Mandarin

What was once one of Florida's largest orange groves, Mandarin is now a massive collection of individual communities that span for several miles up and down the area's main thoroughfare, San Jose Boulevard. Its mid to upscale selection of real estate has exploded in the last two decades, due in part to the long span of the Buckman Bridge, which crosses a wide section of the St. Johns and connects Mandarin to Orange Park and the Westside. South Mandarin, particularly the Race Track Road and Goodby's Creek Marina area, have exploded in the last three decades. Upper middle class neighborhoods have sprouted up en masse from the central Mandarin Loretto Road area for miles southward to the quiet town of Fruit Cove. For all you history buffs, this once dense forest. which separated Mandarin from Fruit Cove, was the vacation home of author Harriett Beecher Stowe. She was stirred by her encounters with the unspoiled nature of the groves and forests of Mandarin to write her classic book Palmetto Leaves, published in 1873.