Our History

From the once bustling seaport where Florida's first constitution was signed to today's award-winning program to protect our bay, Port St. Joe is dedicated to preserving its past, and future.

A visit to Centennial Museum offers exciting exhibits where you can learn how Florida's Constitution was drafted in Port St. Joe, in 1838, view artifacts from our coastal American Indian heritage and climb aboard a steam engine. The Lake Wimico and St. Joseph Canal and Railroad was the first steam railroad in Florida and one of the first in the U.S., opening in 1836. Also on the grounds of the museum is the Constitution Convention State Memorial monument, erected in 1922, to commemorate the birth of the great state of Florida. It's a popular place for photos under the huge oaks.

A short drive away is the Old St. Joseph Cemetery, where you can view grave markers memorializing many prominent Florida statesmen and the ship captain that brought the yellow fever epidemic from the Antilles, in 1841.

Today, Port St. Joe is a progressive city dedicated to protecting its maritime heritage and ecological assets. Through a new program funded by the Northwest Florida Water Management District through the Florida Forever Grant Program, Buck Griffin Lake was constructed, in 2006, to improve the water quality that discharges into St. Joe Bay. The Lake project was recently ranked number one in the state of Florida crediting the quality of water and the urgency to protect the water in the bay. The new Port City Trail winds past the lake with fountains, picnic pavilions and boardwalks. Two smaller ponds have been constructed close to the bay providing the same benefit to the downtown areas of Port St. Joe by retaining surface runoff in the ponds, reducing the velocity of the water and allowing potential pollutants to settle out before reaching one of Florida's most pristine aquatic preserves