Penney Farms is a town in central

Clay County Clay County is the name of 18 counties in the United States. Most are named for Henry Clay, U.S. Senator and statesman: * Clay County, Alabama * Clay County, Arkansas (named for John Clayton, and originally named Clayton County) * Clay County, Fl ...

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

, United States. It is part of the

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville ( ) is the most populous city proper in the U.S. state of Florida, located on the Atlantic coast of North Florida, northeastern Florida. It is the county seat of Duval County, Florida, Duval County, with which the City of Jacksonv ...

Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 821 at the 2020 census, up from 749 at the 2010 census.

History

In 1922,

JCPenney Penney OpCo LLC , Trade name, doing business as JCPenney (colloquially Penney's and abbreviated JCP) is an American department store chain store, chain with 649 stores across 49 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. It is managed as part of the Catalys ...

department store pioneer J. C. Penney founded the community of Penney Farms (briefly known as ''Long Branch City''), where he

platted In the United States, a plat ( or ) (plan) is a cadastral map, drawn to scale, showing the divisions of a piece of land. United States General Land Office surveyors drafted township plats of Public Lands Surveys to show the distance and bear ...

an experimental, suburban farming village. The state of Florida officially incorporated the Town of Penney Farms in 1927. Penney Farms FL entr sign01

The real estate decline and

stock market crash A stock market crash is a sudden dramatic decline of stock prices across a major cross-section of a stock market, resulting in a significant loss of paper wealth. Crashes are driven by panic selling and underlying economic factors. They often fol ...

caused Penney to scale back his ambitions to a community for retired Christian ministers, in honor of his father, who was a

Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

preacher A preacher is a person who delivers sermons or homilies on religious topics to an assembly of people. Less common are preachers who Open-air preaching, preach on the street, or those whose message is not necessarily religious, but who preach com ...

. Today, the Penney Retirement Community is a home to Christian laypeople as well as

clergy Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the ter ...

and

missionaries A missionary is a member of a religious group who is sent into an area in order to promote its faith or provide services to people, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care, and economic development.Thomas Hale 'On Being a Miss ...

Geography

The approximate coordinates for the Town of Penney Farms is located near the geographic center of Clay County at .

Florida State Road 16 State Road 16 (SR 16) runs from northwest to southeast between Raiford and St. Augustine. It passes through the towns of Starke and Green Cove Springs in addition to providing access to Camp Blanding. Major roads and/or highways that ...

leads east to Green Cove Springs, the county seat, and west to Starke. According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the town has a total area of , all land.

Climate

The climate in this area is characterized by hot, humid summers and generally mild winters. According to the

Köppen climate classification The Köppen climate classification divides Earth climates into five main climate groups, with each group being divided based on patterns of seasonal precipitation and temperature. The five main groups are ''A'' (tropical), ''B'' (arid), ''C'' (te ...

, the Town of Penney Farms has a

humid subtropical climate A humid subtropical climate is a subtropical -temperate climate type, characterized by long and hot summers, and cool to mild winters. These climates normally lie on the southeast side of all continents (except Antarctica), generally between ...

zone (''Cfa'').

Demographics

2010 and 2020 census

As of the 2020 United States census, there were 821 people, 286 households, and 163 families residing in the town. As of the 2010 United States census, there were 749 people, 232 households, and 148 families residing in the town.

2000 census

As of the

census A census (from Latin ''censere'', 'to assess') is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording, and calculating population information about the members of a given Statistical population, population, usually displayed in the form of stati ...

of 2000, there were 580 people, 266 households, and 171 families residing in the town. The population density was . There were 290 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the town was 90.86%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 8.28%

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 0.17% Asian, and 0.69% from two or more races.

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race were 0.34% of the population. In 2000, there were 266 households, out of which 6.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 57.5% were

married couples Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...

living together, 5.3% had a female householder with no husband present, and 35.7% were non-families. 33.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 28.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 1.83 and the average family size was 2.23. In 2000, in the town, the population was spread out, with 5.7% under the age of 18, 1.9% from 18 to 24, 6.4% from 25 to 44, 10.2% from 45 to 64, and 75.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 76 years. For every 100 females, there were 64.8 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 61.4 males. In 2000, the median income for a household in the town was $37,344, and the median income for a family was $46,875. Males had a median income of $31,875 versus $31,250 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the town was $23,929. About 8.1% of families and 16.4% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 41.7% of those under age 18 and 11.5% of those age 65 or over.

Notable people

* Meinhardt Raabe, actor * E. Urner Goodman, Boy Scouts of America

References

External links

Town of Penney Farms official website

Archive of previous official town website

Penney Farms Retirement Community
{{authority control Towns in Clay County, Florida Towns in the Jacksonville metropolitan area Towns in Florida