In 1916, Atley Bensen paid $1,200 for precut yellow pine lumber. A riverboat brought it down from Jacksonville and unloaded it on the shoreline about 300 feet south of First Street in Grant. The lumber became a two-bedroom, 1,200-square-foot cottage for him and his bride, Clara Christensen, the daughter of another pioneer family. The cottage looked out over Grant Island. Space Coast Living reported that the outhouse at the end of the dock had the best view.
The cottage now sits at 5795 U.S. 1 in Fisherman's Landing Park. This December it is one of eight stops on a countywide holiday tour. It got there because the Grant Community Club paid to move it, and volunteers with the Grant Historical Society have looked after it since. Grant's holiday season this year works the same way. Nonprofits and volunteers run the farmers market, the historic house tour and the depot fundraiser, and the Town puts on the tree lighting. Tour tickets and fish fry plates help pay for the preservation of the cottage and the depot next to it.
The dates in order
- Sunday, Nov. 15, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Grant Farmers Market, Grant Community Center, 4580 1st St.
- Sunday, Nov. 29. Town Christmas Tree Lighting, Grant-Valkaria Community Park, 1449 Valkaria Road.
- Dec. 4, 5, 6, 11, 12, 13, 18, 19 and 20, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Museums of Brevard Holiday Tour of Historic Homes, including the Bensen House.
- Sunday, Dec. 20, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Grant Farmers Market again. It falls on the last day of the house tour.
Town Hall will be closed Nov. 11 for Veterans Day, Nov. 26 for Thanksgiving, Dec. 24, and Dec. 28 through Dec. 31.
How the cottage got to the park
The Bensens raised three sons in the house. Atley served aboard the USS Lexington during World War II and died in 1961, and Clara lived until 1981. In 1984 a Bensen son donated the cottage to the Grant Historical Society. According to Space Coast Living, it was trailered to its current county park site in 1985, paid for with a $45,000 donation from the Grant Community Club. It opened as a museum in 1987 after more than two years of renovation, most of it done by volunteers.
The land belongs to the county, but the Historical Society runs the house and pays to keep it up. The same Space Coast Living story lists where that money comes from: the Pioneer Fish Fry, support from the Grant Seafood Festival, private donations, and sales of volunteer-made crafts. Karen Schafer, who helps organize the crafters, told the magazine, "Crafts is one of our biggest sources of support."
The collection shows how people lived here before the place had stoplights or a town charter. Clara sewed her own wedding dress, and it is displayed in the main bedroom. Her slow cooker is in the kitchen. She taught school, and she started dinner the night before. There is a 1659 Bible, and there is the 1874 steamer trunk that Lars Jorgensen brought from Denmark. Jorgensen became Grant's postmaster, and Society member George Dickerson told Space Coast Living that Jorgensen "brought along three families with him, tripling the population."
What the $30 holiday ticket covers
The Museums of Brevard Holiday Tour of Historic Homes is in its seventh year. One $30 ticket gets you into three of the eight participating homes. Tickets are limited, and all proceeds go to the participating museums for preservation projects. Here are the eight stops:
- Bensen House, Grant
- Historic Rossetter House Museum and Garden, Eau Gallie/Melbourne
- Green Gables at Historic Riverview Village, Melbourne
- Lawndale House, Rockledge
- Sams House, Merritt Island
- Field Manor Homestead, Merritt Island
- Pritchard House, Titusville
- Cape Canaveral Lighthouse, Space Force Station
The Grant Historical Society's events page explains how the tour works. Your thank-you email includes your ticket, a tax receipt and a planning guide. You pick up a "PastPort" at the first home you visit, and it serves as your ticket for the other two. Some homes require reservations, which you make directly with each house. Tickets are not refundable. If you want to see more than three homes, you pay at the door of each extra one.
If you live in Grant-Valkaria, the Bensen House is the closest stop to home. The two Melbourne houses fill out a three-house day without driving north to Titusville or the Cape. Ticket proceeds are donated to the participating museums, and the cottage on U.S. 1 is one of them.
Outside the tour, Space Coast Living's 2025 profile listed the house as open Fridays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The grounds were open from 8 a.m. to dusk, and admission was free with donations welcome. The listed phone number is 321-723-8543, so call before you make a special trip.
The yellow building next door is the next project
Next to the Bensen House is the Grant Railroad Depot. It has been moved twice. It originally stood behind the general store, then went to Valkaria Airport, and then came to Fisherman's Landing Park beside the cottage. The general store also has a later chapter. Jorgensen General Store opened in 1894, and the building is now Rib City.
Society president Cheri Bedford grew up in Grant and still lives there. An old photograph shows her as a child playing in front of the depot. In 2025 she told Space Coast Living what the Society has in mind for the building:
"We would like it to be a museum, possibly a fishing museum."
A fishing museum fits the history. Atley Bensen and his brother Adolph made their living from fishing, growing pineapples and running the general store. The Society's events page names restoring the Old Depot as the goal of the annual Pioneer Fish Fry. The menu is fried fish, cheese grits, collard greens, hushpuppies and dessert, and plates are $18 for adults and $9 for children 12 and under. The fry is held at the Grant Community Center, and the Bensen House and Rail Depot are opened for tours that day. When you pass the depot on a market Sunday, you are looking at the project the fry raises money for.
Third Sundays at 4580 1st Street
The Grant Community Center is a few blocks from where the Bensens' lumber came ashore, and it hosts the other half of the season. The Grant Farmers Market runs on the third Sunday of every month from October through March, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. It brings in more than 75 vendors, food trucks and local makers. DBH Hummus Company is back for the season with fresh pita, baked pita chips, salads and a lineup of more than 40 hummus flavors.
At the Dec. 10, 2025 Town Council meeting, council members unanimously approved Resolution No. 29-2025. It gave the Grant Community Center a special-event permit for a monthly farmers market. Because the Center is a 501(c)(3), the Council also waived the $25 application fee. The administrator explained that the Town code allows that waiver when all proceeds go to a nonprofit.
On the calendar, Dec. 20 is the day everything overlaps. It is the third Sunday, so the market is running. It is also the last day of the holiday tour, and both run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. You can shop the market at 4580 1st St., then drive down to Fisherman's Landing Park and use a tour ticket at the Bensen House with the depot right next door. Dec. 6 and Dec. 13 are tour Sundays without a market, and Nov. 15 is a market day before the tour starts.
Nov. 29 is the Town's turn
The Christmas tree lighting is the one stop on this calendar that the Town runs itself, and it moves inland to Grant-Valkaria Community Park at 1449 Valkaria Road. The Town describes it as an annual free event. At the same December 2025 meeting that approved the market permit, Town Administrator Mahaney called that year's lighting "a huge success." He also set this year's date, Sunday, Nov. 29, 2026, almost a year ahead of time. Check the Town's events page for the start time and program as the date gets closer.
If you have kids who like airplanes, EAA Chapter 1288 is holding a Young Eagles rally at 1 Pilot's Place on Nov. 14 from 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. with free flights for ages 8 to 17, but registration is already full. The same airport area is home to the golf course covered in our Pilots' Place guide. For more weekends around the lagoon and the landings, see A Grant-Valkaria Weekend, Written For People Who Already Live Here.
I grew up in Melbourne and Palm Bay, and places like the Bensen House and the old depot are why this part of the Space Coast still feels like it has roots. If you're out at the market on Dec. 20 or touring the cottage that weekend and have a question about Grant-Valkaria, from riverfront lots to acreage, Donell Knight II is glad to help with local insight and a clear plan. Let's Connect.
