The Old Brick Road in Flagler County, Florida, is the best-known surviving stretch of brick-paved Dixie Highway in the state: roughly 8.3 miles of original vitrified brick running from Espanola, reached via US-13, north through scrub forest and pine flatwoods to County Road 204 near the St. Johns County line. It is open to the public with no gate, fee or visitor center, it is narrow and often sandy, and it is a working track still used by logging trucks, so a high-clearance vehicle and a dry forecast matter. Eight miles of rust-colored brick - this is what the American road-building movement looked like before asphalt swallowed it.
Old Brick Road at a Glance
- Where: Flagler County, northeast Florida, between Espanola (south end) and County Road 204 near the former settlement of Spuds (north end, at the St. Johns County line). Bunnell is the nearest county seat; Palm Coast and St. Augustine are the nearest large destinations.
- Length: about 8.3 miles, with a surface nine feet wide and curbstones on each side.
- What it is: a surviving section of the original Dixie Highway, the early automobile route promoted by Carl G. Fisher from the Midwest to Miami. Reference works also list it as the Dixie Highway - Hastings, Espanola and Bunnell Road, and sometimes as County Road 13.
- Status: listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 20, 2005.
- Visiting: free, unstaffed, no restrooms; sand, mud and sections buried under topsoil. Check current conditions before you go.
What the Old Brick Road Is and Why It Matters
The road spans approximately 8.3 miles from the small community of Espanola at its southern end - accessible via US-13 - north through the flatwoods, crossing into St. Johns County and ending near County Road 204 at what remains of a former settlement called Spuds. For the full length, you are driving on the same surface that early automobiles used more than a century ago.
Florida has other Dixie Highway fragments. Georgia has some. But this stretch through Flagler County was never touched by an asphalt crew. The reasons are circumstantial - sparse population, no development pressure until recently, land ownership patterns that kept heavy construction away. The result is a road that functions as both a living artifact and a working track still used today, primarily by logging trucks. That dual identity is now the source of its most serious threat.
On April 20, 2005, the road was listed on the National Register of Historic Places under the designation "Dixie Highway - Hastings, Espanola, and Bunnell Road." That recognition came more than a decade before local preservation efforts intensified. Today, with Palm Coast expanding westward and logging activity ongoing, the listing has taken on new urgency. For the story of how that city appeared, see the guide to how ITT Corporation built Palm Coast from scratch.
Old Brick Road Timeline
- 1914: Carl Fisher's Dixie Highway Association is organized (in Chattanooga, Tennessee, according to Wikipedia's Dixie Highway entry); Flagler County begins paving its stretch with brick.
- 1917: Flagler County is incorporated and its new commission pushes to finish the remaining sections.
- 1926: US-1 is completed along the Atlantic coast and pulls traffic away from the inland route.
- 1927: The Dixie Highway Association disbands.
- April 20, 2005: The road is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
- 2026: County commissioners vote to support protected buffers (April); a public guided tour draws wide attention (July).
Note that some references give 1916 as the date of the brick section, while the construction story below follows the county's 1914 start; both agree it dates from the 1910s.
Carl Fisher's Dream: The Brickyard Connection
The road exists because of one man's conviction that paved roads would transform American life. Carl G. Fisher founded the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the track famously nicknamed "the Brickyard" because its racing surface was originally paved with millions of bricks. Fisher knew from direct, high-speed experience what a smooth brick surface could do - it allowed for reliability and sustained use that dirt could never match.
What Fisher proved at Indianapolis, he wanted to replicate across the country. In 1914, he organized the Dixie Highway Association, pulling together governors, business leaders, and local governments from ten states. His vision was a connected network of more than 5,000 miles of paved road running from Chicago south all the way to Miami. The route would pass through the interior of Florida - through places like Espanola and Bunnell that otherwise had no reliable connection to the outside world. Florida carried two main legs of the highway: an eastern route through Jacksonville and West Palm Beach and a western route through Tallahassee, Gainesville and Orlando, both ending in Miami.
The Brickyard-to-Flagler-County connection is more than trivia. Fisher's familiarity with brick as a road surface, proven under racing conditions, directly informed the material choice for the Dixie Highway project. Vitrified brick - fired at extreme temperatures until it becomes dense and impervious to water - was the obvious choice for a road meant to last. The Indianapolis Speedway gave Fisher both the template and the credibility. The Dixie Highway Association gave him the political infrastructure to act on it across an entire continent. Fisher's other Florida legacy is told in the story of Ormond Beach, birthplace of speed, farther south along the same coast.
