Remembering fallen Jacksonville companies.

[BackinJax05]

The thread about Time of Day service got me thinking about local companies no longer with us. Some were large corporations, others only small Jacksonville institutions. Whatever the case, they were all based here.
(If any of you remember more, please list them)

Atlantic National Bank
Florida National Bank
Barnett Bank
Atlantic Coast Line Railroad*
Seaboard Coast Line Railroad*
Stand N Snack
Pic N Save (Whatever you want, Pic N Save has it! Pic N Save has it for LESS!)
Independent Life and Accident Insurance Company (Total way of Life)
Peninsular Life Insurance Company
McDuff Appliances (Its tough to beat McDuff)
American Heritage Life Insurance Company
American National Bank
First Federal Savings and Loan
Kight's Copy Center
State Bank
Eastern Seaboard Petroleum
Ploof Truck Lines**
Gulf Life Insurance Company
Offshore Power Systems
Florida Rock Industries

*Now part of CSX, still based in Jacksonville
**Now Cypress Truck Lines, also based in Jacksonville

On the other hand, 3 local companies have stood the test of time. (Again, if you can think of others please post them here)

Lee & Cates Glass
McCall Service, Inc.
Peninsular Pest Control

[If_I_Loved_you]

The thread about Time of Day service got me thinking about local companies no longer with us. Some were large corporations, others only small Jacksonville institutions. Whatever the case, they were all based here.
(If any of you remember more, please list them)

Atlantic National Bank
Florida National Bank
Barnett Bank
Atlantic Coast Line Railroad*
Seaboard Coast Line Railroad*
Stand N Snack
Pic N Save (Whatever you want, Pic N Save has it! Pic N Save has it for LESS!)
Independent Life and Accident Insurance Company (Total way of Life)
Peninsular Life Insurance Company
McDuff Appliances (Its tough to beat McDuff)
American Heritage Life Insurance Company
American National Bank
First Federal Savings and Loan
Kight's Copy Center
State Bank
Eastern Seaboard Petroleum
Ploof Truck Lines**
Gulf Life Insurance Company
Offshore Power Systems
Florida Rock Industries

*Now part of CSX, still based in Jacksonville
**Now Cypress Truck Lines, also based in Jacksonville

On the other hand, 3 local companies have stood the test of time. (Again, if you can think of others please post them here)

Lee & Cates Glass
McCall Service, Inc.
Peninsular Pest Control

I miss Pic N Save (Whatever you want, Pic N Save has it! Pic N Save has it for LESS!) I was over in Live Oak last week and right off state rd 129 you can still see the old Pic N Save. The frame for the old sign still stands but the Pic N Save sign is gone.

[Debbie Thompson]

Goode's Bakery in Five Points
LaRose Shoes downtown
Furchgott's
Ivey's
Forgot the name, but that juice bar downtown near Laura and Adams
The Luggage Shop where the main library now stands

[Traveller]

First Guaranty Bank (1947-2012)

[Ocklawaha]

Jacksonville Terminal (Prime Osborn)
Seaboard Air Line Railroad (CSX)
Atlantic and East Coast Terminal Company
St. Johns River Terminal (NS)
Georgia Southern and Florida Railroad (NS)
Municipal Docks and Terminal Railroad (Talleyrand Terminal)

ROLL THE CLOCK BACK A BIT FURTHER AND...

Pine Street Railway
Main Street Railway
Jacksonville Street Railway
Jacksonville and LaVilla Street Railway
North Jacksonville Street Railway Town and Improvement Company
Duval Traction Company
South Jacksonville Municipal Railway
Ortega Traction Company
JACKSONVILLE TRACTION COMPANY

I won't roll the clock back further on the regular railroads as we'd be here all day!

