Some 350 miles southeast of Atlanta, Florida's first African-American resort community beckons.

American Beach is on Amelia Island, tucked behind Fla. A1A. Signs point the way to the seaside enclave, populated by descendants of slaves, longtime visitors-turned-landowners and well-to-do retirees.

Mae Gentry/AJC Staff (ENLARGE)
MaVynee Betsch, great-granddaughter of American Beach's founder Abraham Lincoln Lewis, gives tours, accepts donations and sells Russ Rymer's book 'American Beach: A Saga of Race, Wealth, and Memory,' in which she is a central character.
Mae Gentry/AJC Staff (ENLARGE)
The Rev. Levi White of Jacksonville fishes for whiting recently on his first trip to American Beach. He said he made the trip because 'I heard they were biting down here.'
Mae Gentry/AJC Staff (ENLARGE)
American Beach resident James A. Robinson has created an outdoor art installation with a message of thanks to the community's founder.
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IF YOU GO Getting there • By car: American Beach is about a six-hour drive from downtown Atlanta. Take I-75 south to I-16 east toward Savannah; from there, take I-95 south toward Jacksonville, then U.S. 17 south/Fla. 5 south toward Yulee; turn left onto Fla. 200 north/Fla. A1A north/Buccaneer Trail; turn right onto Amelia Island Parkway, which becomes Fla. A1A; turn right on Lewis Street, the main road into American Beach. • By air: Jacksonville International Airport, 30 miles south of American Beach, is the closest airport. Expect to pay about $130 round trip. Where to stay • Hampton Inn & Suites, 19 S. Second St., Fernandina Beach, FL 32034. Rates are $89 a night for a room; $129 a night for a two-room suite. 904-491-4911; Web site. • Amelia Island Plantation, 6800 First Coast Highway, Amelia Island, FL 32034. Rate for a one-bedroom "resort view" villa, $211 a night. 1-888-261-6161; Web site. Information • For tours of American Beach, call Marsha Dean Phelts at 904-261-0175 or MaVynee Betsch at 904-261-3988. • Jacksonville and the Beaches Convention and Visitors Bureau, Web site

The community has few amenities to recommend it, beyond an uncrowded and beautiful beach. It does, however, have something to offer nature lovers, beachcombers and history buffs.

"This is an enchanted place," says Marsha Dean Phelts, author of "An American Beach for African Americans."

The community is on the National Register of Historic Places and one of several attractions on Florida's Black Heritage Trail. Other sites are the Zora Neale Hurston National Museum of Fine Arts in Eatonville and Jackie Robinson Ballpark in Daytona Beach.

American Beach was created in the early 1930s, when insurance entrepreneur Abraham Lincoln Lewis bought 200 acres of oceanfront property. He sold lots to African-Americans so they could enjoy the beach in the days of segregation.

During its heyday, American Beach was a mecca for black vacationers. Its nightclubs attracted big-name entertainers like Ray Charles and Duke Ellington. The community is featured in books, magazine and newspaper articles and John Sayles' 2002 film "Sunshine State."

Today, American Beach is a quiet residential area that encompasses about 100 acres — half its original acreage was sold to developers — sandwiched between the Ritz-Carlton Amelia Island and the Amelia Island Plantation resort.

The community has about 75 full-time residents. Its public beach is some 2,500 feet long.

Eugene Jefferson, 62, has enjoyed American Beach for four decades and recalls when the glow of grills and nightclubs lit the night sky. Now, the retired electrician makes the half-hour drive from Jacksonville to American Beach two or three times a week to go fishing.

"There's nothing else to do but fish," he says.

For tourists seeking other diversions, nearby Fernandina Beach has shops, restaurants and watering holes. Local resorts offer golf, tennis, watersports and horseback riding. American Beach's nearest commercial neighbors are Gourmet Gourmet deli, Palmetto Walk shopping village and Baxter's restaurant.

But for those more interested in the past, Phelts offers hour-long walking tours highlighting the area's first house built of coquina, or crushed clam shells; the historic Franklin Town United Methodist Church and cemetery; and the 7-acre Burney Park, popular for reunions.

Eccentric environmentalist MaVynee Betsch — her sister is former Spelman College president Johnnetta Cole and Lewis was her great-grandfather — also gives American Beach tours, accepting donations and selling the 1998 Russ Rymer book "American Beach: A Saga of Race, Wealth, and Memory," in which she is a central character.

With her 7-foot-long hair draped over one arm, "the Beach Lady" floats like a butterfly toward a sand dune dubbed Nana. During her tours, Betsch points out historic homes and the people who inhabited them, shuttered nightclubs that were once on the "chitlin circuit" — a group of nightclubs and theaters that featured black performers and catered especially to black audiences — and the sawgrass palmetto and other native plants.

"We're going to have a museum," she says, poking through mounds of memorabilia destined to be housed there.

Nassau County plans to reserve one room of a new county building for the museum, to open next year.

Rowena Stewart of Jacksonville, president of the A.L. Lewis Historical Society, is the museum's organizer. She envisions a display of photographs, documents and artifacts that tell the story of "the strength and the beauty of a people in that small place."

Stewart credits the Beach Lady for promoting efforts to preserve the community her great-grandfather founded.

Others also revere Betsch's great-grandfather. American Beach resident James A. Robinson, 73, has created an outdoor art installation with a photo of Lewis and a message of thanks.

Robinson first visited American Beach in the 1940s, when he was a boy living in Jacksonville. Today, he owns property on Lewis Street, the main road through the community.

"He could have bought a small piece of property for him and his family," Robinson said. "Instead, he had a system set up where black people could buy here. They couldn't go no place else. We're thanking him."