 Gulf Breeze is a city located on the Fairpoint Peninsula in Santa Rosa County, Florida, United States and is a suburb of Pensacola which lies to the north, across Pensacola Bay. The population was 5,665 at the 2000 census. As of 2005, the population estimated by the U.S. Census Bureau is 6,455. However, as of the 2010 U.S. Census Gulf Breeze showed a population reduction to 5,763. |
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Gulf Breeze shares a rich history with the entire Florida Panhandle. In 1559, Tristan de Luna arrived in Pensacola Bay with 500 Spanish soldiers. The first settlement was abandoned due to diseases, disasters and hostile Indians, but other Europeans followed. In the late 1700′s, the British occupied the peninsula and named it Town Point.By the early 1930′s, bridges between Pensacola and Gulf Breeze and Gulf Breeze and Pensacola Beach were completed as was Highway 98. Gulf Breeze’s namesake was established in 1936 when the Gulf Breeze Cottages and Store opened a post office branch where Live Oaks Plaza now stands.The Naval Live Oaks Reservation was the home of America!s first experimental tree farm, established by President John Quincy Adams in 1828. It was established to provide raw material to support shipbuilding for the Navy in the area. Today, Naval Live Oaks is part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore, a unit of the National Park Service.
