History of Titusville, Florida
Titusville began in 1867, when Col. Henry T. Titus settled at a spot on the Indian River called Sand Point. He opened a store, built the Titus House hotel in 1870 and ran the post office, and in 1873 the post office name changed to Titusville. In 1879 Brevard County annexed the town from Volusia County and voters made it the county seat, which it still is. It incorporated in November 1886, when local men voted 58 to 2 for it, according to the National Park Service; the city's own history gives 1887.
A railroad spur from Enterprise came in the mid-1880s, and Henry Flagler's line began service in January 1893. The Great Freeze of 1894 to 1895 hit the town's citrus, and in December 1895 fire destroyed most of the wooden downtown. The second boom came with the space program across the river: Titusville grew from 6,410 people in 1960 to 30,515 in 1970.
Population, census by census
| Census | Population |
|---|---|
| 1900 | 756 |
| 1910 | 868 |
| 1920 | 1,361 |
| 1930 | 2,089 |
| 1940 | 2,220 |
| 1950 | 2,604 |
| 1960 | 6,410 |
| 1970 | 30,515 |
| 1980 | 31,910 |
| 1990 | 39,394 |
| 2010 | 43,761 |
| 2020 | 48,789 |
Every article, in order
Each article on this site, grouped by the period it covers.
Before 1900
- Sand Point before Henry Titus: Windover, Fort Ann and an 1859 post office
- Henry Theodore Titus and the founding of Titusville, 1867
- The Titus House: Henry Titus's hotel, from about 1870 to the Dixie Hotel fire of 1962
- Why Titusville Is the Brevard County Seat
- The Brevard County Courthouse in Titusville: 1882 and 1913
- Citrus shipping from Titusville, 1885 through the 1894-95 freeze
- The Railroad Reaches Titusville: the 1885 Enterprise Line and Flagler's 1893 Arrival
- The Great Freeze of 1894-95 at Titusville
1950 to 1979
- Harry T. and Harriette Moore: the Christmas-night bombing in Mims, 1951
- Hurricane David, 1979: When It Hit Florida, Its Category, and Brevard's Damage
1980 to today
- Titusville High School football and the back-to-back state titles of 1982 and 1983
- January 28, 1986: Challenger, and how Titusville remembers it
- The U.S. Astronaut Hall of Fame: from its 1990 opening to Heroes and Legends
- The Indian River Lagoon at Titusville: the 2011 superbloom and what followed
Places, people and institutions
- La Grange Church and Cemetery: the pioneer burial ground of north Brevard
- Mims: the grove town north of Titusville
- Sand Point Park: Titusville's river park, named for the town's first name
- Space View Park and the U.S. Space Walk of Fame
- The Apollo-era population boom in Titusville, census by census
- The Enchanted Forest Sanctuary: Titusville's piece of Brevard's Environmentally Endangered Lands
- The Indian River steamboats and Titusville as the transfer point
- Titusville and Cocoa: The County Seat and the Bigger Town
Sources for this page
- National Park Service, National Register Multiple Property Documentation Form, Titusville Multiple Property Group
- U.S. Census Bureau, 1970 Census of Population, Number of Inhabitants: Florida, Tables 6 and 7
- U.S. Census Bureau, 1990 CPH-2-11, Population and Housing Unit Counts: Florida, Table 10 (1980 and 1990)
- U.S. Census Bureau, QuickFacts (2010 and 2020 census counts)