Live in Deerwood
The gated golf community often called Florida's first, where an owners' association must approve any exterior change before work starts and the country club at its center is a separate, private membership.
Deerwood is the gated community the Skinner family's company established in June 1960 at the north-east corner of Southside Boulevard and Baymeadows Road, laid out around a George Cobb golf course and a chain of lakes, and described by Wikipedia and The Jaxson as the first gated community in Florida. Its residents bought it from the developer in August 1999, and the Deerwood Improvement Association now manages the common areas, the security at its two gatehouses and an Architectural Review Committee that has to approve exterior work before it begins. The 2020 census counted 2,456 residents and 950 homes inside the association's filed line, with owners in 95% of the occupied ones; the association itself counts 977 residences, from five-acre estates to garden homes and townhouses. The Deerwood Country Club is private and, in the association's words, membership is separate from living here.
A private community run by its owners, around a club they do not automatically belong to
The area the Deerwood Improvement Association, a homeowners association, filed with the City of Jacksonville on its Neighborhood Associations layer (OBJECTID 23): 1,584 acres, roughly 1,600, much of it golf course and lakes. The City draws no neighborhood line of its own here, and the layer does not say the City checks the lines it holds. Traced against the Census Bureau's road file, Southside Boulevard is the western edge and Baymeadows Road the southern; on the north and east the line follows no street, stopping short of the Deerwood Park office district along Deerwood Park Boulevard to the north and of the Twin Lakes Academy schools and Interstate 295 to the east. It lies wholly inside the Baymeadows Community Council's filed area, which this site's Baymeadows guide covers less Deerwood. All of it is in Duval County, Duval County Public Schools and City Council District 11, and none of it is in a local historic district, a community redevelopment area or a City zoning overlay.
Deerwood is the gated community at the north-east corner of Southside Boulevard and Baymeadows Road. The Skinner family's company established it in June 1960 on land that had been part of the family business, around a George Cobb golf course, with money from Stockton, Whatley, Davin & Co.; the developers gave land for Southside Boulevard so it could be reached. Wikipedia and The Jaxson call it the first gated community in Florida, while the association that runs it says one of Jacksonville's oldest, and its own pages date it to 1960 on one page and the early 1970s on another. The course hosted the Greater Jacksonville Open six times from 1967 to 1976, and in November 1975 President Ford and President Sadat of Egypt held talks at the club.
The thing a buyer is choosing is the association. Residents bought Deerwood from the developer in 1999, and the Deerwood Improvement Association, eleven elected residents, manages it under twenty-one sets of covenants and restrictions, with the common areas and security at the two gatehouses. Its Architectural Review Committee must approve plans before any work begins, from a fence or a repaint in a new color to a pool or the removal of a live tree. Under the guidelines approved on 23 June 2026, reviewing a new house costs $1,500, with a $5,000 deposit and a $2,000 impact fee, and work must finish within six months. None of this is the City's: Deerwood is in no historic district or zoning overlay, so the review is a private contract that runs with the deed.
The club is a separate purchase. The Deerwood Country Club is private, and the association says plainly that membership is separate from living here; the course is being redesigned for completion in 2027. Roughly 2,500 people live behind the gates: the 2020 census counted 2,456 residents and 950 homes inside the association's filed line, and owners lived in 858 of the 902 occupied homes, 95%. The association counts 977 residences, from five-acre estates to garden homes and townhouses. Its annual assessment was not on the pages read here, so ask for the budget before you sign.
No price index follows the gates. Every resident is in ZIP code 32256, where Zillow's typical value was $309,798 in August 2026, down 3.4% on the year, but the ZIP held 53,611 people in 2020 and says little about a house on the golf course. The tax stack is the City's ordinary 17.7412 mills for 2025: a homestead at the ZIP's figure would owe about $4,768 a year, the same house without the exemption about $5,496, and a homestead at Duval County's $335,000 median about $5,215. Save Our Homes resets on sale, so a long-held house's bill understates yours. No community development district was found here, but a resale contract need not disclose one, so read the seller's last tax bill. The arithmetic is on the Jacksonville page.
The water runs through the middle. FEMA's effective map puts 28.1% of the area in the 1% annual chance flood zone, along Second Puncheon Branch and its tributaries, but only 392 residents on blocks inside it; the reference point, 47.1 feet up, is in zone X. JaxReady puts every resident outside its evacuation zones, which means less surge risk, not none, and the sources read here do not say Hurricane Irma's 2017 river flooding reached Deerwood. Flood insurance is a separate policy.
