Bostwick Building To Be Demolished?

[JFman00]

Landmark status recommended for Jacksonville's 'jaguar building'

Jacksonville’s Historic Preservation Commission recommended landmark status for the Bostwick Building at Bay and Ocean streets on Tuesday despite strenuous objections from the family that has owned it for 110 years.

The commission’s unanimous recommendation means the future of the well-known “jaguar building” is now in the City Council’s hands.

City historic planner Joel McEachin said the former home to multiple banks and one famous architect long before its boarded-up windows got the jaguar treatment in the 1990s is a rarity. Not many historic downtown structures have survived, and most never hit six of the seven criteria for historic designation.

“The building has most of its exterior fabric and it is in a prominent location to make proper rehabilitation worthy,” McEachin told the four-member commission. “The exterior walls are in good enough condition to be preserved and incorporated as part of the overall preservation.”

While he agrees with the historic potential, owner representative Val Bostwick Jr. said months of $100-a-day city fines over its deteriorated state and no one interested in buying it forced them to request a demolition permit.
If the city had stopped the fine while the historic review occurred, there might have been “some breathing room” to find a buyer, he said. So he had to file a cease-and-desist request Tuesday with the commission to seek relief from the mounting fines.

“It is a matter of property rights, whether this ownership or a future ownership may wish to have the building designated as an historic landmark,” Bostwick said. “They are superseding the owner’s rights and we have asked that they cease and desist. Obviously that was not the case and we will go before the City Council.”

The First National Bank of Florida opened at the site in 1880 but was destroyed by the Great Fire of 1901. Architect J.H.W. Hawkins designed the 1902 replacement, taken over a year later by the Guaranty and Trust Savings Bank. The building was expanded in 1919, taken over by another bank in 1921 and closed in 1929. It became offices, one occupied by renowned architect Henry Klutho.

What makes the building historically valuable is that its original look and structure have survived, McEachin said. And while part of its second floor is gone, some of the roof has collapsed and cracks mar its exterior, it shouldn’t take much to reinforce it, he said. It could even be stabilized and “mothballed” until a new owner could restore it.
The building is also “very important” to the city, Downtown Vision district services director Jennifer Hewett-Apperson told the commission.

“The idea of this building goes beyond the simple monetary value to the owner because it is situated at one of the primary gateways to downtown,” she said. “... This is a very important building to the city and goes beyond the simple owner’s desire to demolish the property.”

Historic designation would make the building eligible for funding for rehabilitation.

The City Council will hear Bostwick’s appeal of the demolition denial with the landmark status request. No date has been set for a public hearing.


http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2012-11-13/story/landmark-status-recommended-jacksonvilles-jaguar-building

[simms3]

Two thumbs up.  Let the coffee shops and art galleries start opening once and for all!

[coredumped]

http://www.news4jax.com/news/Bostwick-building-designated-city-landmark/-/475880/17401646/-/fca0j/-/index.html

Read the comments on that article to find out why so many buildings have been lost in Jacksonville. These are the people who vote.

[Timkin]

http://www.news4jax.com/news/Bostwick-building-designated-city-landmark/-/475880/17401646/-/fca0j/-/index.html

Read the comments on that article to find out why so many buildings have been lost in Jacksonville. These are the people who vote.

Everyone has an opinion.    I am personally, glad the building gets local designation.    Maybe the City is finally getting it that we must save these places.  This is a good first step.

It is so easy for people to criticize , yet they would not lift a finger, on a bet, to help.   One of the comments " The City should buy it"  is rather amusing.  I guess the poster thinks city funding rains from the sky or something

[BackinJax05]

Such a shame.

In Tampa, the Hotel Floridan stood abandoned and falling apart for almost 30 years. Earlier this year it re-opened as the Floridan Palace Hotel, after a multi year and multimillion dollar restoration.

The Hotel Floridan was 19 floors and falling apart. The Bostwick is only 2 floors, and a much smaller space. If the Hotel Floridan can be brought back from the dead, so too can the Bostwick.

