BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Monitor Editor
HILLCREST— Clay County officials unveiled two new signs along State Road 100 marking the community of Hillcrest, during a Nov. 16 ceremony.
County Commissioner Betsy Condon said the signs were along the highway, just east of Lake Geneva before the state widened and resurfaced the roadway. However, after the project was completed, FDOT did not replace the community markers.
She added that state officials were unwilling to replace the signs until they were convinced Hillcrest was historically significant.
Condon credited Hillcrest resident Sheryl Allen, Clay County School Board Member Tina Bullock and County Engineer Richard Smith for finding the documentation of the community’s existence and significance.
Smith said that although the county fabricated the signs in its own shop, it needed permission from FDOT to erect them on state right of way.
He said county personnel have been communicating with the state transportation agency since 2018 about the signs.
Smith said he was able to document Hillcrest’s existence and historical significance in part by referencing social news from old issues of the Bradford County Telegraph.
“Back during the week of Jan. 3, 1963 Mr. Frank Wright of Palm Beach was a holiday visitor of Miss Lena Clemons and her boys John and George in Hillcrest,” Smith said reading from a social news item he discovered in the newspaper.
Smith added that Hillcrest-on the-lake was originally platted in the 1920s by George Beers on the south side of SR100. A second community called Hillcrest Highlands was platted on the north side of the highway in the 1970s.
Condon credited Hillcrest residents George and Sheryl Allen for spearheading the effort to get the signs back.
Sheryl Allen said she is originally from Starke but moved to Hillcrest after marrying George.
She said it is important for locals to retain their heritage and identity.
“Hillcrest was a landmark,” she said. “You could tell someone you lived in Hillcrest (and) you didn’t have to give them any other directions. They knew right where you were, just like the Gizmo.”
The Gizmo is a well-known convenience store about a quarter mile west of Hillcrest, now branded as a Circle K.
County Manager Howard Wanamaker agreed with Allen about the importance of local history and identity.
“Each community and neighborhood within Clay County brings a unique perspective and an important focus that makes us resilient and steadfast,” he said.
Allen added that while trying to get Hillcrest’s signs back, she discovered that other local communities, like Belmore, Speedville and Theressa no longer have markers along highways.
She said she combed her mother-in-law’s notes, legal papers and maps to document Hillcrest’s existence.
“I even created a Facebook page called ‘Hillcrest, Florida: the town that doesn’t exist,’ hoping that somebody would come up with some documentation,” she said.
Allen said the turning point in her quest occurred when she met Bullock, who connected her with Condon and Smith.
George Allen recalled that his family moved to Hillcrest from Miami in 1949 after a second devastating hurricane.
“We wanted to find a little community, a great place to grow up and live and we found this,” he said.
Allen added that they moved to Clay County before the state enacted fence laws, and cows roamed the area freely.
He said his family operated a Shell gasoline station in Hillcrest, and that his mother often made sandwiches for the drivers of sand trucks that stopped for a fill up.
He also said the community had a restaurant and one telephone that everyone shared.
Bryan Stanley told the group that he was raised in Hillcrest, living in the community since 1954.
“I’ve never lived anywhere else,” he said. “My mom and dad owned about 40 acres down the road just east of here and I’m blessed to still live near that same area.”
Stanley recalled a childhood filled with bicycling to his grandmother’s house or to the store, noting that traffic on SR100 was minimal.
He also said that with high water levels in the 50s and 60s, his childhood was filled with fishing, swimming and skiing.
Condon told the group gathered for the unveiling that according to St. Johns River Water Management District officials, the Black Creek Water Resource Development Project will not only replenish Keystone Heights-area lakes like Brooklyn and Geneva but will also restore water levels all along the Etoniah Creek basin, including Old Field Pond in Hillcrest.
Sheryl Allen told the group that even after unveiling the sign, she still has one more task to accomplish for her adopted hometown.
“The first thing I’m going to do when I get home,” she said, “is change the Facebook page to ‘Hillcrest, Florida: the town that does exist.’”