- Get the covenants and restrictions that apply to the lot, and the ARC guidelines, before you plan any change
- Ask the association for its annual assessment, budget and any special assessment, and the club for its membership terms
- Pull FEMA's panel for the address: most of the flood zone is fairway and lake, but not all of it
- File for the homestead exemption with the property appraiser by 1 March of the year after you buy
- Confirm the zoned schools in Duval County Public Schools' locator
How Deerwood got here
- 1960In June the Skinner family's company, The Deerwood Club, Inc., establishes Deerwood on land that was part of the family business, as a gated community under deed restrictions; George Cobb designs the golf course, and Stockton, Whatley, Davin & Co. finances the 900-acre development.
- 1960sThe developers donate land so that Southside Boulevard can be built, and the rural San Clerc road is paved, widened and renamed Baymeadows Road, with an Interstate 95 interchange around the mid-1960s.
- 1967The course hosts the PGA Tour's Greater Jacksonville Open for the first of six times, in 1967, 1968, 1969, 1973, 1974 and 1976, in the association's count; Wikipedia calls the event the forerunner of The Players Championship.
- 1972Deerwood Village Mall opens across Southside Boulevard at Baymeadows Road, outside the gates; Publix and Eckerd open there in 1974.
- 1975President Gerald Ford and Egyptian President Anwar Sadat hold talks at the club in November.
- 197986 families live at Deerwood, in Wikipedia's account of the club; the association's home page dates the community's establishment to the early 1970s, while its history page says June 1960.
- 1999Residents buy the community from the developer in August, and the club's members buy its assets for $5 million.
- 2004A 25,000-square-foot clubhouse opens in December, after an eight-month course renovation by Brian Silva.
- 2020The census counts 2,456 residents and 950 homes inside the association's line, against 2,236 residents on about the same ground in 2010; 44 of the 902 occupied homes are rented.
- 2024The Publix at Deerwood Village closes on 5 October after 50 years, to be demolished and rebuilt.
- 2025The rebuilt 47,240-square-foot Publix opens at 9964 Old Baymeadows Road on 11 December, and late in the year the club begins a redesign of its golf course, due for completion in 2027.
- 2026The association's board approves new Architectural Review Committee guidelines on 23 June, and the club's short par-3 course, The Approach, opens.
Open space that is mostly private, and the public kind a short drive out
Most of the open ground inside the line is the Deerwood Country Club's course and the lakes around it, and the course is private. No City park lies inside. The nearest is Fort Family Regional Park on Baymeadows Road East, 52 acres the City bought in 2002, with courts, playing fields and hiking trails; Losco Regional Park, about 220 acres off Hood Road, is farther south, and Kathryn Abbey Hanna Park has a mile and a half of ocean beach.
What the map does not show: the deer the place is named for. Over half of 154 households in the association's survey had run into wildlife, deer most of all.
Elsewhere in Jacksonville, not Deerwood
21 places, with real drive times
Road-adjusted distance and drive time from the centre of the community to each destination, nearest first. Filter by category.
Showing 1–12 of 21 places, nearest first.
Method: distances are straight lines from OpenStreetMap's Deerwood Club place node, inside the gates, multiplied by a road factor, with a tiered speed model for the drive: honest ranges, not routed times.
Every gym within reach
The nearest gym open to anyone is the Brooks Family YMCA on Centurion Parkway, with a heated indoor pool. The club inside the gates has fitness and aquatics for members only, and the City's nearest center, Windy Hill, is a program center rather than a gym.
- Brooks Family YMCA: about 2.5 km, indoor pool, open daily
- Deerwood Country Club: inside, private membership
- Samuel Wolfson High School pool: about 8.5 km, summer only
| Facility | What it is | Drive |
|---|---|---|
| Brooks Family YMCA open | The First Coast YMCA's Southside branch at 10423 Centurion Parkway North: a heated five-lane 25-yard indoor pool, a full-court gym, cardio and strength equipment and group exercise studios. Open 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays and 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. at weekends. | 6–8 min |
| Deerwood Country Club open | Inside the gates, with fitness, aquatics, tennis and pickleball, but a private club: membership is separate from owning a house in Deerwood, and the club handles applications. | 3–5 min |
| Windy Hill Community Center open | The nearest City Parks community center, at 10540 Anders Boulevard, managed by the Boys & Girls Club of Northeast Florida: a multipurpose field, indoor games and a warming kitchen. It is a meeting and program center, not a gym. | 10–15 min |
| Samuel Wolfson High School pool open | The nearest of the City's 32 outdoor pools, at 7000 Powers Avenue. City pools open only in summer: the 2026 regular season ran from 6 June to 2 August. | 10–15 min |
| Fort Family Regional Park open | The free option: the City's 52-acre park on Baymeadows Road East, with tennis and pickleball courts, playing fields and hiking trails. | 8–12 min |
The free option is Fort Family Regional Park, with tennis and pickleball courts and trails, or the residents' own streets under the oaks.
