A brief history taken from Tour Gulf County
This 3.2-acre waterfront park includes the house that was home to Captain Fred and Zola Maddox for more than 60 years. Captain Fred died in 1977, and Miss Zola died in 1982. The park, a lovely quiet place to watch the sun setting over the bay, contains wetlands, a walking trail, park benches, and picnic tables.
Fred Maddox built the first house on Shipyard Cove from lumber that would fall into the bay from slings as it was being loaded onto ships. Fred, John, and Roy Maddox lived in the house while piloting ships to the new port. In 1919 upon returning from World War I, Fred Maddox married schoolteacher Zola McFarland from Frink, Florida. Their son Dave Maddox was born in 1921. They lived in the house Fred had built until it burned in 1928. Another house was built where the present one stands, but it was torn down so the current house could be built in 1937. People remember the Maddox compound as a fun place with goats, horses to ride, and trees to climb. The Maddoxes maintained the pristine beauty of the spot, adding only a barn and a garden.
In the late 1930s the Maddox property was the only waterfront property that had not been conveyed to the St. Joe Company from St. Louis Lumber. When Ed Ball and his coterie of lawyers claimed the Maddox property, the Maddoxes enlisted two lawyers of their own. A Marianna court ruled that the Maddoxes did indeed own the land, having made interest payments faithfully over the years. Ball then tried to put building restrictions on the Maddox property through the Supreme Court in Tallahassee. He ultimately lost again and handed over the deed with no restrictions to the Maddox family in November 1939. In 1996 the Florida Communities Trust purchased the 3.2 acres from the Maddox family and donated the land to the city of Port St. Joe to be used as a park.
Shipyard Cove was named for the shipyard where sailing vessels were repaired during the heyday of the old city of St. Joseph. A bunkhouse was constructed on the site for workers building the railroad dock completed in 1910. Fred Maddox lived in the bunkhouse and worked on the dock.
