In the front of an old building on Main Street in Hastings is a historical marker telling visitors a short story of the little town in southern St. Johns County.
Behind the sign is a large coquina building that opened in 1924 and once housed the town s kindergarten through high school, and then the town s city hall. Now, in a small section of the building, it is home to a county library branch.
For Greg Leonard, author of Hastings: Florida s Potato Capital, the town behind the sign is what his book is about. The sign gives you this kind of a glimpse about Hastings, Leonard said. But if you really want to know what s behind that story, this book will tell you a lot more about what was going on in this special little town.