Don't forget

JB Ivey's - I have NO idea why the video quits mid sentence, but it's still interesting

http://www.youtube.com/v/iA-QLTWVowk?version=3&hl=en_US

Furchgott's Department Stores - Furchgott's Department Store. Employs large number of youngsters as cash boys and wrappers. Counted nine apparently under 12. One was 9, he said, and other 11. Youngest work for $3. a week.  Jacksonville, Florida Public Library, Published: 1913 March. Photos of child labour by Lewis Wickes Hine.

Zayre's Stores
http://www.youtube.com/v/qXnBqIMelds?version=3&hl=en_US

Milligan Burger
Par 9 Golf and Amusement Park
Oriental Gardens - http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2008-oct-remembering-oriental-gardens
House of Bargains stores

http://www.youtube.com/v/bMq4303WnbI?version=3&hl=en_US
FW Woolworth
J.G. McCrory's
W.T. Grant's
Atlantic Mills - Atlantic Thrift Center
Woolco
Peterson's 5 and 10 Cent Stores


Cohen Brothers 'THE BIG STORE'

TGY Stores
T.G.& Y. STORES - OKLAHOMA HISTORICAL SOCIETY
(OCK NOTE: Interesting, "Sam" Walton, Born March 29, 1918 â€" Died April 5, 1992, also born in Kingfisher, Oklahoma)

With the philosophy of "have what people want at a price they can afford to pay," the T.G.& Y. corporation opened its first variety store in Norman, Oklahoma, in 1936 and expanded to 930 outlets nationwide by the 1980s. The company was organized by Rawdon E. Tomlinson (ca. 1883 1948) of Frederick, Enoch L. "Les" Gosselin (1901 77) of Cordell, and Raymond A. Young (1904 2002) of Kingfisher. When they met at a trade show in Oklahoma City in 1932, they individually operated variety stores throughout the state. In 1935 the three men pooled their resources and formed a firm known as Central Merchandise Corporation to build a warehouse in Oklahoma City. The storage facility allowed them to purchase bulk quantities directly from manufacturers rather than from wholesalers such as Butler Brothers. When Tomlinson, Gosselin, and Young opened their first jointly owned outlet in 1936, the company's name came from the initials of their last names, placed in order of their age, with Tomlinson being the oldest. On February 1, 1946, the business incorporated under Delaware laws as T.G.& Y. Stores Company.

Generally, the outlets first opened in rural communities and small towns and gradually made their way to urban centers and suburbs, where malls developed during the 1960s. Most stores were six to eight thousand square feet; however, T.G.& Y. Family Centers built in the 1960s usually had an average of forty thousand square feet. During World War II, due to wartime manufacturing the company had trouble obtaining fixtures to outfit their new stores. To solve the problem the owners eventually built their own fixture factory in Oklahoma City in 1956. In 1957 Butler Brothers of Chicago, Illinois, bought out T.G.& Y., which had 127 outlets at that time. However, the company remained autonomous, and the management did not change. By 1960 T.G.& Y. was a subsidiary of Chicago-based City Products, which operated other variety stores nationwide. Six years later Household Finance Corporation (HFC) purchased City Products.

In order to be more competitive, in the 1980s T.G.& Y. executives changed some of the outlets to be comparable to department stores. However, the company continued to have financial difficulties. In January 1986 McCrory Corporation of York, Pennsylvania, bought the 730 T.G.& Y. outlets from HFC. The buy out brought about the closure of some Oklahoma stores and warehouses. In 2002 McCrory went out of business, causing the final demise of former T.G.& Y. stores. Ironically, Raymond Young, the last survivor of the three cofounders, died the same year.

G.C.Murphy .05 and . 10. - http://www.gcmurphy.org/
Ben Franklin Stores

IS GREEN COVE SPRINGS THE TRUE HOME OF K-MART?

Kresge Stores
Green Cove shenanigans launched financial empire

By Mary Jo McTammany
County Line correspondent,

He started out just a country boy conning the northern tourists, but by age 31 he was a millionaire and that was just the beginning.

