The wrap-around porch Rory Martin and his grandfather re-decked with tongue-and-groove pine. He and his son refurbished it last summer.
UNDER THE
ROOF
A STORY OF TWO FARM HOMES By Rachael Smith, Communications Manager
Nestled among 60 acres of farmland in the small agricultural community of Hastings is a twostory farmhouse. The traditional wood framed home has sheltered six generations of farm families. In 1923, Frank Johns and his wife, Ada Mae, moved from Illinois to forge a new way of farming in Hastings, Florida’s potato capital. Johns, a pioneer of modern farm practices, was recognized as the first farmer to operate exclusively with power machinery. Today, his great-greatgrandson, Jeb Smith, and his wife, Wendy, are proud to live in the house that Johns built and carry on his love of farming. The couple remodeled and moved into the home in 2015 with their four children, Jared, Jeremy, Caytlyn and Cayla. “Our kids make the sixthgeneration to live in the home,” said Jeb. “We each have our own 16
FLORIDAGRICULTURE | JULY 2020
memories in the home from when granddad and grandma lived here.” Jeremy and Caytlyn fondly remember practicing piano in the afternoons and looking forward to great-grandma’s freshly picked grapefruit served dripping with brown sugar. “It was our reward for playing the piano and helping out with chores,” said Caytlyn. Cayla was only four when her great-grandma, “Juju,” passed, but she remembers doing arts and crafts in the large sunroom that overlooks Hastings Blvd. Photos chronicle the footprint of the love and labor the Smiths poured into the historic farm home. From the thoughtfully restored vintage fixtures to the carefully selected paint swatches to the demolition that unmasked a historic date: June 25, 1965. “As I began pulling some of the glued vinyl walls in the upstairs bedrooms, I started