One set of zoned schools, the high school over capacity
Every address is in Duval County Public Schools, and its 2026-27 zones send every resident to Twin Lakes Academy Elementary, graded C for 2026, and Twin Lakes Academy Middle, B, both just east of the line, and to Atlantic Coast High School, graded A for three years running and enrolling 2,933 against a capacity of 2,633. The 2027-28 zones keep the reference point at the same three.
| School | Board | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Twin Lakes Academy Elementary School | Duval County Public Schools | 8000 Point Meadows Drive, prekindergarten to grade 5, just east of the line. On the district's 2026-27 zone layer every resident of the guide is in its zone, and the 2027-28 layer keeps the reference point there. The state graded it C for 2026, B for 2025 and C for 2024; it enrolls 736 against a capacity of 926. |
| Twin Lakes Academy Middle School | Duval County Public Schools | 8050 Point Meadows Drive, grades 6 to 8: the middle school zone for every resident in 2026-27, unchanged at the reference point for 2027-28. Graded B for 2026 after C for 2025 and 2024; 746 enrolled against a capacity of 1,462. |
| Atlantic Coast High School | Duval County Public Schools | 9735 R.G. Skinner Parkway, grades 9 to 12: the high school zone for every resident in 2026-27, unchanged at the reference point for 2027-28. Graded A for 2026, 2025 and 2024, and over its capacity, with 2,933 enrolled for 2026-27 against the district's capacity figure of 2,633. The assignment layer gives no magnet priority at the reference point; confirm your own address in the district's Neighborhood School Locator. |
Confirm your own address in the district's Neighborhood School Locator, which also shows any magnet priority; none applies at the reference point. A zone is the default, and the district's choice process is the way to another school.
Month by month, what living here looks like
Not a highlights reel: the actual annual rhythm, including the dates residents have to remember.
- The property appraiser values every property as of 1 January, and to claim the homestead exemption you must own and live in the house on that date
- Highs near 18.6 °C and lows near 6.1 °C at Jacksonville International, with about six nights at or below freezing on the 1991 to 2020 normal
- About 83 mm of rain
- Highs near 20.5 °C and lows near 7.8 °C, with two or three freezing nights on the normal
- About 73 mm of rain, among the drier months
- 1 March is the deadline to file for the homestead exemption, and for portability, for the year after you buy
- Highs near 23.5 °C and about 84 mm of rain
- Highs near 26.6 °C and about 74 mm of rain, one of the drier months on the normal
- The club's course redesign, begun late in 2025, is due for completion in 2027
- Highs near 29.9 °C, with about eight days reaching 32 °C (90 °F)
- About 87 mm of rain before the wet season
- The Atlantic hurricane season runs from 1 June to 30 November
- The wet season begins: about 193 mm of rain, mostly in afternoon storms, and about 16 days reaching 32 °C
- City outdoor pools open for the regular season; in 2026 it ran from 6 June to 2 August
- Highs near 33.3 °C and lows near 22.9 °C, with about 24 days reaching 32 °C
- About 172 mm of rain, much of it in afternoon thunderstorms
- The property appraiser mails the TRIM notice of proposed taxes in mid to late August; a petition to the Value Adjustment Board is due 25 days after the mailing
- Highs near 32.7 °C and about 175 mm of rain
- The hurricane season peaks around 10 September, with most activity from mid-August to mid-October
- About 192 mm of rain, as wet as June; local nor'easters in September and October 2025 brought coastal flood advisories across the St. Johns basin
- Highs near 27.2 °C and about 102 mm of rain as the wet season ends
- Nor'easters can push tides up the St. Johns basin, as in October 2025, though Deerwood is well back from the river
- JTA moves to a reduced weekday schedule on 2 November 2026: the First Coast Flyer stays at every 20 minutes, Route 8 drops to every 30, and the hourly routes 23 and 28 continue
- Hurricane season ends on 30 November
- Highs near 22.9 °C and about 51 mm of rain, the driest month on the normal
- Highs near 19.7 °C and lows near 7.7 °C, with three or four freezing nights
- About 71 mm of rain
4 more photographs of Jacksonville and the region
Drawn from the site's shared, freely licensed Jacksonville photo library, not photographs of Deerwood itself. Filter by category.
Showing 1–4 of 4 photographs.
About these photographs. Openly licensed images from the site's shared Jacksonville library, found on Wikimedia Commons and served from there with full attribution. None of them is presented as a photograph of Deerwood.