Historic St. Andrews, FL

From Salt Works to Waterfront District

St. Andrews is the oldest part of Panama City, a bayfront neighborhood on the west side of town where Beck Avenue runs down to St. Andrews Bay. According to the Historic St. Andrews Waterfront Partnership, the first European settlement here was established between 1827 and 1832 by former Georgia governor John Clark and his wife Nancy along what is now Beach Drive. The community, known early on as Old Town or St. Andrews City, lived on fishing, salt making and visitors who came for sea bathing.

During the Civil War, salt works on the bay supplied Confederate forces, and the town was destroyed during Union raids in 1863. Commerce returned in the late 1870s, when brothers Lambert and Francis Ware built up mercantile and shipping businesses, and St. Andrews was incorporated as a town in 1908. Neighboring Panama City incorporated in 1909, and St. Andrews was later annexed into Panama City in the mid-1920s. The 1920 Panama City Publishing Company building on Beck Avenue, described by the Florida Division of Historical Resources as the first brick building in St. Andrews, still stands as a reminder of that era.

As Panama City Beach grew into the region’s main tourist draw, business in St. Andrews slowed. The city designated the neighborhood a community redevelopment area in 1989, and it became a state-designated Waterfronts Florida community in 1997.

St. Andrews After Hurricane Michael

Hurricane Michael struck on October 10, 2018, and hit the district hard. St. Andrews Marina, originally built in the early 1960s, was reduced to debris, and many businesses closed for long stretches. Recovery has been steady: Uncle Ernie’s reopened on the storm’s two-year anniversary in 2020, the Publishing Company Museum was repaired and reopened, and the first 50 new marina slips were completed in April 2024. In 2026 the city approved reconstruction of the marina bulkhead along with additional slips, so expect some active construction around the waterfront.

Visitors today come for a slower, local version of the Gulf Coast. Beck Avenue and Bayview Avenue hold oyster bars, seafood restaurants, a slice shop, a coffee house and a taproom set in a 1928 grocery building. The Market at St. Andrews fills Oaks by the Bay Park every Saturday morning, where a nearly 300-year-old live oak survived the hurricane. Anglers launch from the marina, walkers follow the bayfront boardwalk at sunset, and history fans can pick up a historic trail map at the museum. The historic schooner Governor Stone, built in 1877, has long been associated with the neighborhood, though as of early 2026 it was undergoing a rebuild and searching for a new home.