Urban Neighborhoods: The Eastside

[Metro Jacksonville]

Urban Neighborhoods: The Eastside



Metro Jacksonville explores one of the urban core's oldest neighborhoods: The Eastside

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2010-oct-urban-neighborhoods-the-eastside

[billy]

Great feature, as usual.
Another part of the City with great potential.

[billy]

who owns the American Celcure site now?

[Wacca Pilatka]

I'm really surprised to learn of the two pre-Fire churches on here besides Pleasant Grove--I am pretty sure neither is featured in Jacksonville's Architectural Heritage, and I thought it listed an entry for every pre-Fire building in the city.

[thelakelander]

There are a ton of pre-fire historic buildings in older African-American neighborhoods across the Northside that aren't mentioned in the Architectural Heritage book.  It's pretty exciting visiting these neighborhoods and stumbling across buildings like these. There's no telling what type of history we're sitting on within our African-American communities.

[Wacca Pilatka]

Thanks for sharing this info Lake.  There is not much I enjoy more than driving through Jacksonville neighborhoods and discovering a historically or architecturally interesting building I knew nothing of before.

[rainfrog]

^Agreed. That's why I actually like that Wood's book doesn't quite have every interesting building included in it. It's kind of depressing getting through a book like that and having a sense of, "that's it?" Thankfully, it's not! There's a little left to discover.

Great tour!

[duvaldude08]

A Phillip Randoplh has so much potential to be vibrant because of its distance away from the sports complex. Hopefully they do some major renovations to that strip one day

[BigBlackRod]

duvaldude08: First, they gotta get a good team. Secondly, they gotta get rid of the riff-raff. And third, Jacksonville has GOT to stop being so puritanical about partying. This town seems to have as much nightlife as Waycross, Georgia...PEACE.

[peestandingup]

To tell you the truth, this neighborhood appeals to me more because I like the fact that the homes aren't gigantic & mansion-like in nature (like most of Springfield is). Seems more manageable & quaint.

But it also seems pretty ruff. Do you guys actually know any urban pioneers who have moved in over here, done any work, etc??

[Ocklawaha]

Randolph has a whole corridor of movers and shakers, their presence gets louder and stronger with each new proposal. I got to tour the street with resident historians for the Randolph Charette and came away more wowed then I have by any other part of town. The idea's ran the gauntlet from a Quay and market on the riverfront at the foot of the street, all the way to a hotel across the FREEway from the Fairgrounds.

The photo of the two railroad tracks next to the Terminal Warehouse is a shot taken within inches of my proposed "Electric 7" streetcar line. Looking down the tracks in the photo the reconstructed line would slip under the Arlington Expressway and link up with the new downtown streetcars in the vicinity of the Arena-Duval or Beaver Street alignment. Turn around and face the photographer and there is a wide open former railroad right of way straight north, just east of Liberty Street through East Springfield, behind Swisher, under MLK, hence across 21st, Main (at Evergreen Cemetery), Pearl and ending at the Gateway Plaza where the current railroad crosses Norwood.  No traffic, and with a slight bend like the number 7, it's a sitting duck for transit development.

OCKLAWAHA

[heights unknown]

Looks like the Eastside (as we used to call it) is holding its own. I used to have quite a few relatives living there and I do know the streets. Has the stadium and other improvements and/or construction in that area causing property demolitions on the Eastside?

"HU"

[heights unknown]

There are a ton of pre-fire historic buildings in older African-American neighborhoods across the Northside that aren't mentioned in the Architectural Heritage book.  It's pretty exciting visiting these neighborhoods and stumbling across buildings like these. There's no telling what type of history we're sitting on within our African-American communities.

Beautiful Church/Building; I'll bet it is a "gold mine" both architecturally and historically.

"HU"

[thelakelander]

Looks like the Eastside (as we used to call it) is holding its own. I used to have quite a few relatives living there and I do know the streets. Has the stadium and other improvements and/or construction in that area causing property demolitions on the Eastside?

"HU"

Yes.  A number of the demolitions along the southern portion of Philip Randolph have been done to create surface parking for sports events.

[letters and numbers]

Hey I drove around this area last week too. What are the obstacles to revitalization here.  I mean why is this part not seeing all the good things as in Springfield next door? Man there are great deals there if your brave enough