In St. Petersburg, the Vinoy Park Hotel also stood abandoned, boarded up, and falling apart. Today its part of the Renaissance Vinoy Resort. Again, if the Vinoy can be brought back from the dead, so too can the Bostwick.

Not to get off topic too much, but Jacksonville had the Hotel Mayflower, Hotel George Washington, and Hotel Robert Meyer - to name a few. Rather than bringing them back from the dead, we all know they were thoughtlessly demolished.

Any more neglect and the Bostwick will demolish itself.

[Timkin]

Such a shame.

In Tampa, the Hotel Floridan stood abandoned and falling apart for almost 30 years. Earlier this year it re-opened as the Floridan Palace Hotel, after a multi year and multimillion dollar restoration.

The Hotel Floridan was 19 floors and falling apart. The Bostwick is only 2 floors, and a much smaller space. If the Hotel Floridan can be brought back from the dead, so too can the Bostwick.

In St. Petersburg, the Vinoy Park Hotel also stood abandoned, boarded up, and falling apart. Today its part of the Renaissance Vinoy Resort. Again, if the Vinoy can be brought back from the dead, so too can the Bostwick.

Not to get off topic too much, but Jacksonville had the Hotel Mayflower, Hotel George Washington, and Hotel Robert Meyer - to name a few. Rather than bringing them back from the dead, we all know they were thoughtlessly demolished.

Any more neglect and the Bostwick will demolish itself.

^^  Could not agree more with this post.    It is because places like the grand hotels mentioned, are no longer, not to mention countless other buildings,  whole communities of historic Jacksonville  gone.  forever.

Yet the mentality (for the most part) remains.  We can't save them all.   That could not be more true.  Fact is, we haven't saved even a fraction of what once was.     So many incredible different examples of architecture was razed, for what?  a vacant lot with the slab remains.     

I don't have answers to saving these places.  I do what I can do , and encourage those of you who care, to do the same. At the end of the day, we did what we can do to save these places.

[I-10east]

My mentality is here in the present, and not dwelling on the past. The torn down buildings has been talked about countless times already. It's not like Jax is some unique case when it comes to cities razing downtown buildings in the 70's and 80's era. Even when the city try to make progressive steps with the Bostwick (since no one has a time machine) it's already a lost cause with some...

[Ocklawaha]

My mentality is here in the present, and not dwelling on the past. The torn down buildings has been talked about countless times already. It's not like Jax is some unique case when it comes to cities razing downtown buildings in the 70's and 80's era. Even when the city try to make progressive steps with the Bostwick (since no one has a time machine) it's already a lost cause with some...

It is a lost cause but the people that have jars of fairy dust believe everything is worth saving in Jacksonville.

Jumping into a discussion for the purpose of attention is a sign of a needy person, insulting those who are actually trying to make things happen is the work of a troll.

[Timkin]

My mentality is here in the present, and not dwelling on the past. The torn down buildings has been talked about countless times already. It's not like Jax is some unique case when it comes to cities razing downtown buildings in the 70's and 80's era. Even when the city try to make progressive steps with the Bostwick (since no one has a time machine) it's already a lost cause with some...

  Jacksonville is really quite unique when one factors the amount of demolition that has happened to the core of the City.  The area that was La Villa is just that. WAS.    Brooklyn is very similar.

  I live in the present as well.... merely trying to help save bits and pieces of our past, that clearly do not matter to many.  So be it.  I don't apologize if some have a problem with those that try to hold on to little bits of our historic fabric. 

  I intend to continue

[BackinJax05]

Such a shame.

In Tampa, the Hotel Floridan stood abandoned and falling apart for almost 30 years. Earlier this year it re-opened as the Floridan Palace Hotel, after a multi year and multimillion dollar restoration.

The Hotel Floridan was 19 floors and falling apart. The Bostwick is only 2 floors, and a much smaller space. If the Hotel Floridan can be brought back from the dead, so too can the Bostwick.

