Even for an East Milton family storied for its benevolence, enough development is enough
Editor's note: This story has been updated to provide the correct date of an Aug. 10 Santa Rosa County Commission meeting.
The Rich family story begins sometime around 1910 with the arrival of Harvey Rich to an area in East Milton that would become known as Persimmon Hollow.
He came from North Carolina under circumstances the family hints may not have been ideal, but won't completely divulge.
"He had to defend himself, and that's all we'll say about that," said Mal Bright, Harvey's great granddaughter.
Whatever his past might have been, Harvey Rich made a lasting impression upon the community in which he established his new home.
More like this: More development, more clear cutting, as East Milton's growth spurt continues
Growing and growing: With new businesses 'beating down the door,' Santa Rosa seeks to expand industrial park
He was a blacksmith and a farmer, and legend has it that his skill at both was such that he was able to take care of people, both those Black like himself, and white, during the Great Depression.
"He taught families in the area how to farm. Cane syrup, hogs, chickens. He helped Blacks and whites alike," said Gus Rich, Harvey's grandson.
Six generations of Richs, now expanded to include Allens and Smiths, have grown up in Persimmon Hollow. Like Harvey before them, family, integrity, a strong work ethic and giving back have always been a priority. Many have either served as educators or in the military, with James Henry Smith having lost his life at 22, in Vietnam, in the service of his country.
"We were raised as one big family. That's what helped us be who we are. All the parents were all our parents. They would discipline us or put you to work. That's how it was," said Gus Rich, who was born within four days of James Henry Smith.
Gus himself is something of a local legend. Now in his 70s, he at one time coached football, track and weight lifting at Milton High School and, having carried on the family tradition of fine craftsmanship, taught brick masonry at the Locklin Vocational Center. He did all this while working a full-time job.
Bessie Mae Garrison was a member of one of two black families in Munson during the early 20th century and moved into Persimmon Hollow as a single mom with four children to be near her married sister. She was employed as a domestic worker and cooked at a local truck stop to save enough to purchase 40 acres that she divvied up to give each of her children 10 acres apiece.
Bessie Mae left such an impression on her community that when she was sick with cancer, a local doctor and others chipped in to pay her bill so she didn't leave a lien on the property she was giving to her children.
"We've been here all our lives from the time I was a kid, and now I'm 76," said Evelyn Garrison Smith, the last of Bessie Mae's surviving children.
Smith said she and husband Charles had three children of their own and adopted seven more. Several, like family members before them, have chosen military careers.
From all appearances, the Rich family and their kin, have been generous in sharing the fruits of their labor and the resources of their community with all comers.
More: East Milton motorists know to avoid this dangerous intersection, but it could be safer soon
More: 'Yet another' Dollar General store under construction in Santa Rosa's East Milton
At one time, according to Bright, the Rich family's Persimmon Hollow property encompassed 200 acres. It still extends south along Persimmon Hollow Road to Interstate 10, she said.
Bright said the family didn't object when the Florida Department of Transportation came in in the 1960s to take 30 acres it needed to build the interstate highway through Santa Rosa County, and again in the late 1990s when it needed another parcel for a rest stop.
But a recent development has created turmoil along Persimmon Hollow Road and the family has decided it can't sit quietly any longer as growth impedes upon them.
Rich family fighting against proposed RV park
A company called Tow Heros LLC has obtained property on Persimmon Hollow Road and notified the county of its intention to develop 2 acres into a 16-space RV Park. The area being considered for the commercial use was clear cut more than a month ago and for the last few weeks has sat dormant.
More: Santa Rosa wants a 640-acre Naval training field in East Milton to bring in jobs
Family members say there was no advance notice that the lot at Persimmon Hollow Road and Delta Drive was going to be drastically impacted by developers and quickly turned from the wooded patch it had always been to an open field of dirt.
Charles Smith, who lives with Garrison Smith in a home next door to the Rich family, said he literally walked out onto his driveway one day and saw the land across the street had been cleared.
"I'm just confused how that happened right under our nose," said Evelyn.
Bright said the family has received no notification from Tow Heros LLC about what its plans are and no signs have been posted telling neighbors what is going on with the land.
"They did it real fast," she said. "They brought heavy equipment in here and 'boom boom boom.' "
A request to rezone the Persimmon Hollow Road property from Christopher Brigham, who is listed as the managing partner of Tow Heros LLC, will go before the county Zoning Board and Board of County Commissioners in September, according to Planning Director Shawn Ward. No notice has to be provided of development plans prior to two weeks before the Zoning Board appearance.
More: Developer Craig Kruse was shaping Santa Rosa growth. His death leaves the future in doubt.
Sleuthing by the Rich family, though, uncovered the RV Park plan.
The family has since embarked on a campaign to convince the Santa Rosa County Commission to halt the RV Park development. Several spoke during the public forum ahead of an Aug. 10 board meeting to let them know the family felt disrespected by what is transpiring in their neighborhood.
"We don't want chaos in that area," Gus Rich told commissioners. "You put RVs there and you bring anything and everything there."
Bright ticked off the reasons the family opposes the RV Park and would also oppose mobile homes being placed on the site as well.
"First of all, this is a residential neighborhood. Then there's the safety of it, We don't know who these people are," Bright told the Pensacola News Journal. "There's also the decline of property values."
There are also worries centered around a school bus stop that stands mere feet from the Persimmon Hollow Road/Delta Drive intersection that is slated for development.
Garrison Smith said she remembers as a child riding horses and playing in the woods of Persimmon Hollow. Greg Allen, a 1980s-era Heisman Trophy candidate who still holds the single game rushing record of 322 yards for Florida State University, grew up running, faster than most, through these woods.
Garrison Smith wants her grandchildren to have the same ability to move freely about their home community as the Rich, Allen and Smith children of past generations had.
"If people are allowed to bring their RVs here, we don't know what kind of people they will be," she said. "This is a residential area. We don't want it to be an RV Park. There are so many areas they could put those, it doesn't have to be right here. Maybe a nice house instead."
Brigham, the managing partner of Tow Heros, did not return a phone call seeking comment.
More: SR said no to an RV park. Now 3 16-story condominiums will take their place on Navarre Beach
The pressure of development is also taking place further up Persimmon Hollow Road from the Rich properties. A large home development, Bright said over 800 homes, is planned and the site has been largely clear cut.
Kasey White Cunningham, another Rich family member lives on the far south end of the roadway, where it turns to dirt just feet from I-10. She has to deal at times with truck traffic and occasionally vagrants. The RV Park and its location near the school bus stop have just added to her worries, she said.
"Now we're like a sandwich. We're being squished and squished," she said. "People coming in, coming down the road. First we had to worry about the trucks, now we have got to worry about RVs. We're all coming together to work together."
This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Milton family fights RV Park development in historic Persimmon Hollow
