The historic district along Centre Street and the surrounding blocks is one of the most intact Victorian commercial districts in Florida, with buildings dating back to the 1870s and 1880s when Fernandina Beach was a booming port town. The architecture ranges from Italianate commercial fronts to Queen Anne houses, and most of it is in active use as restaurants, shops, and small hotels — which keeps the streets lively rather than museum-quiet.
Walking the district takes an hour or two depending on how many shop windows catch your attention. The Centre Street corridor has the highest concentration of good restaurants and bars on the island, and the harbor end of the street looks out over the shrimp fleet. Pick up a walking-tour map from the Amelia Island Museum of History and work through the neighborhood systematically — the side streets away from Centre have some of the best houses.