Winter Beach was originally established as the town of Woodley in the late 1890s. In 1902, the community's name was changed to Quay, in honor of Senator Matthew S. Quay of Pennsylvania. Senator Quay had introduced a Senate bill to widen and deepen the Intracoastal Waterway, which the community thought would be of benefit. Senator Quay was a winter resident of St. Lucie Village, just north of Fort Pierce, where his old home still stands. In 1922 the name of the community was changed for promotional purposes to Winter Beach, "Where the Sunshine Spends the Winter". In 1925, Indian River County was established, and Winter Beach almost became the county seat, however the then-town of Vero became an incorporated city and was selected as the county seat. Portions of Winter Beach were still enumerated as Quay in the 1940 census.
Demographics
As of the census of 2000, there were 965 people, 373 households, and 298 families residing in the CDP. The population density was 140.1 people per square mile. There were 405 housing units at an average density of 58.8/sq mi. The racial makeup of the CDP was 97.20% White, 1.45% African American, 0.41% Native American, 0.62% Asian, and 0.31% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.87% of the population. There were 373 households out of which 23.6% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 70.8% were married couplesliving together, 6.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 20.1% were non-families. 15.5% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.51 and the average family size was 2.76. In the CDP, the population was spread out with 19.2% under the age of 18, 4.5% from 18 to 24, 23.2% from 25 to 44, 27.2% from 45 to 64, and 26.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 47 years. For every 100 females, there were 103.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 102.6 males. The median income for a household in the CDP was $85,091, and the median income for a family was $87,400. Males had a median income of $26,591 versus $29,286 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $35,169. About 2.0% of families and 2.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 2.7% of those under age 18 and none of those age 65 or over.
