HASTINGS, Florida — Hastings, Florida is clinging to life.
It’s a town about 30 minutes from downtown St. Augustine.
The Main Street in Hastings has a car drive down it, every once in a while, in the middle of the day.
It's empty, for the most part, except for the end closest to State Road 207. On Main Street, there’s a bank, a café, and Gator Parts and Sales which is a hardware and farm supply store.
Charles Brown has had that shop on Main Street for 36 years.
Thursday, Brown flipped through a history book about Hastings' history called "Hastings: Florida's Potato Capital."
He pointed to pictures of buildings that are no longer on the road.
Many of them used to be full of customers and employees. There was a hotel, a pharmacy, various stores among other business in the early-1900s.
Hastings was a happening place, then, bustling with potatoes being shipped out from the busy train depot. And there was a downtown to support it.
It's much different now.
"It's just run down," Brown said.
A fire in the 1980s burned down some of the buildings, and the exodus of businesses after that left Hastings nearly high and dry.
"I felt like there was so much potential," Jena Dennis.
Over the last year and a half, she and her husband, Allyn, have bought buildings on Main Street in Hastings.
"We have these three here and this one here as well," she pointed to buildings that have fresh paint, hardware, and awnings.
The couple has remodeled all of them. What used to be Stanton Motors, they’re turning into a wedding and event venue.
She's now the Executive Director of Hastings Main Street Incorporated. She envisions cafés, shops and cultural activities along Main Street.
That's not all that's going on.
The historic Hastings High School down the street will be remodeled and will house First Coast Technical College.
"It’s going to bring probably hundreds of students on a daily basis to the area," Dennis nodded.
The public library is moving to an empty field two addresses down from the new wedding venue. Not everyone likes the proposed architecture, but it’s still in flux.
"Expanding the services and the amenities, and the size. I think it’s very exciting," said Dennis.
This weekend there is a pop-up market and history presentation on Main Street.
"There will be a lot of different vendors. Antiques, handmade goods, art, jewelry, and food trucks," Dennis explained.
The Hastings pop-up market is Saturday, June 24 from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. at 301 Main Street.
From 1:30 to 3:30, there will be a presentation called the “History of Hastings” at Norma D’s Restaurant also on Main Street. Author Gregory Leonard (the man who wrote the book at which Brown was looking) will make the presentation.
Dennis wants to see Hastings’ Main street flush with business and people again.
"It’s far better in the long run in my opinion, to restore and keep that community pride and build off of that," she said.
As for Brown, looking at photos of the way Hastings used to be buzzing with activity, he said he would like to see the city that way again.
"It would be nice. It really would."