In 1947, Black residents weren’t allowed on St. Johns County beaches. So Frank Butler created his own

When Gayle Phillips was a young child in the early 1960s, she remembers her family loading up the car and driving down to the coast to visit Butler’s Beach. “Our family would come to Butler Beach, and just have the beach, you know, all to ourselves with a cooler with our snacks and sodas and stuff and just hang out all day,” said Phillips. Phillips, now the Executive Director of the Lincolnville Museum in St. Augustine, and other Black St. Johns County residents weren’t allowed at any other beaches back then. They were reserved for white residents only. But thanks to the vision of entrepreneur Frank Butler, they had a place where they could safely enjoy the sun and the sand.