In St. Petersburg, the Vinoy Park Hotel also stood abandoned, boarded up, and falling apart. Today its part of the Renaissance Vinoy Resort. Again, if the Vinoy can be brought back from the dead, so too can the Bostwick.

Not to get off topic too much, but Jacksonville had the Hotel Mayflower, Hotel George Washington, and Hotel Robert Meyer - to name a few. Rather than bringing them back from the dead, we all know they were thoughtlessly demolished.

Any more neglect and the Bostwick will demolish itself.

^^  Could not agree more with this post.    It is because places like the grand hotels mentioned, are no longer, not to mention countless other buildings,  whole communities of historic Jacksonville  gone.  forever.

Yet the mentality (for the most part) remains.  We can't save them all.   That could not be more true.  Fact is, we haven't saved even a fraction of what once was.     So many incredible different examples of architecture was razed, for what?  a vacant lot with the slab remains.     

I don't have answers to saving these places.  I do what I can do , and encourage those of you who care, to do the same. At the end of the day, we did what we can do to save these places.

Thx, Tim. On the positive side, Jacksonville restored the St. James Building into city hall, and Jacksonville Terminal into a convention center no one uses. (Hey, at least they werent torn down)

[BackinJax05]

My mentality is here in the present, and not dwelling on the past. The torn down buildings has been talked about countless times already. It's not like Jax is some unique case when it comes to cities razing downtown buildings in the 70's and 80's era. Even when the city try to make progressive steps with the Bostwick (since no one has a time machine) it's already a lost cause with some...

It is a lost cause but the people that have jars of fairy dust believe everything is worth saving in Jacksonville.

Jumping into a discussion for the purpose of attention is a sign of a needy person, insulting those who are actually trying to make things happen is the work of a troll.

[BackinJax05]

My mentality is here in the present, and not dwelling on the past. The torn down buildings has been talked about countless times already. It's not like Jax is some unique case when it comes to cities razing downtown buildings in the 70's and 80's era. Even when the city try to make progressive steps with the Bostwick (since no one has a time machine) it's already a lost cause with some...

  Jacksonville is really quite unique when one factors the amount of demolition that has happened to the core of the City.  The area that was La Villa is just that. WAS.    Brooklyn is very similar.

  I live in the present as well.... merely trying to help save bits and pieces of our past, that clearly do not matter to many.  So be it.  I don't apologize if some have a problem with those that try to hold on to little bits of our historic fabric. 

  I intend to continue

La Villa & Brooklyn, yes. But lets not forget Fairfield, the Eastside, Phoenix, and parts of Springfield & Panama Park. Some destroyed, but all severely damaged forever by the Haines Street & 20th Street Expressways.

[Timkin]

^ most every part of the Core of Jacksonville  is damaged or completely void, thanks to the introduction of Freeways , Expressways, and Interstates.   

If, 50 years ago we had to rely on rail and street car to commute , and did not depend , as we do now, on the Automobile, imagine what would still be here.

Ah yes,  I guess that would be living in the past, now wouldn't it ?

[I-10east]

Jacksonville is really quite unique when one factors the amount of demolition that has happened to the core of the City.  The area that was La Villa is just that. WAS.    Brooklyn is very similar.

Most if not all major cities in the Midwest, and East coast has torn down far more tall highrises than Jax, not to mention low rises. Detroit's defunct highrises makes Jax's demo history look like the minor leagues. I know that many wanna believe the 'urban legend' that Detroit saves every high rise DT building. Cleveland, and Baltimore are some of the few others that torn down more than Jax also. Many buildings are torn down to make room for other new ones, and it's no different in Jax, contrary to the 'every building is torn down thoughtlessly' argument. Check out emporis, you'll be surprised.

Feel free about dwelling on Jax's melancholy past, it seems very repetitive and tiresome though. It really doesn't have any effect on anything; Maybe it's breaking news to the occasional newbie.

[thelakelander]

Yes, we were not alone in the implementation of urban renewal projects that called for demolishing "blighted" areas. Our struggle has been finding a way to change that mindset.