Shalimar, Florida is positioned in Florida Shalimar, Florida Shalimar is a town in Okaloosa County, Florida, United States.

Originally an region called Port Dixie, the town "sprang up out of the woods" in 1943-1944 as a improve of 160 homes to be used as housing for military officers by developer Clifford H.

"In February 1927 the Choctawhatchee and Northern Railroad was chartered 'To construct, acquire, maintain, lease, or operate a line of barns or barns s from a point between Galliver and Crestview on the Louisville and Nashville Railroad in Okaloosa County, to a point in said county on Choctawhatchee Bay, a distance of approximately twenty-eight miles.' On Garnier's Bayou near the present Eglin (Air Force Base) housing evolution of Shalimar, a $29,000,000 Port Dixie Harbor and Terminal Company was chartered to build wharves for liners, a rail line north, and a town/city of one square mile, with streets 100 feet wide." These ambitious plans would not see fruition.

Badly needed new homes were constructed beginning in 1942 by Clifford Meigs and his associates to furnish adequate facilities for commissioned officers assigned at the quickly expanding Eglin Field, immediately north of what was initially referred to as "Shalimar Park".

A new postal service opened in Shalimar on July 1, 1943, with Clifford H.

The incorporation was directly related to state law that prohibited clubs in unincorporated areas from staying open from midnight Saturday until Monday morning, which would negatively impact the gambling operations at the casino of the Shalimar Club, the opening of which "was the civil event of 1947." "The Fort Walton Beach [sic - Fort Walton did not turn into Fort Walton Beach until June 1953] places were doing a booming company on the weekends while there were rumors that the sheriff might enforce the law in Shalimar and close the place there," Meigs told the Playground News in 1959.

The first wind of adversity was blown by the Tampa Tribune's expose of gambling in Fort Walton." The 1949 article led to the governor suspending Okaloosa County Sheriff Isle Enzor and two constables in 1950 for failure to enforce the state gambling laws.

In 1948, the town features encompassed the Shalimar Store, the Shalimar Service Station, and lumberman and Shalimar resident Roger Clary's Shalimar Club.

In 1950, the 280-car capacity Florida Drive-In Theatre, erected at a cost of ~$40,000, at the junction of Ferry Road and State Road 85, later Eglin Parkway, the chief road between the air force base and Fort Walton, Florida, opened on Thursday, June 15, with an Esther Williams picture, "On an Island with You". Operated by the James Tringas family, that also ran the Tringas Theatre in Fort Walton (which is, ironically, still in company in 2015 as a second-run venue), the drive-in would close in the fall of 1973.

She had been married to Clifford Meigs at the time of his death, and is the wife of Jim Tras, as of 2009. Residential Meigs Drive, alongsideling the Choctawhatchee Bay, Clifford Drive and Sara Drive are all titled for the town's beginning family.

The Lake Lorraine region at Black's Point to the east of the incorporated Shalimar improve was advanced in the 1970s, but carries a Shalimar postal address.

The Poquito Bayou region north of the incorporated Shalimar also carries a Shalimar postal address.

The mostly residentiary region of Okaloosa County between Shalimar and Lake Lorraine continues to be referred to as Port Dixie.

This office may have been involved as a test universal office for the Lockheed U-2, with which Fort Walton Beach resident, World War II exile Polish pilot, and CIA officer, Ksawery Wyrozemski was involved. Okaloosa County Sheriff's offices are positioned in Shalimar.

An Okaloosa County courthouse annex, erected in 1975 on territory made available by the Meigs family, was razed in the last week of June 2014, after standing vacant for a several years.

Some of the territory that Clifford Meigs owned was donated to Okaloosa County for the establishment of a school.

In 1969 the region needed a middle school, so Okaloosa School District assembled a new high school in Fort Walton Beach.

The previous school was retitled to Clifford Meigs Junior High School, later Clifford Meigs Middle School (Meigs Middle School for short).

Meigs Middle School, Shalimar Elementary School and Longwood Elementary School are presently (2009) A Schools as stated to the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test.

Clifford Meigs Middle School is now an A+ school (2013) In fact, most schools in the Okaloosa County School District are A schools in 2009. a b Fort Walton, Florida, "Shalimar Strides Into Second Year", Playground News, Thursday 1 July 1948, Volume 3, Number 22, page 1.

Angell, Joseph W., "History of the Army Air Forces Proving Ground Command - Part One - Background of Eglin Field 1933-1940", The Historical Branch, Army Air Forces Proving Ground Command, Eglin Field, Florida, 1944, reprint by Office of History, Munitions Systems Division, Eglin AFB, Florida, 1989, page 34.

Fort Walton Beach, Florida, "The Eglin Story: Germans Operated a Plant To Make Dye at Port Dixie", Playground News, Thursday 6 October 1955, Volume 9, Number 87, page 3.

Angell, Joseph W., "History of the Army Air Forces Proving Ground Command - Part One - Background of Eglin Field 1933-1940", The Historical Branch, Army Air Forces Proving Ground Command, Eglin Field, Florida, 1944, reprint by Office of History, Munitions Systems Division, Eglin AFB, Florida, 1989, pages 36-37.

Crestview, Florida, "Shalimar Project In Use - Families Of Officers Now Moving Into New Spacious Quarters", Okaloosa News-Journal, Friday 15 May 1942, Volume 28, Number 17, page 1.

Crestview, Florida, "Shalimar Now Has New Postoffice", Okaloosa News-Journal, Friday 3 July 1943, Volume 30, Number 20, page 1.

Dobson, Henry Allen, "A History of Okaloosa County, Florida", A Thesis Presented to the Graduate Faculty of Southeastern Louisiana University, June 1974.

Holland, Elizabeth E., staff writer, "Our Town", Northwest Florida Daily News, Fort Walton Beach, Florida, Monday 25 June 1990.

Fort Walton, Florida, "New Florida Drive-In Sets Formal Opening", Playground News, Thursday 15 June 1950, Volume 5, Number 20, pages 1, 8.

Display advert, The Okaloosa News-Journal, Crestview, Florida, Thursday 4 October 1956, Volume 42, Number 40, page 8.

Fort Walton Beach, Florida, "Clyde Meigs Named Mayor of Shalimar", Playground News, 15 November 1960, Volume 15, Number "43" (actually 44), page 1.

Freeman, Danielle, "Breaking Ground On County Administration Building In Shalimar", WUWF Public Media, Pensacola, Florida, Tuesday 30 September 2014.

Municipalities and communities of Okaloosa County, Florida, United States

Categories:
Towns in Okaloosa County, Florida - Populated places established in 1943 - Towns in Florida - Populated places on the Intracoastal Waterway in Florida