Building the Road: Bonds, Vitrified Bricks, and Convict Labor
Flagler County financed its stretch through a county bond issue - one of the largest financial commitments the sparsely populated county had made to that point. Construction began in 1914. The primary paving contractor was the Wilson Company; the McCrary Company handled the Espanola segment separately.
The bricks came from two sources. The Graves Brick Company of Birmingham, Alabama supplied the majority. Some additional bricks came from the Southern Clay Manufacturing Company of Tennessee. Both manufactured vitrified bricks - a firing process that produces a finished product with low water absorption and high resistance to the repeated stress of vehicle traffic over decades.
The construction figures are staggering even by modern standards. Building one mile of this road required 237,600 bricks. Think about that: a quarter million individual fired-clay units per mile, each placed by hand. The finished surface was nine feet wide with a curbstone running along each side to define the edge and control erosion. Nine feet is narrow - barely wide enough for one lane of traffic - but it was a significant step forward from the rutted sand tracks that preceded it.
When Flagler County was formally incorporated in 1917, the new County Commission made completing the remaining sections one of its first official acts. The labor came from county convict crews, a common practice in Florida road construction of that era used to hold costs down on projects that might otherwise be unaffordable for a county with a thin tax base. The history embedded in these bricks is not simple or comfortable. It includes the coerced labor of people who had no choice in the matter, building a road that others would profit from.
Rise and Fall: From Main Street to Ghost Highway
Through the early 1920s, this road was a primary interior route. Travelers heading from the upper South toward Miami had few alternatives. The Dixie Highway gave them a paved surface where none had existed, and small communities along the route - Espanola, Bunnell, Hastings - saw traffic and commerce they would not otherwise have had.
The end came quickly. US-1 was completed along Florida's Atlantic coast in 1926, offering a faster, more direct path between the same endpoints. The coastal route pulled traffic away from the inland Dixie Highway almost immediately. With its primary purpose gone, the Dixie Highway Association disbanded in 1927 - just thirteen years after Fisher launched it. According to Wikipedia's Dixie Highway entry, the federal government then folded the corridor into the U.S. Route system, and some portions became state roads.
The Flagler County brick road was left where it was. Without maintenance or significant traffic, the surrounding scrub and flatwoods closed in. The communities along the route contracted. Espanola today is a ghost of what it was - a scatter of structures and a name on a map rather than a functioning town. The road survived precisely because nobody invested money in changing it. Obscurity became its best protection. The other force that rearranged this landscape, the railroad, is covered in the story of Henry Flagler's railway and the lost towns of the corridor, and the pine-resin economy that filled these woods is told in the guide to the turpentine industry in Flagler County.
The 2026 Preservation Battle
That obscurity is now running out. The primary threat is not residential development directly - it is logging. Heavy trucks working the surrounding timberlands use the brick road as an access route because it is there and it is accessible. The 111-year-old bricks were not engineered for that weight, and the damage accumulates in ways that are difficult to reverse.
Flagler County has responded in one counterintuitive way: burying sections of the brick road under topsoil to protect the bricks from further truck damage. This means some visitors will drive stretches where no brick is visible at all - it is underneath them, covered deliberately. The bricks are still there; they are temporarily hidden to shield them from destruction.
In April 2026, Flagler County commissioners voted to support protected buffers on each side of the road. The commission also discussed formally designating the entire stretch as a linear park - a move that would give the road legal standing against both logging truck traffic and the westward expansion of Palm Coast, which is pushing development into land that has historically been agricultural and forested.
A July 2026 guided tour led by Flagler County historian Preston Zepp drew significant public and media attention. Zepp's message was direct: the long-term survival of this road is not guaranteed. The National Register listing provides recognition, not protection. The commission discussions are ongoing, not concluded. What happens in the next several years will determine whether this road remains what it is or becomes a cautionary story about what was lost while people debated.
How to Drive the Old Brick Road: A Practical Visitor Guide
The Two Access Points
The road has two entry points. The southern end is at Espanola, reached via US-13. Look for where the brick surface begins and pull off the highway shoulder - there is no official parking lot, no entrance sign, and no ranger station. You arrive and drive. The northern end is near County Road 204 at the former settlement of Spuds, where the road crosses into St. Johns County. If you prefer driving south-to-north, start there. Most visitors approaching from the Heritage Crossroads corridor will find the southern Espanola access the logical entry given the direction of travel.
Vehicle and Conditions Checklist
- Bring a four-wheel-drive vehicle or high-clearance SUV - not because of the brick itself, but because of the sand and mud conditions that surround and fill gaps between sections.
