Historic Chaseville Community

Historic Chaseville Community. . , The point of land where the St. Johns River turns sharply east on its way to the ocean is by far the most prominent river point in the area known today as Old Arlington. In 1772 this land was part of two plantations purchased by Captain William Reddy. It was Captain Reddy who built a wharf at the point for ocean-going schooners, and though he owned the property for only two years, the name "Reddy's Point" is still in use today., During the next 90 years prior to the end of the Civil War in 1865, the land would change hands several times and would be owned at one time by prominent planters Francis Richard and Zephaniah Kingsley. By the early 1850s the plantation was home to Kingsley's nephew Charles McNeill, his mixed-race wife Elizabeth Coffee, a free person of color, and their children. McNeill died in 1869, and while it was his desire that the land remain in his family, that was not to be., Some time after the Civil War Samuel Chase opened a shipvard on the point and hired as workers black Union soldiers who remained in the area. At the height of its development forty families lived in the community that had become known as Chaseville and in 1876 the first post office in Old Arlington was opened in Chaseville. The community would eventually include a store, an Episcopal Church and a school. The Chaseville School served black students and was located where the Arlington Fire Station now sits on Ft. Caroline Road. The north/south road leading to the little community became known as Chaseville Road and remained so until it was changed to University Boulevard in 1959., Today the name Chaseville is still found on many maps in use, small but tangible evidence of the community that once existed at the point where the river turns to the ocean.