SANTA ROSA COUNTY
County Offices
6495 Caroline Street
Milton 850-983-1940
www.santarosa.fl.gov
Chamber of Commerce
5247 Stewart Street
Milton 850-623-2339
www.srcchamber.com
Beautiful Santa Rosa County is nestled in one of the most active air-traffic zones in the world, completely surrounded by military aviation installations and growing commercial operations. Military-related research has spawned a cluster of information technology and aerospace companies for a thriving local economy. Residents of the county enjoy quick and easy access to regional attractions and amenities via Interstate 10 connections to all points east/west and north/south.
Services
Newcomers to Santa Rosa County will discover an educational system at the forefront of innovation and progress, including Blue Ribbon Schools and public school districts that are consistently ranked among Florida’s top three. The region surrounding the county is home to a number of colleges and universities, including the University of West Florida doctoral/research institution, the world-renowned Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, and the Florida State University College of Medicine. Offering more than 100 majors and concentrations, Pensacola State College maintains campuses in Milton, Pensacola, and Warrington for baccalaureate programs, associate degrees, certifications and continuing education. Niceville is home to the 264-acre flagship campus for Northwest Florida State College, which also operates a joint campus with the University of West Florida at Fort Walton Beach and centers in DeFuniak Springs, Crestview, Hurlburt Field, and South Walton County. Locally, Locklin Tech offers relevant training programs for emerging high-demand careers.
State-of-the-art healthcare for Santa Rosa County residents begins at three local hospitals along with access to skilled physicians in every major specialty. Santa Rosa Medical Center is the county’s premier healthcare institution with a centrally located campus in Milton. In addition to its acute-care hospital, SRMC encompasses the Santa Rosa Medical Group for family and internal medicine, obstetrics and gynecology, neurology, pulmonology, surgical practices, and clinics for urgent care and occupational health. Baptist Health Care operates two smaller hospitals named for their respective towns: Gulf Breeze Hospital and Jay Hospital. Doubling in size since its 1985 opening, the award-winning Gulf Breeze Hospital maintains all private rooms, an eight-bed intensive care unit, Andrews Institute for Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine, Ciano Cancer Center, Women’s Services, and physicians with access to Mayo Clinic Care Network. Providing acute, emergency, and long-term care, the 55-bed Jay Hospital is an asset for northern county residents and neighboring communities. Not far from home, the City of Pensacola offers comprehensive medical and surgical specialties and centers of excellence at Baptist Hospital, Sacred Heart Hospital, and West Florida Hospital.
Lifestyle
Few places can rival Santa Rosa County for natural beauty and quality of life. From sugar-white beaches to lush woodland settings, this area offers an idyllic background for every outdoor adventure and activity. Diverse attractions include thrilling rodeos, dolphin watches, zipline courses, paragliding, golfing, deep sea and freshwater fishing, and miles of trails for walking, cycling and hiking. The county is home to Blackwater River State Forest for camping, hiking, horseback riding, birding, fishing, canoeing, kayaking, tubing, and boating. Meandering through the town of Milton and ending at Naval Air Station Whiting Field, the 8.5-mile paved Blackwater Heritage Trail is popular with cyclists, runners, walkers, roller-skaters, and equestrians.
Entertainment and cultural enrichment are waiting around every corner in Santa Rosa County, where the annual calendar is dotted with colorful festivals and outstanding performances. Restored to its former 1912 splendor by the Santa Rosa Historical Society, the Imogene Theatre in downtown Milton hosts live stage shows, dinner theaters, and dances. Arcadia Mill, distinguished as Florida’s first industrial complex, now houses a museum that offers walking tours. The Museum of Railroading History is located in the 1909 L&N Train Depot, while the historic village of Bagdad showcases renovated pre-Civil War homes. Throughout the year, residents celebrate their heritage, hometown, and holidays with events like Bands on the Blackwater, Beaches to Woodlands, Flea Across Florida, Riverwalk Arts Festival, 4th of July Riverfest, and the Gulf Breeze Family Expo. With warm, welcoming communities and housing options that include beach, riverfront, and suburban settings, Santa Rosa County is a wonderful place to call home.
