Aerial survey · USDA NAIP · public domainA bayfront park in historic St. Andrews preserving Panama City's oldest live oak, on ground tied to the pioneer settlement Federal troops destroyed in 1863.
2300 W Beach Drive, Panama City, FL 32401
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Free. Public city park.
Access
Wheelchair OK
An urban green space on the St. Andrews Bay shoreline with shade oaks, lawn, interpretive signs, and a natural waterfront.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1827 · Preserves the 'Old Sentry' live oak, thought to be more than 350 years old · On ground tied to the first European settlement on St. Andrews Bay (Old Town / St. Andrews City) · St. Andrews was a Confederate salt-producing center destroyed by Federal troops in 1863 · Connected to early Black pioneer Jose Massalina and to city founder George West
Oaks by the Bay Park sits on the St. Andrews Bay shoreline in the historic St. Andrews neighborhood of Panama City, in Bay County. The park's signature feature is a live oak called the Old Sentry, estimated at more than 350 years old, old enough to have stood here roughly a century before Florida became a U.S. territory in 1821.
The ground is part of one of the oldest settled areas on St. Andrews Bay. The first European settlement nearby, along Beach Drive, was known as Old Town or St. Andrews City. Retired Georgia governor John Clark and his wife Nancy built a home there and lived in the area until their deaths in 1832. During the Civil War, St. Andrews became a strategic supplier of salt, distilled from bay water in kettles, to Confederate forces, which made it a target. Federal raids struck the area repeatedly, and the town was destroyed in 1863. A salt kettle from that period is displayed in the park with interpretive signage.
The St. Andrews story is also a Black-pioneer story. The Massalina family is recognized among Bay County's earliest pioneers; patriarch Jose Massalina, a maritime merchant, settled along what is now Massalina Bayou in the early 1800s and is remembered as the first Black man to settle in the Panama City area. Decades later, George West, who arrived in the 1880s and moved permanently in 1906, is considered the city's founding father and helped lead Panama City's 1909 incorporation. The park preserves the oak and the waterfront where much of that history played out.
Sources
Unlike many entries, Oaks by the Bay Park has no developed ghost legend attached to it, and none is invented here. Its claim on this map is historical. The Old Sentry oak has stood on this shoreline for more than three centuries, through the founding, wartime destruction, and rebuilding of St. Andrews.
The darker history is real and documented: a settlement built on salt and bay trade, raided and burned by Federal forces in 1863, and a pioneer community whose story includes both a formerly enslaved or free Black maritime settler, Jose Massalina, and the later town founders. People who come to the park for atmosphere find it in the scale of the oak and the quiet of the bay rather than in any reported apparition. The interpretive signs, the displayed salt kettle, and the age of the tree are the point.
A self-guided walk through a small bayfront park in the historic St. Andrews neighborhood. The centerpiece is an enormous live oak, the 'Old Sentry,' thought to be more than 350 years old. Interpretive signs cover local history, including a salt kettle from the Civil War era when St. Andrews supplied salt to the Confederacy. Views over St. Andrews Bay; free and open daily.
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