As late as 1940, few had traveled the newly constructed Northwest Florida Coastal Highway, designed and constructed in the 1930s to connect Apalachicola to Pensacola.
One of those fortunate travelers in 1936 was journalist Ernie Powell, who wrote,
"The sun glistens on the flat Gulf, and behind shoals the water is the color of robins' eggs. The beach, flat and white as snow, with the surf rolling endlessly on it, makes long graceful curves ahead of you and behind. Occasionally you see schools of porpoise, leaping and playing right in the surf. Inland it is all white sand scattered with pine trees."
The Sugar Sand neighborhood is hidden along the shoreline directly on the Gulf of Mexico between the City of Mexico Beach and Tyndall Air Force Base. Time, and the Coastal Highway, have passed it by. Nothing has changed.
It's almost inconceivable but this slice of sandy perfection is precisely as it was when Ernie Powell wrote,
"There is a lonesome enchantment about it. You'd like to take the whole stretch of it and plant some palm trees and build a cottage under them, and put up a sign out of sight around the bend, saying 'This is my private beach. Don't anybody come near here. I found it first.'"
An opportunity like Sugar Sand, a beach neighborhood that excites the imagination, only comes around once. We will plant the palm trees. We invite you to come build your cottage in their shade.