- After heavy rain, holes in the road can reach two feet deep in mud. This is not exaggeration - vehicles have been stranded here. Check recent rainfall before you go.
- The road is nine feet wide. When you meet a vehicle coming the other direction, one of you must pull completely off the bricks. Move deliberately; there is enough shoulder to manage it safely if you don't hesitate.
- Conditions vary across the full length: packed sand in some sections, loose sand in others, fully exposed brick in others, and buried sections that feel like an ordinary dirt track.
- There is no fee, no staffed facility, and no restroom. Bring water. Cell coverage is limited. Tell someone where you are going before you drive in.
- Expect logging trucks. This is a working track; give trucks the right of way and do not park on the bricks.
- Download an offline map before you leave pavement, since signal is limited and apps show the road as one continuous line.
The Bunnell Section and Forgotten Lane
One detail that most guides omit: the section near Bunnell is fenced off and inaccessible from that approach. Visitors who arrive expecting to enter from the Bunnell side will find the road blocked. The workaround is Forgotten Lane, a connecting access point that bypasses the fenced portion and routes you to the drivable brick surface. This is not obvious from mapping apps, which treat the road as continuous. Confirm current access conditions locally before your visit - the county's ongoing preservation work occasionally changes what is open and when.
What You'll See, Hear, and Feel
Driving on 111-year-old brick is physically distinct from anything else on Florida roads. At low speed, you hear a low, rhythmic thrum as each tire crosses the slightly raised joint between bricks - a sound somewhere between cobblestone and a washboard dirt road, but with a lower pitch. The vibration is steady rather than jarring. Your hands on the wheel feel the texture translating up through the chassis. It is immediately clear you are on something old and deliberate, not a gravel track or a path.
The brick itself runs from rust-red to deep brown depending on the light and how much sand has been ground into the surface over the decades. In morning light, exposed sections glow with color. In late afternoon shade under the pine canopy, the road darkens to something closer to amber. In the sections buried under topsoil, you lose the color and the sound both - which makes the re-emergence of brick on the other side of a buried stretch feel like surfacing.
The surroundings are dense Florida scrub and pine flatwoods - slash pine and longleaf pine overhead, palmetto and wiregrass at the margins. Wildlife in this corridor includes gopher tortoises, sandhill cranes, white-tailed deer, and wading birds near standing water. The road passes through stretches with no visible structures for long distances, which creates an unusual sense of isolation for a place this close to a growing city. More on what lives along the corridor is in the nature and wildlife guide.
Espanola at the southern end is worth a slow pass before or after your drive. Historical markers near the access points describe the road's original context. Read them before you drive in; the information lands differently when you are standing at the edge of what you are about to experience rather than reading it on your phone at home afterward.
Old Brick Road vs. Old Kings Road
The two are easy to confuse because both are "old roads" in the same county. The Old Brick Road is an early-automobile highway from the 1910s, built of brick and part of Carl Fisher's Dixie Highway. Old Kings Road is a much older route whose traces survive in several places along the corridor, including at Bulow Plantation Ruins. Visitors searching for one often land on the other, so the full story of the older route has its own page: Old Kings Road: Florida's oldest highway and its surviving traces.
Brick Roads Near Me: Where This One Fits
If you are searching for brick roads near you, the Flagler County road is the Dixie Highway brick surface that survives in this corridor of northeast Florida. It sits west of the coast, so most visitors reach it from the gateway towns - see the guide to towns from Bunnell to Palm Coast - and plan it with the map and route planning page. It is a destination in its own right, not a roadside stop on the way to somewhere else, so treat it as a half-day outing.
Pairing the Brick Road with the Rest of the Corridor
The Old Brick Road works best as part of a full day on the Heritage Crossroads corridor. Three nearby sites pair well with it without requiring significant backtracking.
- Bulow Plantation Ruins State Historic Site - On Old Kings Road near Flagler Beach, these are the tabby-shell ruins of a sugar and cotton plantation destroyed during the Second Seminole War in 1836. Florida State Parks manages the site and maintains short walking trails through the ruins. It addresses a different layer of the same pre-industrial Florida that the brick road era followed by less than a century. See the Bulow Plantation Ruins visitor guide and the history of the Second Seminole War on the corridor.
- Princess Place Preserve - A Flagler County-managed preserve with one of the oldest standing structures in the county, a tidal creek, and a network of trails. The preserve's history as a private hunting retreat for European aristocracy is an odd Florida story. Check Flagler County's website for current access and trail conditions before visiting. Details are in the Princess Place Preserve guide.
