Iconic 1934 two-story log cabin off Beach Boulevard built by restaurateur Alpha Paynter as a boarding house and home; the Homestead Restaurant for decades, since 2012 TacoLu — Alpha Paynter is buried behind the building and reportedly never left.
1712 Beach Boulevard, Jacksonville Beach, FL 32250
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Active Tex-Mex restaurant; menu pricing.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Restored two-story log-cabin interior with multiple dining rooms and an outdoor patio.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1934 · Built 1934 by Alpha Paynter as a boarding house and home · Operated as the Homestead Restaurant from mid-20th century to 2011 · Alpha Paynter is buried behind the building · Houses TacoLu Baja Mexicana since 2012
Per The Jaxson, Jacksonville Today (Jaxlore feature), and News4Jax, in 1934 Alpha Paynter purchased land on Hogan Road — today part of Beach Boulevard — in Jacksonville Beach. She built a two-story log cabin that originally served as a boarding house and her personal residence. The property also included a small farm and the homes of Paynter's staff, friends, and family. Paynter ran the cabin as a boarding house and later as the Homestead Restaurant, which became a Jacksonville Beach institution.
Alpha Paynter died around the 1960s and is buried behind the building. The Homestead Restaurant continued in operation for decades after her death and cycled through ownership and concept changes in the early 21st century before closing in 2011. In 2012, Debbie and Don Nicol relocated their popular TacoLu Tex-Mex restaurant from elsewhere in Jacksonville Beach into the log cabin, where it operates today as TacoLu Baja Mexicana.
The restaurant is one of the most-recognized buildings in Jacksonville Beach and is listed by First Coast tourism resources as an example of mid-20th-century Florida vernacular architecture. The grave on the property is referenced in coverage by The Jaxson and Jacksonville Today as the physical anchor of Paynter's long-running ghost story.
Sources
According to The Jaxson, Jacksonville Today, and News4Jax, Jacksonville Beaches lore claims that local restaurateur Alpha Paynter has had trouble letting go of her old Homestead Restaurant — even decades after she died. Reports go back to the 1960s, around the time Paynter died, and have continued through the Homestead's later ownership and into the TacoLu era. The Homestead-era staff are referenced as the original sources for the ghost story, and the TacoLu staff have documented their own encounters since 2012.
Reports center on three sites within the building: near the large limestone fireplace in the main dining room, near the stairs to the second floor, and in or near the ladies' restroom. Paynter is reported as a benign spirit — described as a 'caretaker' figure who continues to watch over the building she built. Phenomena include brief sightings of a woman, footsteps when no one is upstairs, and lights or doors behaving unusually in unattended areas.
The restaurant is included on the National Directory of Haunted Places and is treated as one of the First Coast's most-famous haunted dining sites. Editorially, this is a well-documented community-memory ghost story — the named entity, the physical grave behind the building, and continuous multi-decade reporting across multiple ownership eras give it more anchor than typical restaurant ghost lore.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Eat tacos and Baja-style fare in the 1934 two-story log cabin where Jacksonville Beach restaurateur Alpha Paynter lived, worked, and is reportedly still seen near the limestone fireplace in the main dining room.
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Jacksonville Beach, FL
The log cabin at 1712 Beach Boulevard in Jacksonville Beach was built in 1934. Alpha Paynter — born Alpha Pullen in 1887, later divorced and settled at the beach — inherited the structure and opened it as a boarding house before converting it to The Homestead Restaurant. Under Paynter's ownership and after her death in 1962, the Homestead served Southern cooking for nearly eight decades, becoming one of the First Coast's most enduring dining institutions. The building closed as the Homestead at the end of 2010 and reopened as TacoLu Baja Mexicana in 2012.
St. Augustine, FL
The building that houses O.C. White's Seafood & Spirits at 118 Avenida Menendez dates to 1790, originally built by Don Miguel Ysnardy as a private residence. After service as one of St. Augustine's first hotels and a series of private owners, the structure was relocated in 1961 to its current bayfront site. The O.C. White family acquired the building in 1992 and opened the restaurant.
St. Augustine, FL
The Scarlett O'Hara's building at 70 Hypolita Street is an 1879 Victorian-era home, originally erected by George Colee for his fiancée before the marriage fell through. The property was joined to an adjacent structure and converted into a bar and restaurant in 1979; it has more recently been rebranded as 'The Scarlett House.'