In the last decade of the 1800s, everybody in the teeming resort town of Green Cove Springs knew "Doc" Merrill's boy, Charlie. His escapades were a constant topic of conversation at Kirkpatrick's saloon, in the billiard room at the Clarendon Hotel and at the women's Village Improvement Association meeting in their new Borden Cottage clubhouse at the corner of Palmer and Palmetto streets.

Charles Morton Merrill was a man of influence and stature. A graduate of the University of New York's prestigious medical school, he succumbed to an attack of "orange fever" in the 1870s and purchased a large grove near Jacksonville. The Ohio native settled in Green Cove Springs and married a local girl, Octavia Wilson. Octavia was a noted beauty and came from a politically influential Clay County family whose business holdings included the highly successful Wilson Bros. General Merchandise Store.

It appears, as the old-timers would say, that Charlie was their cross to bear. Until he turned 7 in 1892 and his younger sister Edith was born, the boy was kept close to home or, at any rate, in the company of one of his parents. As was the custom, when he started school the whole town became his playground. His free time was spent roaming, and with Charlie's gregarious nature and fertile imagination, the results were predictable. It has even been speculated that certain adults in the community egged him on, but it wouldn't have taken much.

His antics were endless. But always his stunts had an underlying hint of the entrepreneur and his uncanny awareness of human nature.

One of the boy's favorite haunts was the Clarendon Hotel and the adjacent sulphur springs baths. He and his buddies spent hours diving and swimming in the huge, icy, spring-fed pool.

In those days men bet on the least little thing, like which way a horse tied to the hitching rail would swish his tail first to discourage flies -- left or right. Charlie hatched a plan to combine his special knowledge of the spring and this compulsion to wager and began building his fortune. He was about 10.

Adopting an innocent and unsure guise, Charlie proposed to groups of gullible tourists that he could swim the length of the pool underwater in what seemed like an outrageous few seconds. He would pace around acting hesitant, then seeming to draw up his courage, dive in, and pop up at the other end with a charming smile and feigned astonishment at his own accomplishment. Then collect the wages.

That spring to this day pumps out close to 3,000 gallons of water a minute. Charlie just dove in and went deep to catch the current. The spring did most of the work. Northern tourists were not real swimmers but paddled around the surface suspended by rented water wing contraptions. They never had a clue of the deep, fast current.

Charlie's first real job was working in his father's drugstore. Some said "Doc" Merrill thought the shenanigans would halt if Charlie was under closer supervision from his adjacent office. It didn't happen.

Young Merrill's official title was soda jerk. Almost immediately, revenues skyrocketed and the long counter was populated by men, movers and shakers in the community, who usually only frequented the establishment occasionally with their children.

It seems Charlie made connections with the premier quality 'shine producer in the county and was judiciously spiking his fountain concoctions with the local joy juice. Of course, the high-octane sodas sold for a premium price -- for a while. Some said saloon owners finked to "Doc" Merrill. Others said when a supply of moonshine was late arriving once, Charlie's dad noticed his brandy supply was at a low ebb. At any rate, the enriched sodas were no longer available at the drugstore.

One wonders if Charlie should be credited with original merchandising genius or if he was simply observant and realized that most of the patent medicines and tonics on nearby shelves were loaded with alcohol or opium.

The family moved to Jacksonville when Charlie was 13, where the wheeling and dealing continued.

Charles Edward Merrill settled in New York and became an investment banker. He was the first to see that chain stores would dominate the retail economy. In 1914, he began his own investment banking firm called Merrill, Lynch and Company. He handled and controlled securities of S.S. Kresge (later Kmart), J.C. Penney and Safeway Stores. He was a millionaire but just starting.

Merrill saw the weakness and corruption of the pre-Depression stock market and predicted the crash of '29. Failing to convince President Calvin Coolidge of the danger of speculation and the need to act, he liquidated his personal and the firm's portfolios and advised his clients to do the same in February, a full eight months before the crash in October.

