about sea Community
The SEA Community Help Resource Center is a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit corporation organized to provide services to the communities of Spuds, Elkton and Armstrong (S.E.A) in St. Johns County, Florida.
Each year, SEA Community Help Resource Center provides meals, school supplies, and countless other resources to help members of the SEA communities “cross over the sea of sub-standard housing, homelessness, and hunger.”
The Communities of
SPuds, Elkton, and Armstrong
The unincorporated community of Spuds was originally named Holy Branch, after a stop on the Florida East Coast Railway line established in the 1880s between East Palatka & St. Augustine. This rail line opened the region for industry & agriculture.
The community’s first post office opened in 1886, with Albert I. Rogers as postmaster. In 1911 Joseph Minton - a member of a prominent farming family in the area - applied for a new post office, and the community was renamed Spuds. By that time potato farming was a major industry in the area, so the name was - and is - appropriate!
In the 1920s & 30s, the area expanded its economy into the timber & turpentine industries. The Spuds Turpentine Company was established, providing Spuds with a new source of income. Many of the laborers at the turpentine camps were African American who lived with their families in dwellings provided by their employers. Instead of cash wages, workers were given aluminum coins known as scrip that could only be spent at the company store. This unfair practice was designed to limit the employee’s ability to leave the camp
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spuds
Elkton
In the early twentieth-century, St. Augustine investor Bartola Genovar engaged civil engineer A.A. Dooley to design the plan for the community of Elkton, strategically locating it near an existing railroad depot. As the community grew, so did its freight business, and the railroad depot was expanded twice to include a post office. The turpentine industry provided the main source of income for early residents of Elkton. Soon, farmers began to harvest potatoes and develop dairies in the area.
By the mid-1920s Elkton was referred to as “the heart of the Irish potato district” and around 5,000 acres of land were set aside for potato cultivation. Elkton remains a community rich in agricultural history, producing potatoes and other crops as well as livestock.
Unlike Spuds & Armstrong, Elkton still has a post office, aiding with mail across southwestern St. Johns County.
Armstrong began in about 1886 as a community established around a sawmill. As early as January of 1892, Armstrong was listed as a station on the Jacksonville, St. Augustine, & Halifax Railway. A petition to establish a post office at Armstrong Railway was circulated, and a post office named Armstrong Station was located here from 1907-1910.
The town of Armstrong was officially founded on October 5, 1912 by the Clay Bottom Farms Co. The town was briefly renamed Cokesbury in about 1915, but was again known as Armstrong by the 1920s.
Turpentine, crops, and timber were the staples of economic activity in the area. The railroad was another source of employment. Sand Cut was a railroad camp near Armstrong that housed Florida East Coast railroad workers and their families.
Armstrong
Armstrong residents could catch a round-trip train ride to St. Augustine for 90 cents in 1929. For many years trains passed Armstrong daily making two stops, #29 and #30. Churches play a vital role in the social fabric of the town, and by 1917 at least three churches existed here. The First Baptist Church, established in 1901, was the first church dedicated in Armstrong. St. Mary’s African Methodist Episcopal Church was erected in 1914 by the local turpentine company. In 1915 the church burned; the present church was erected and dedicated in 1925. Today, Armstrong is home to nearly 400 Gullah Geechee descendants. Armstrong forms the southernmost end of the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor and is part of the St. Augustine-to-Palatka State Trail, where bikers can enjoy a scenic farmland ride through this unique African American farming community.
Support Sea Community
Since 2015, SEACHRC has served residents of the rural communities in the Southwestern part of St. Johns County, Florida.
Support them in their mission and consider a tax-deductible donation to support the SEA Community Help Resource Center’s vital work.
SEA Community Help Resource Center
6408 Armstrong Road
Elkton, Florida 32033
Email: seacommunity@yahoo.com
Website: searchrc.org
Facebook: SEACommunity904