COMMUNITIES
Gulf Breeze
City Offices
850-934-5115
http://cityofgulfbreeze.us
Chamber of Commerce
850-932-7888
www.gulfbreezechamber.com
Situated at the end of a peninsula, Gulf Breeze is connected to the City of Pensacola on the north by a three-mile bridge over Pensacola Bay. To the south another bridge links Gulf Breeze to Pensacola Beach over Santa Rosa Sound. With the vast Naval Live Oaks section of the Gulf Islands National Seashore to the east, residents enjoy a truly tranquil hometown atmosphere. Great local schools, an award-winning community hospital, beautiful parks, and a selection of attractive housing make Gulf Breeze a popular place to call home in Northwest Florida. Residents enjoy 18 miles of waterfront, a premier boat ramp, and three protected bayous for world-class waterfront recreation. At the same time, the cosmopolitan amenities and attractions in the City of Pensacola are available within a short drive, from a research/doctoral university to major medical centers and a full lineup of stellar entertainment and performing arts.
Milton, Pace
City Offices
850-983-5400
www.ci.milton.fl.us
Milton Chamber of Commerce
850-623-2339
www.srcchamber.com
Pace Chamber of Commerce
850-994-9633
www.pacechamber.com
Anchoring Santa Rosa County as the seat of government and leading city, Milton is brimming over with historic treasures and undeniable charm. Modern planners like the developers of the Seaside community looked to Milton for an inspiring example of a classic Florida town. Blocks of historic homes and storefronts lead to the Blackwater River waterfront, preserving a proud past of timber and shipbuilding. Elegant reminders of yesterday include St. Mary’s Church, described by world-renowned architect Frank Lloyd Wright as “a jewel created in the purest tradition of the Gothic Revival.” Residents can lunch in an historic post office, shop for antiques, relive railroad history in a renovated depot, attend community theater, enjoy a popular bistro, or visit a wildflower bog. Cultural enrichment takes to the streets throughout the year with attractions and events like the Milton Walking Tour, “Light Up Milton” Gallery Night, and the Milton Christmas Parade. The park and forest that surround the city are well known as the “Canoe Capital of Florida” with miles of scenic trails and gentle streams. To the west of Milton, the growing unincorporated community of Pace has turned west-central Santa Rosa County into a sprawling bedroom community well-served by Interstate 10.
Eglin Air Force Base
Eglin AFB Information
850-882-1113
www.eglin.af.mil
Eglin AFB Guide
www.eglinguideonline.com
The vast expanse of Eglin Air Force Base spans three counties in Northwest Florida, a joint-service installation supporting Air Force, Army and Navy units. Eglin AFB hosts more than 62 major organizations including the 7th Special Forced Group, 6th Ranger Training Battalion, the Navy Explosive Ordnance School, the 20th Space Control Squadron, and the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Initial Training Center. Well known for its environmental stewardship, Eglin AFB has transformed the surrounding area into a leading center for research and testing, positively influencing the stature of educational institutions on every academic level. Eglin is distinguished among the few military bases in the nation with scheduled passenger airline service at the Destin-Fort Walton Beach Airport. While approximately 8,000 military personnel reside on base, many military families also find welcoming homes in outlying communities in Okaloosa, Santa Rosa, and Walton counties.
Jay
Town Offices
850-675-4556
www.townofjayfl.com
Chamber of Commerce
850-623-2339
www.srcchamber.com
Newcomers to Jay will discover a community that has changed very little over the decades. Nestled on a highland that overlooks the Escambia River, Jay is located in northern Santa Rosa County near the border between Florida and Alabama. Friendly neighbors, patchwork farmland, and picturesque natural settings still reflect the agricultural roots that were first planted in this area in the early 1900s. Relative isolation has no doubt contributed to Jay’s preservation of quintessential small-town early America. The northern region of the county has seen little economic expansion beyond the traditional activities of forestry and farming with the exception of a brief oil boom. As the only town in a largely undeveloped region, Jay was the ideal location for Baptist Health to place a community-based hospital.
Navarre, Navarre Beach
County Offices
850-983-1940
www.santarosa.fl.gov
Chamber of Commerce
850-939-3267
www.navarrechamber.com
Southern Santa Rosa County offers several unincorporated bedroom communities for Pensacola to the west and for Hurlburt Field, Fort Walton Beach, and Eglin Air Force Base to the east. Navarre Beach is situated on a section of Santa Rosa Island, with major bodies of water influencing the housing options and lifestyles of South County residents, including Santa Rosa Sound, Pensacola Bay, and East Bay. The sugar-white sands of Navarre Beach are replenished daily by rivers that wind through Blackwater River State Forest. Encompassed within the Gulf Islands National Seashore, Navarre Beach is also distinguished as one of the few beaches in America to enjoy federal protection. Visitors and residents alike enjoy wonderful celebrations like Monarch Madness in Navarre, the Navarre Beach Sand Sculpting Festival, Christmas in the Park, and Navarre’s summer concert series “Thursdays in the Park.”
