Every place has its own ethos. For New Orleans, it’s resilience; for Philadelphia, grit; for New York City, ambition. For Seaside, it’s escapism — an escape from life’s hardships into a pastel bubble of Gulf waters, bike rides and manicured homes, where summer never seems to end.
That’s what its founder, Robert Davis, intended after an era of futurism deduced the American dream could be found in speed, technology and progress. Davis countered that philosophy, instead embracing new urbanism when he transformed 80 acres of land inherited from his grandfather into Seaside in 1981.
Inspired by his childhood vacations along Florida’s Gulf Coast, he painted a portrait of small-town America, where neighbors knew one another, where residents strolled through the town square instead of navigating winding cul-de-sacs and rarely reached for their car keys.
His vision is the reason why Seaside was chosen as the setting for the 1998 film “The Truman Show,” directed by Peter Weir and starring Jim Carrey as Truman Burbank.
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Video by Hannah Levitan