Wonderful story about a town rich in history but sort of overlooked because of the historical significance of St. Augustine. Several other gems of the area worth mentioning is the County Line grocery store on the East Palatka border that sells fresh produce from their very own farms at great prices (closes seasonally however). Also they also hold a big potato and cabbage festival every year at the old football field of the closed high school. There was also a factory that made these crunchy spicy datil pepper flavored kettle-cooked potato chips sold at County Line which name escapes me but the factory used to give out tours.
Back in the 90's my office in St. Augustine had a social service outpost at the old high school I would occasionally man so these pictures bring back some great memories when a co-worker and I would just go exploring the town for the hell of it, but back then there was so much promise for the area especially after they widened SR 207.
I always thought back then that if downtown Jacksonville would truly come back to life and they decided to have commuter rail established through Clay County to Palatka, the area south and west of Hastings would make for an excellent affordable bedroom community, a combination of Mandarin and Palm Coast, given the new elementary and high school that was just created at the time.
Fortunately the powers that be in St. Johns County have a cooler head concerning sprawl keeping most of the growth in the north, turning down new massive housing developments in the south, and I guess, just let Hastings be Hastings.
