touches with the assistance of the present Road Department chairman, Richard Simpson.
Both the chairman and the former chairman were on hand today as guests of honor. McKethan said that today was probably the most important day in the history of Cedar Key and that he hoped for a great future for the community as a recreational area.
In one of the day’s principal addresses, Simpson reiterated that thought. He gave credit for a great deal of the groundwork for the park to local citizens, including Sen. Hodges and Rep. Frank Marshburn.
Without the inspiration and wholehearted support and co-operation of the citizens of Levy County and Cedar Key, Simpson said, the project might never have been undertaken. The park crystallized a long time dream of the local groups.
Other speakers included Rep. D. R. Matthews, congressman from the Eighth District of which Levy County is a part, and who flew down from Washington to be on hand for the program, and Charles Bevis, state supervisor of conservation.
The whole community participated in preparation for the Labor Day program, with many civic and church groups contributing materially with refreshments and other services.
Primary contributors to the food supply were employes of the Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission, who converged on Cedar Key well in advance in order to catch and prepare enough mullet and swamp cabbage to feed the multitude.
A half dozen or more of the conservation officers presided at the enormous syrup kettles which had been erected on the park as the means of frying the fish for the thousands. And they had prepared well, because no one was turned away unfed. The feast was free of charge.
Mullet by the thousands were fried to a crisp brown over the glowing coals of oak and pine, and hush puppies by additional thousands were prepared as an accompaniment, besides the hundreds of pounds of palmetto or swamp cabbage which the Game Commission men had brought in from Gulf Hammock during the week.
The program opened at 9:30 a.m. with a parade by students from the various schools of the county, led by their bands. The parade, through the downtown streets, was followed by the speaking program at the park.
The fish fry got under way at noon and was followed by a fiddlers contest and boat races. A baseball game between Cedar Key and the Gainesville team concluded the program.
The park, some 100,000 square feet or more in area, is of fill construction, with the sand having been pumped into a low area from the bottom of the Gulf.
It provides about 400 feet of frontage along the main street of Cedar Key, extending out past the tidal area where white sand was pumped up from the channel to provide a fine swimming beach.
The facilities of the park include restrooms, shelters and barbecue pits for picnickers, a bathing pier and diving tower, a dock and ramp for the handling of small boats, and an additional dock, wide enough to accommodate automobiles, which leads from the park area to an existing dock which accommodates restaurant and recreational facilities.
The park will assume a more finished appearance during the coming months with the planting of grass, shrubbery and trees by Road Department employes and local civic groups.
