Royal Community Park occupies the site of the former segregated Royal School in the community of Royal, founded in 1865 and originally known as Picketsville for the white picket fences around its 40-acre homesteads. Settled by former slaves from the Old Green Plantation on the Withlacoochee River, the settlement was called Royal by the late 1880s, and its post office opened on June 26, 1891. Royal's early industries were farming, logging, and naval stores. In 1874, the Reverend Alfred Brown built the community's first school, a centrally located one-room schoolhouse that children, staff, and teachers could walk to. It was later replaced by a three-room wooden school with board windows. Perman E. Williams, the first officially appointed principal, served during the 1937-38 school year, and he and other community men acted as trustees. During the 1930s, the trustees secured approval from the Sumter County School Board for a new school, built under an agreement in which the county supplied materials and the Royal community provided labor. Richard Smith donated the land, and Works Progress Administration workers joined local volunteers to construct the ten-room wooden building, which accommodated 108 students. In 1947, Alonzo A. Young became the school's last principal. Although the Supreme Court's 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education decision ended organized segregation in public education, Sumter County did not adopt integration until the 1970-71 school year, when Royal School students transferred to Wildwood's elementary, middle, and high schools. In 1984, the school was torn down and replaced by a combined community center and fire station, while the separate 1945 cafeteria remained on its original site.