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Maude Jackson: Preserving a community

Cassidy Alexander
Posted 11/30/16

MIDDLEBURG – Though Maude Jackson’s phone number isn’t listed online, and she’s doesn’t have a Facebook profile, the diminishing population of the Hilltop community makes her easy to find. …

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Maude Jackson: Preserving a community


Posted

MIDDLEBURG – Though Maude Jackson’s phone number isn’t listed online, and she’s doesn’t have a Facebook profile, the diminishing population of the Hilltop community makes her easy to find.

“When I first started keeping record, there were about 600 people living here,” Jackson said. “Now, there’s 200.” Some have died, some have moved away for college, some moved away after getting married. Not many return, like Jackson.

The historic African-American community in Middleburg is barely more than a square mile. When driving along Blanding Boulevard, blink and you’ll miss the turn onto Foreman Circle that leads into the area. Made up of small homes with big yards, woven together with dirt roads, dogs raise their heads lazily to watch as cars push through the dust.

When the community was founded in 1892, it extended more than 180 acres. Over the years, the land was lost or changed owners, and it became smaller and smaller, even within Jackson’s lifetime.

Jackson, 74, was born in the 1940s and lived in Hilltop – literally named for its location on a hill – her whole life. She grew up there, participated in the civil rights movement in St. Augustine in the 1960s, and returned every year even when she moved away to Miami, where she lived for more than 20 years.

After she was in a bad car accident in the early 1990s, Jackson moved back to Hilltop permanently.

“I could not heal in Miami,” Jackson said, describing countless doctors’ appointments and no relief from the pain she was in after the accident. Upon returning to Hilltop, Jackson recovered quickly, and remains healthy.

“I believed in that water,” she said, explaining that it helped to heal her at that time in her life. She still believes in it.

Now, Jackson is the director of Hilltop Heritage Development Inc., which seeks to preserve the culture and history of Hilltop for future generations. Jackson’s organization owns the Hilltop Heritage Museum, open on Sundays from 2-4 p.m., was a one-room school house that houses artifacts and documents that detail Hilltop’s history.

“Anything that’s been around that long, you need to preserve it,” said Lena Lewis, Jackson’s 72-year-old sister. She agrees with Jackson’s work, although she didn’t always understand it.

“I used to feel bad for her,” Lewis said. “Any old house she could buy up, she did ... She’s always been a caring person.”

Jackson used to talk of finding a successor who could take over the preservation of Hilltop’s history, however Jackson said she’s not looking anymore.

After returning to Hilltop and by getting involved in preserving the history and working to develop the area, Jackson said she’s found happiness.

“That’s why I keep striving – the results that I’ve seen in the past 22 years,” Jackson said. “[People are] working, more are striving to do better.”

While Jackson is not actively seeking her replacement, she is a mentor to several people in the community she hopes will take interest in the history and invest in the community, like she has.

“Sometimes it feels like she’s the only one who cares,” said Lewis. who has lived in Hilltop her whole life.

Despite Jackson’s faith and love for the community, Hilltop is still dwindling.

Jackson believes more housing, more community programming and more education in the area are all important.

Lewis also thinks that more young people in the community might help, but understands it’s difficult to bring them there.

Currently, plans are in place to create a community center on Jackson’s own land – a place, she said, would bring people together.

“The building we’re dreaming of would give young people something to look forward to,” Jackson said.

The only thing preventing the community from moving forward with this is the funding: the center Jackson is hoping for will cost about $1 million. But in Jackson’s eyes, this may be the community’s last hope.

“If we can’t get it together and if the county or planning committee could have their way,” Jackson said, “I could see this almost being extinct.”