ORMOND BEACH

city, Volusia county, northeastern Florida, U.S., on the Halifax River (lagoon), adjacent to Daytona Beach (south). Primarily a resort, it has about 4 mi (6 km) of compact white sand, part of a reef that continues southward for more than 20 mi along the Atlantic coast to Ponce de Leon Inlet. In 1874 a colony from Connecticut settled the site and called it New Britain. When incorporated as a town in 1880, it was renamed for Capt. James Ormond, who had arrived from the Bahamas in 1815 and lived on a Spanish land grant. Henry M. Flagler, a railroad pioneer and resort promoter, bought and enlarged the Hotel Ormond (built in 1875), and several large estates developed, including John D. Rockefeller's winter home, the Casements. Early in the 20th century, Henry Ford, Ransom E. Olds, Louis Chevrolet, and others tested automobiles on the Ormond-Daytona Beach, marking the beginning of the speed trials at Daytona Beach. The Antique Car Festival is an annual (Thanksgiving weekend) event. Ormond became a city in 1930 and was renamed Ormond Beach in 1949. Pop. (1990) 29,721.