Gulf Breeze founder honored on Arbor Day

B. J. Davis/Gulf Breeze News Hoe ‘n Hum Garden Club members dedicated a tree at the South Santa Rosa Recreation Center for Arbor Day in honor of Eloise Benson, a founder of the City of Gulf Breeze. Pictured from left: Tina David, Helen Corley, Eloise Benson, Mattie Mitchell, Clair Carlson, Judy Barousse, Barbara Page and Ellen Webb.

The City of Gulf Breeze and Hoe ‘n Hum Garden Club observed Arbor Day with a ceremony at South Santa Rosa Recreation Center. A Live Oak tree was planted in honor of Eloise Benson, a Gulf Breeze founder and Hoe ‘n Hum Garden Club member for 47 years. Benson will celebrate her 92nd birthday this year along with Hoe ‘n Hum’s 50th anniversary.

“I would like to express our appreciation to the Hoe ‘n Hum Garden Club for participation in community beautification projects,” said Ron Pulley, forester and Director of Gulf Breeze Parks and Recreation.

Clair Carlson and Mickey Hite organized the ceremony while Helen Corley gave the dedication.

Eloise Benson was a contributor and main player in Gulf Breeze’s development. She and her husband Mark Benson set foot on the Santa Rosa peninsula in the mid 1930s. Her 70 years here have been filled with insight, hard work and a lot of fun along the way.

“I’m getting old, but it’s been fun getting there,” said Eloise.

In 1935, when Gulf Breeze was a hard-to-reach campground, Mark and Eloise arrived to help build a cottage complex east of Beach Road fronting U.S. Highway 98. Living in the first completed unit, the couple managed the cottage, a restaurant, grocery store and a Gulf gas station. Mark also established the first post office. In 1939, for postal destination designation, the Bensons gave the name “Gulf Breeze” to the post office as well as to the cottage.

In 1940, the couple bought land on the northwest corner of Fairpoint and Hwy. 98 where they built a home and developed a commercial center, the Mark K. Benson Complex, which is still under Eloise’s m a n a g e m e n t today. At the new location, the post office, Gulf station and grocery were relocated to what is now the center of downtown Gulf Breeze.

Soon after, Mark became the first Gulf Breeze postmaster and established a Pensacola Beach post office. When he entered into active duty during World War II, Eloise became the acting postmaster until his return.

Its owners offered the Benson Complex as the birthplace of Gulf Breeze Volunteer Fire Department, the Gulf Breeze Women’s Club and the Gulf Breeze United Methodist Church as well as the beginning of St. Paul United Methodist Church. In fact, the two congregations worshipped together at the Benson Complex until St. Paul’s chapel was named “The Upper Room” and with eight initial committee members seed a new church congregation, the second in Gulf Breeze.

For the first meeting in Feb. 1955, all that was available for furnishing were wooden crates and kegs of nails for seats.

At the second meeting, Gadsden Street Church donated a piano. It was Eloise’s ingenuity that helped supply the first alter used for worship services.

“I got a large, stable cardboard box from the post office and covered it with a lace tablecloth from our home,” said Benson. “On the altar, we placed an open Bible and a cross.”

The First Methodist Church of Pensacola donated pews for the third gathering.

By March of 1955, Gulf Breeze United Methodist Church came into being. On April 17, 1955, the church’s first Sunday school session was help with 43 in attendance.

Today, the church is one of the largest, fastest-growing churches in the country with 4,000 members.

Mark and Eloise Benson are noted for more than being founding members of the city, but also for their foresight and faith in Gulf Breeze and its people.