WEST WABASSO — At one time the railroad track was the dividing line, segregating races.

Whites lived to the east, black laborers were relegated to the west, said Eugene Cromartie, 68, a retired Army general who grew up on the west side.

His family was too poor to have a car. When he was 5 years old, he and his father crossed the line on a bicycle. They were pedaling east along County Road 510 to a grocery store on the white side.

Outside the store, some men in overalls "called my father 'nigger,'" Cromartie said.

Times have changed.

In the past five years, the miles of woodlands and citrus groves around the former black enclave of West Wabasso have become coveted by real estate developers. Already on West Wabasso's east side are the Lakes at Sandridge and Paladin Place II subdivisions, with single-family homes costing $300,000 to $400,000.

In the next 10 years, an estimated 5,000 to 6,000 housing units are expected to be built along C.R. 510, from 58th Avenue to its western end at County Road 512, government planners say.

The settlement of West Wabasso probably will become an island in an area destined for upscale development.

Traffic on C.R. 510 already is increasing so much the county wants to speed up the state's plans for widening the roadway to four lanes from C.R. 512 to U.S. 1. The road is an evacuation route to Interstate 95.

If the road is widened, "We might have to demolish the house or put up a wall," said longtime West Wabasso resident Margaret Williams, 56, who lives just off C.R. 510 with her grandmother, 97-year-old Elizabeth Wilson, a former housekeeper for a prominent Vero Beach family.

When Wilson looks out her windows, she sees what may be the area's future: Paladin Place II.

"This used to be like a little country town" where clothes hung on outdoor lines, Williams said.

"Now," she said, "they're trying to make it like a big city."

The woodlands bordering the grounds of Wilson's tiny church, the Church of God by Faith, have been bought for a golf course, to be called John's Island West. It is along a narrow dirt road extending north of the paved three-way intersection of C.R. 510 and 58th Avenue.

The congregation is 79 years old and it barely gets by financially. In the fall of 2004, members of the affluent Trinity Episcopal Church in Vero Beach helped repair the congregation's hurricane-damaged church dating to the 1950s.

Church Elder Charlie Jones grew up in Wabasso in the segregation era when blacks knew whites expected them to be in their own neighborhoods by 6 p.m., he said. Now, he is a masonry contractor working throughout the county.

An economic divide remains, though.

"Kids growing up today in West Wabasso can't afford housing" being erected in modern subdivisions, Jones said.

There's pressure to sell out.

"It is prime real estate," said Julianne Renk, an Indian River County Health Department environmental specialist who has worked with the West Wabasso community for two years.

Developers have offered $100,000 for an existing three-bedroom home on an acre of land in West Wabasso, said Billie Minnis, an official of the West Wabasso Civic Progressive League.

The offer offends Minnis. The seller wouldn't get enough money "to buy a decent home elsewhere. They are costing $200,000 to $300,000," he said.

"People want to come in and enjoy the fruits of the labor and sweat" of blacks who helped build the county for low wages, said Minnis.

He advises West Wabasso residents to only settle for top dollar.

Real estate interests "are trying to get all the land within five miles of the water," he said, referring to coastal Indian River County. "The same thing is happening all along the Treasure Coast."

There are some "for sale" signs along C.R. 510. The longtime Oasis lounge and restaurant has a sign in the window. So does a home on the west side of it.

Yet, to Minnis' knowledge, virtually all other West Wabasso residents are holding on to their property. "It's worth a million," he said.

County Planning Director Stan Boling believes the residents' concerns mean West Wabasso will continue to exist, but with some changes.

"Residents want to keep it in the family," Boling said. "There is a lot of history there."

West Wabasso, in brief

For decades, West Wabasso, an unincorporated, lower-income community, has been just a wide spot in the road — County Road 510 — in the middle of woodlands and citrus groves south of Sebastian. Most motorists slowed down only because of a children's crossing for a Head Start school.

But developers are taking interest in the area. And West Wabasso leaders are concerned about what might happen to their square-mile community that is home to about 115 residents living in dozens of homes, ranging from shacks to well-kept single-family homes, with churches dotting the neighborhoods.

At residents' urging, Indian River County:

• Got an $825,000 state grant for extending county waterlines to 79 homes on private shallow wells and aging septic tanks. The county also is looking for a grant to pay impact fees the county charges for connecting to the system.

• Set up a street lighting district to improve safety. Residents pay for the lighting.

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