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Renting an Apartment in Jensen Beach
Jensen Beach is a census-designated place (CDP) in Martin County, Florida,
United States. The population was 11,100 at the 2000 census.
Demographics
There were 5,059 households out of which 23.8% had children under the age of 18
living with them, 47.2% were married couples living together, 8.8% had a female
householder with no husband present, and 40.2% were non-families. 33.2% of all
households were made up of individuals and 17.6% had someone living alone who
was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.19 and the
average family size was 2.78.
In the CDP the population was spread out with 20.0% under the age of 18, 5.4%
from 18 to 24, 25.4% from 25 to 44, 25.3% from 45 to 64, and 23.8% who were 65
years of age or older. The median age was 44 years. For every 100 females there
were 94.2 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.7 males.
The median income for a household in the CDP was $36, and the median income for
a family was $49. Males had a median income of $34 versus $25 for females. The
per capita income for the CDP was $22. About 5.0% of families and 8.3% of the
population were below the poverty line, including 8.4% of those under age 18 and
7.4% of those age 65 or over.
Pineapple Farming in Jensen Beach
In 1879, Capt. Thomas E. Richards established his homestead at Eden, planting
pineapple slips on his plantation. The slips flourished, and the pineapple
industry was born. John Laurence Jensen, an immigrant from Denmark, arrived in
1881, and set up his pineapple plantation, which became the town of Jensen.
Capt. Richards had the largest pineapple plantation on the Indian River. The
fruit was packed in barrels and boxes at the packing house, loaded on
riverboats, and transported to Titusville, the southern terminus of the
Flagler’s Florida East Coast (FEC) Railroad. By 1894, Flagler’s FEC Railroad
reached Jensen Beach, and freight shipments were loaded directly on the freight
cars.
By 1895, Jensen was called the “Pineapple Capital of the World,” shipping over
one million boxes of pineapples each year during the June and July season. To
help deal with the increased Pineapple production, a Pineapple Factory was
built.
Unfortunately, a hard freeze in 1895 devastated most of the small pineapple
plantations. Also, two fires, 1908 and 1910, destroyed most of Jensen Beach and
its remaining Pineapple farms. The industry finally collapsed in 1920 due to a
wide variety of financial and agriculture problems. Growers decided to turn
their efforts in another direction: raising citrus.
Today, the legacy of this tropical fruit lives on; the pineapple has become a
symbol of Jensen Beach. The fruit legacy is celebrated annually during the
Jensen Beach Pineapple Festival.