Updated August 2026 · Reviewed by Adams, Cameron & Co.
Edgewater began in 1871 as Hawks Park, a cooperative New England-style village founded by Dr. John Milton Hawks specifically to attract northern settlers to the Indian River. That founding vision took over a century to fully play out: today Edgewater is a genuine boat-manufacturing hub, home to Boston Whaler's entire operation after the company relocated from Massachusetts in 1993, along with Everglades Boats and EdgeWater Power Boats.
- Dr. John Milton Hawks founded Hawks Park in 1871 as a cooperative New England-style village to attract northern settlers to the Indian River.
- This is the same Dr. Hawks who founded the Freemanville colony for formerly enslaved settlers in Port Orange five years earlier, in 1866, a genuinely different project in a different place.
- Hawks Park grew on citrus and beekeeping, with 41 houses by 1887 and 11 tons of honey shipped out in 1888.
- The town of Hawks Park incorporated in 1915, was abolished in 1919, and was renamed Edgewater by the state legislature in 1924; it incorporated as a municipality in 1951.
- Boston Whaler moved its entire operation from Massachusetts to Edgewater in 1993, an almost literal echo of Hawks's 1871 vision of a Northern-connected settlement on the Indian River.
A New England village on the Indian River
In 1865, Dr. John Milton Hawks, a former Union Army surgeon and committed abolitionist, acquired a Spanish land grant along the Indian River. In 1871 he formally established Hawks Park there, envisioning it as a cooperative village modeled on New England town life, built specifically to attract settlers from the north to Florida's east coast. This was Hawks's second major settlement project in the area: five years earlier, in 1866, he had founded the Freemanville colony for formerly enslaved men and women along the Halifax River near what's now Port Orange, a genuinely different undertaking in a different place, built around freedom and wage work rather than a New England transplant community. Both projects came from the same reform-minded vision, but Hawks Park's purpose, drawing northern settlers rather than housing freed families, was its own distinct story.
Citrus, honey, and a slow, steady growth
Hawks Park grew modestly in its early decades around citrus groves and beekeeping. By 1887, the settlement had about 41 houses, and in 1888 alone, residents shipped out 11 tons of honey by steamboat. The town's early economy rested on those same three pillars common across this stretch of the Indian River: citrus, bees, and fishing, a working coastal community rather than a resort.
A name that didn't stick, then one that did
The Town of Hawks Park incorporated in 1915, but that charter was abolished in 1919. In 1924, the Florida Legislature renamed the community Edgewater, the name that has stuck ever since, evoking its position right along the edge of the Indian River Lagoon rather than referencing its founder. Edgewater formally incorporated as a municipality in 1951, the same postwar wave of formal incorporation that touched several of its neighboring towns.
The New England connection comes full circle
Edgewater's real modern identity makes Hawks's original vision feel almost prophetic. Today Edgewater is a genuine manufacturing hub, and specifically a boat-building hub: Boston Whaler, one of the best-known names in recreational boating, moved its entire operation from Massachusetts to Edgewater in 1993. Everglades Boats and EdgeWater Power Boats are also based here, making boat manufacturing one of the city's largest employment sectors. A town founded in 1871 explicitly to draw New Englanders to the Indian River became, more than a century later, the literal new home of a Massachusetts boat builder. For an agent, that's a genuinely compelling, true story to tell a buyer with New England roots looking at Florida: this town's whole reason for existing was connecting people like them to this exact stretch of water.
What that history means for real estate today
Edgewater's identity as a real working waterfront, not a resort town, both anchors its economy (boat manufacturing, marine trades, real jobs) and shapes its housing stock and buyer profile. The Indian River Lagoon itself, one of the most biologically diverse estuaries in North America, draws buyers who want genuine access to boating, fishing, and paddling, not a manicured version of it. An agent who understands that Edgewater's waterfront identity is a real, working one, going back to Hawks's original 1871 vision, has a real edge with buyers who care about that distinction.
Why start your real estate career with Adams, Cameron & Co.?
Adams, Cameron & Co. has been the area's largest brokerage since 1963, with around 300 agents and offices across Volusia and Flagler County, including coverage of Edgewater and the surrounding Indian River Lagoon communities. New agents get in-house marketing at no cost, seven-day non-competing manager support, structured training, and the global Leading Real Estate Companies of the World referral network.
What is your next step?
Read the licensing guide, see the neighborhoods worth knowing in our Edgewater neighborhood guide, then start a conversation with Adams, Cameron & Co. No pressure, just a clear picture of the path.
Historical details are drawn from public and local historical sources and are believed accurate; confirm specifics before relying on them for client-facing claims. Educational only, not legal advice.
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