- Florida Agriculture Museum - Located in Palm Coast, this museum covers the working history of Florida farming from the pioneer era forward. Given that communities like Espanola and Hastings along the Dixie Highway route existed largely to serve agricultural economies, the museum provides direct context for why the road was built where it was and who it was built to serve. See the Florida Agricultural Museum visitor guide.
A practical sequence for the day: start at the Agriculture Museum to establish the economic context, drive the brick road mid-morning before heat peaks, and end at Bulow Plantation Ruins in the afternoon when the live oaks shade the ruin paths. For other combinations, browse the suggested itineraries or the full-day scenic drive loop.
Why This Road May Not Look the Same in Five Years
The April 2026 commission vote and July 2026 public tour are encouraging signs, but buffer designations and linear park proposals require sustained follow-through over years - and Palm Coast's westward growth is a measurable market force that preservation advocates cannot vote away on their own.
Visitors who want to support preservation have real options. Flagler County's planning office tracks public comment on the linear park proposal - contacting commissioners directly when votes come up carries more weight than signing generic online petitions. The Flagler County Historical Society maintains documentation and advocacy around the road; following their work keeps you connected to developments as they happen. And a visit itself generates the kind of visibility - foot traffic, conversations, media coverage - that gives preservation advocates leverage when they argue the road has a living constituency, not just a historical one.
If you go, go soon and go carefully: while the bricks are exposed you can still hear them under the tires. It is the road that Carl Fisher conceived when paved roads were a radical idea, built by crews who had no say in the matter, through a county that staked its early identity on completing it, and somehow left intact when everything around it changed.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is the Old Brick Road in Florida?
It is in Flagler County in northeast Florida, running from Espanola (reached via US-13) north to County Road 204 near the St. Johns County line, with the town of Bunnell nearby. Wikipedia's Dixie Highway entry describes it as a historic section of Old Dixie Highway between Espanola and CR 204 near Hastings, also known as County Road 13 or the Old Brick Road.
Is the Old Brick Road open year-round, or are there closures?
The road is publicly accessible year-round with no gate or seasonal closure. Conditions change dramatically with rainfall, however - after significant storms, sections can become impassable mud even for high-clearance vehicles. Check recent local weather before you go, and contact Flagler County for current conditions if recent rain has been heavy or prolonged.
Can a regular passenger car handle the full 8.3 miles?
In dry conditions, low-clearance vehicles can manage portions of the road, but attempting the full length without four-wheel drive or high clearance is not advisable. The combination of loose sand, uneven brick, and post-rain holes has stranded vehicles here. If you do not have an appropriate vehicle, drive what you can from one access point and turn around before conditions change.
Why does some of the road feel like a dirt track instead of brick?
Certain sections have been deliberately buried under topsoil to protect the original bricks from logging truck damage - the bricks are intact underneath. The preservation section above covers the full context of this ongoing county effort.
What is the Forgotten Lane access, and why does it matter?
The section of the brick road near Bunnell is fenced off and inaccessible from that direction. Forgotten Lane is a nearby access route that lets visitors bypass the blocked Bunnell section and reach the drivable brick surface. Most online maps do not reflect this - they show the road as a continuous line, which leads visitors to the fenced portion without any indication of an alternative. Confirm current access details with Flagler County before your visit, since preservation work can shift what is open.
Is the 2005 National Register listing enough to protect the road from development?
No. The National Register of Historic Places designation is a recognition of significance, not a legal protection. It does not prevent owners or local governments from altering or removing a listed property, though it does trigger review processes for federally funded projects. The more protective measures being discussed - the linear park designation and setback buffers voted on in April 2026 - would carry actual legal weight. Those are still in process as of mid-2026.
How long should I budget for the full drive and a stop at Espanola?
Budget at least ninety minutes to two hours for the drive itself if you plan to cover the full length, stop to walk sections, and take in the historical markers at Espanola. The narrow width means you will move slowly and stop periodically to let other vehicles pass. Add travel time from either access point, since both ends are on rural roads with no nearby services - fill your tank and bring water before you arrive.
What is the Dixie Highway, and why is there a brick road in Flagler County?
The Dixie Highway was a network of early automobile roads promoted by Carl G. Fisher and organized in 1914, linking the Midwest with Miami across ten states. Flagler County paved its section with vitrified brick, and this stretch survived because the highway association disbanded in 1927 after US-1 drew traffic away, leaving the inland road unchanged.
Is the Old Brick Road the same as Old Kings Road?
No. The Old Brick Road is a 1910s brick automobile road that was part of the Dixie Highway. Old Kings Road is a far older route with surviving traces elsewhere in the corridor. See the Old Kings Road guide for that route.