In 1940, Merrill and the firm again entered the brokerage business with the goal of "bringing Main Street to Wall Street." They launched a marketing campaign designed to open the opportunity of stock investment to the average family through investor education and rigorous guidelines for their brokers. Only today is his vision becoming a reality.

The firm he founded is the largest retail brokerage house in the United States and small investors are major participants in the economy of the world.

Folks in Green Cove Springs at the turn of the century knew he would be something when he grew up. They just weren't quite sure what.

Who would a' thought?

Clay County resident Mary Jo McTammany writes an occasional column for The County Line.

[Timkin]

Was Pantry Pride a Jax-Based Grocery?

[Ocklawaha]

http://www.youtube.com/v/IvLhkdA5zEc?version=3&hl=en_US

For those that weren't around during the day's of the historic Jacksonville Railroads here's a video along the Seaboard Air Line Railroad in South Florida up as far as Winter Haven. Look at the trains, and the frequencies and one can imagine why I am critical of Amtrak. I don't believe that Amtrak should be eliminated, it's all we've got, but it's a piss poor substitute for what REAL train service was. We need more, not less train service throughout the USA, meanwhile at Amtrak and the politicians that hold the strings..."ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ" Then from the Republican side of the aisle, 'KILL EM ALL AND LET GOD SORT EM OUT'. Anyway, as you watch the historic flick, keep in mind that every one of these trains visited downtown Jacksonville, not only that, but, all of the trains of the Atlantic Coast Line, Florida East Coast and Southern Railway, not to mention '*foreign line' trains that got forwarded through JAX and into Florida by our local roads.

* Railroadese meaning, any railroad other then the one(s) you are on or served by.

[sandyshoes]

Not sure if these were local, but:  Burger Chef, Biff Burger, Milligan's, Patti's Italian, Frangi's...

[duvaldude08]

Are we talking about Jacksonville based compaines? Or fallen compaines in general. BTW Pic N Save is still my ish. Forget Wal mart. As a child I loved Pic N save like no other. 48th and Main

[I-10east]

^^^Haha, I knew that was coming, the obligatory pro Pic-N-Save, and anti Wal-Mart comment. With that being said, I too liked Pic N Save; I don't know anyone that didn't like it. Two defunct Jax grocers, Daylight, and Food Town.

[KenFSU]

I know very little about Goony Golf, but it's pretty cool that its red T-Rex has survived for all these years on the side of Beach Blvd.

I still miss Lighthouse Grill too.

[Ocklawaha]

I know very little about Goony Golf, but it's pretty cool that its red T-Rex has survived for all these years on the side of Beach Blvd.

I still miss Lighthouse Grill too.

The golf range Goony Golf place is where I first learned to operate a steam locomotive. Built by Fred Perry of St Augustine she was a very trim and fun to operate engine. The park had actually closed by that time, but the railroad wasn't removed and the local National Railway Historical Society chapter got permission to maintain and run her on weekends. It was great fun until the line was cut by a (liquor store?) and the railroad, engine, train and track 'left the building'. I understand the engine ended up somewhere in North Carolina.

[fsujax]

The Lighthouse Grill, now that was a nice place to eat. Tore it down and then built nothing. Sickening.

[Timkin]

Big Daddy's  , The Bombay Bicycle Club .

[WmNussbaum]

Raymond Mason's The Charter Companies which was a big conglomerate and a very big bankruptcy. At one time it owned Redbook Magazine and what is now the JEA Building (or maybe just part of it was the home of Charter Security Life).

I find it interesting that after the boards of directors of Independent Life and Peninsula Life sold out, we still have streets named after the companies that abandoned Jacksonville. Why is that?

My view on the T. Rex on the side of Beach Blvd.: I'll pay $100.00 to anyone who destroys it and provides proof they are the ones who did so. It is visual blight, plain and simple. It is ugly. It doesn't resemble what it is supposed to. Maybe we could hire David Copperfield to make it disappear.