ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – A K-8 school set to open this summer in St. Johns County’s RiverTown community officially has a name: Hallowes Cove Academy.
News4JAX’s news partner Jax Today reported the St. Johns County School Board selected the name Tuesday from a handful of options that included RiverTown Academy and River View Academy.
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Hallowes Cove is a name rooted in local history, the school district shared in a message to parents, paying homage to the legacy of Col. John Hallowes, “one of the earliest settlers in the region.”
The name also evokes the “natural beauty of the local waterways that have shaped the community for centuries,” a spokesperson for the school district said. “The selection of this name underscores our commitment to honoring the past while fostering a bright future for our students.”
The school shares a name with a nearby waterway popular with kayakers.
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Hallowes himself was born in England in 1729 and rose to the rank of colonel in the British army. In 1787, he married Martha Fatio, a member of the prominent Fatio family of St. Johns County.
According to a biography written by Susan Fatio L’Engle, one of Martha Fatio’s nieces, the Hallowes side of the family largely stayed in England, except for Hallowes’ son Miller, who, after a military career throughout South America, retired in Florida.
Construction is still underway to get the school up and running by the start of the 2025-26 school year in August.
The K-8 academy will be able to accommodate 1,100 students and is expected to fill up quickly in the bustling part of St. Johns County. The School Board says portable classrooms may be needed to accommodate students until a planned elementary school can open nearby.
That school is part of the district’s five-year construction plan, with a second separate elementary school also planned to eventually open in RiverTown. Once that happens, Hallowes Cove is expected to transition to operating as a middle school only.
St. Johns County has two more schools under construction with plans to open for the 2026-27 school year: one in the Silverleaf community and another in Nocatee.