Maritime Museum relocates to the Landing

[finehoe]

My guess is as soon as Sleiman finds someone willing to pay higher rent for that space, they are out.

Well, seeing how the place is half-empty, that probably isn't going to happen anytime soon.

[ChriswUfGator]

MOSH in the old Rhodes building...what a nice thought.  Or maybe the Jones Bros. building on Hogan, or the El Modelo...

Thats what should have happened.

The sad thing is that our local leaders completely failed to see the irony in tearing down the buildings that actually represent our local history while building a brand new cookie-cutter-esque history museum. Seriously?

I mean it would be kind of funny if it weren't so sad. :-(

[thelakelander]

Speaking of the El Modelo, evidently we have an Ybor City style historic relationship with cigar manufacturing as well. In 1895, cigar rolling was Jax's second largest industry.  Too bad we don't promote it or the silent film industry in the manner that we should.

[ChriswUfGator]

Still is a decent sized industry here, with swisher still in town. Tampa's cigar industry is dead, ours is alive and well!

[Wacca Pilatka]

MOSH in the old Rhodes building...what a nice thought.  Or maybe the Jones Bros. building on Hogan, or the El Modelo...

Thats what should have happened.

The sad thing is that our local leaders completely failed to see the irony in tearing down the buildings that actually represent our local history while building a brand new cookie-cutter-esque history museum. Seriously?

I mean it would be kind of funny if it weren't so sad. :-(

Was this really contemporaneous, since the Rhodes was torn down in the Delaney years and MOSH was built in the 60s?  I know it was the Children's Museum and not MOSH then, though, so I guess the historical element of the museum wasn't there until years later.

It still kind of amazes me that the Rhodes went down during the Delaney era since he seemed to have the right idea with regard to both downtown and preservationism.

[Wacca Pilatka]

Thinking back to when the MOSH was built, and thinking peripherally about the history museum in downtown Orlando, how nice it would have been to put a city history museum in the old Klutho city hall, torn down for the Haydon Burns library.  It's heartbreaking to think of not only the loss of that building but its lunettes depicting the fire and restoration.

[ChriswUfGator]

MOSH in the old Rhodes building...what a nice thought.  Or maybe the Jones Bros. building on Hogan, or the El Modelo...

Thats what should have happened.

The sad thing is that our local leaders completely failed to see the irony in tearing down the buildings that actually represent our local history while building a brand new cookie-cutter-esque history museum. Seriously?

I mean it would be kind of funny if it weren't so sad. :-(

Was this really contemporaneous, since the Rhodes was torn down in the Delaney years and MOSH was built in the 60s?  I know it was the Children's Museum and not MOSH then, though, so I guess the historical element of the museum wasn't there until years later.

It still kind of amazes me that the Rhodes went down during the Delaney era since he seemed to have the right idea with regard to both downtown and preservationism.

Delaney gave lip service to historic preservation, yet the demolitions downtown reached a crescendo on his watch.

[thelakelander]

Thinking back, the Southern Bell building on Adams Street was a perfectly fine structure that was torn down for a courthouse whose footprint would have never overlapped.


Southern Bell (left) and George Washington Hotel (right) buildings.  Bounded by Adams, Julia, Monroe and Pearl, this block is not being used in the construction of the courthouse.

[Jaxson]

Back in the day, the Children's Museum was on Riverside Avenue.  The museum outgrew its location inside an old house and moved to the Southbank, right?  I can kind of understand how the museum that we now know as MOSH moved to its current location.  Was the Southbank considered blighted back then?  And, if so, wouldn't the prospect of cheap land have been attractive.  Furthermore, was there much of a sentiment toward locating any museum within the traditional boundaries of the Northbank side of downtown?  The Jacksonville Art Museum was across the river.  The Cummer Art Gallery is down the road on Riverside Avenue.  Did the Children's Museum folks even think of the Northbank as an option?  Just wondering.

P.S. - It is a dirty shame that the George Washington Hotel was razed and was replaced by nothing.

[finehoe]

Was the Southbank considered blighted back then? 

The powers that be consider anything more than ten years old to be "blighted".

[thelakelander]

P.S. - It is a dirty shame that the George Washington Hotel was razed and was replaced by nothing.

The George Washington was torn down specifically for a surface parking lot shortly after closing.  Most of the buildings in that section of downtown were torn down for the exact same thing, redevelopment plans be damned.  When my stomach can take it, I'm going to scan every single news clipping of what was torn down in that area for surface parking and upload it to MJ.  The foundations people park on today had some pretty impressive and large multiple level structures on them.  As for the MOSH site, the entire Northbank was probably looked at as being blighted (old) and congested during that dark era (mid 20th century) of urbanism.

[77danj7]

Looks like the demolition talked about here in 2010 is just now beginning?  Too bad the city doesn't move that slow to demolish historical homes in Springfield