Collage with red patterned background. B&W bust photo of Frank Butler in foreground.

Frank B. Butler

Entrepreneur and founder of historic Butler Beach.

Early Life & Family

Frank Bertran Butler was born on August 4, 1885 in Dupont, Georgia to Frank Butler Sr., a fisherman, and Mary Griffin Butler, who ran a restaurant, with her husband’s catch often on the menu.

By age 17, Butler was married with a daughter. In search of employment, Butler moved to Fernandina Beach, Florida in 1902, and worked for Mr. Sollecito Salvador as a bartender. Later Butler worked for his aunt and uncle in the area as a butcher. His wife, Mamie Davis, didn’t make the move from Georgia to Florida with him because she was sickly. She passed away soon after his departure and Butler’s daughter, Minnie Mae, was sent to live with relatives.

Butler remarried Minnie Elizabeth Norris, and his daughter was reunited with him in Florida where she could receive a better education than in rural Georgia.

Butler was a strict father. After graduating high school, his daughter Minnie Mae moved away and married. She had two children, Gloria and Rudolph. By 1955, Mrs. Minnie Mae Edwards (now a widow) returned to St. Augustine and assisted her father with his businesses.

The Move to St. Augustine and the Palace Market

When his former employer, Mr. Salvador, decided to relocate to St. Augustine and open a fish market, Butler decided to make the move too.

Once in St. Augustine, Butler put his butcher skills to use and worked for Solomon A. Snyder in his meat market.

In 1914, with Mr. Snyder’s support, Butler leased a building in Lincolnville at 87 ½ Washington St. and opened the Palace Market, selling meat and groceries. He serviced both Black and White customers, and readily made a name for himself.

It’s said that Butler kept chicken coops behind the market, with both chickens and turkeys in them. He was known to hand out change in store tokens, a savvy business move, although by all accounts Butler didn’t need gimmicks to bring customers back in. He was also known to extend credit to customers who needed it.

Real Estate Business

With business booming, in 1924 he moved the Palace Market to 54 Washington St. and opened a real estate business next door called the College Park Realty Company. He partnered in this venture with Lincolnville pharmacist Robert E. Smith and Excelsior High School Principal James G. Reddick.

Butler, already the owner of several properties in Lincolnville, began buying lots in West Augustine. He and his partners developed this area as the College Park Subdivision because of its proximity to the Florida Normal and Industrial College. Butler was known to be a generous contributor to the historically Black College. The College Park subdivision was Butler’s opportunity to assist Black residents in homeownership by offering affordable payments. When homeowners struggled to pay their monthly mortgage, Butler often found a way to work with them to avoid foreclosure.

Frank B. Butler, Philanthropist

Butler was committed to improving the lives of Black community members. He helped to establish the Colored Business and Professional Men’s League to mentor and support newcomers in their business ventures. He also leased many of his properties to other Black businessmen.

Butler was a respected and visible leader who fought for community upgrades, helping secure more lighting for Lincolnville and uniforms for the Black policemen. As a member of the Masons and Shriners, Butler often paid dues for those who could not. He was a devoted communicant of St. Paul’s AME and served on their Board of Trustees for years.

Committed to youth and education, Butler supported a state scholarship for college-bound Black high school students.

Historic Butler Beach

Dissatisfied that Blacks were restricted from beaches, Butler set out in 1927 to buy land on Anastasia Island to establish a Black beach and resort area. Soon there was a restaurant, bathhouse, and carnival rides. 1937 saw the grand opening of the “Sea Breeze Kaseno.” By 1947, lots went up for sale in what was called the Butler Beach Subdivision.

The completion of the beach project was a long process. Although Butler had great support for the venture, he faced many barriers in its development. These challenges compelled Butler to become involved in politics to wield more influence. He was a staunch advocate for the importance of voting, even installing a voting booth in his real estate office to encourage this civic duty.

The Civil Rights Movement in St. Augustine

One of the places Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his staff stayed while in the area was Butler’s Inn at the resort. Not many would have known at the time because Dr. King’s whereabouts were concealed for safety reasons.

Iconic wade-ins took place at the St. Augustine Beach just a mile up from Butler Beach. These protests where Black beach goers attempted to peacefully wade into the waters and were met by angry white mobs, were pivotal in the passage of the Civil Rights Act in the summer of 1964.

Once passed, the demand and desire for a Black beach began to fade. Butler, detecting the welcome changes to come, sold some of the land to developers in the late 1950s, and in the early 1960s donated land to the State of Florida for the establishment of a park on the Matanzas River.

Frank B. Butler’s Legacy

Frank Butler died in 1973 at the age of 88. He is buried in the Woodlawn Cemetery in West Augustine.

Without Butler’s vigilance, the beach resort began to fall into disrepair. At the request of family and friends, all of the remaining land, including what was in the hands of the State of Florida, was passed on to St. Johns County. Today there is the Frank Butler Park East on the Atlantic, and Frank Butler Park West on the Matanzas River or Intracoastal Waterway. The parks were officially dedicated in 1980.

St. Johns County established a historical marker at ‘Butler’s Beach’, and several other markers are scattered throughout Butler’s Historic Black Beach.

Butler received two prestigious awards for his contributions. The plaque marking Frank B. Butler’s Great Floridian 2000 award is displayed on his former residence at 87 Washington St in Lincolnville.

Butler’s daughter, Minnie Mae Edwards, established a yearly scholarship at Bethune-Cookman College in Daytona in his name for a student from St. Augustine.