Lost Jacksonville: Horse Racing at Moncrief Park

[Metro Jacksonville]

Lost Jacksonville: Horse Racing at Moncrief Park



Today, Moncrief is an area that most Jaxsons avoid or know little about outside of the local media's crime coverage.  However, a century ago it was the site of one of the country's most popular horse racing tracks.

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2012-aug-lost-jacksonville-horse-racing-at-moncrief-park

[Adam W]

Very interesting story, Ennis. I went to school around the corner from there, but never heard of the racetrack. I take it there is no physical trace of the track anymore?

[Ocklawaha]

I think the track was east of the shaded area on the map. The streetcar line ran up Main to 29Th street, to Woodbine, to Brentwood Avenue then looped back on Basswood and Springfield to Woodbine. The carline that was actually called 'Moncrief,' ran up Myrtle to Moncrief and looped back on 26Th Street. It might have been accessible on either car line but the Woodbine route seems to have been the 'fair grounds' or 'race track' route.' The racetrack might have been under I-95 or slightly east of it.

[thelakelander]

You could be right.  The old Brentwood golf course and that area in general was once used as a racetrack and housed the Sand Hills hospital from the yellow fever days of the late 19th century.

Here is a picture of that race track in 1922.  I pulled the Moncrief Park image used in the article from a previous article on the neighborhood and simply noted that it was the "general" area.  For some reason, I remember reading something where a track was once located in the vicinity of 26th Street.  I'll be downtown tomorrow, so I'll check the sanborn maps to confirm the old track's exact location.

[Ocklawaha]

Any discoveries? I'd love to know which car line actually served the track.

[thelakelander]

I'll let you know tomorrow.

[thelakelander]

It appears to possibly have been separate tracks.  Here's a 1920 map of Jacksonville showing a track west of Durkee Avenue (now Myrtle) and just north of the tracks near today's MLK Parkway.


http://fcit.usf.edu/FLORIDA/maps/local/duval/62500.htm

[spuwho]

Lake,

The same race track is depicted in this 1945 map of Jacksonville.

[spuwho]

The 1920 map is wrong.

There is only 1 track, here is the clip from the 1948 topo showing the track location.



Best I can tell, this track was just south of Gateway Center where Nelmar and Castlewood Drives are today.

It shows up in the topo maps until 1964, when I-95 and the subdivision just south of Gateway appears.

The big black box on the topo just south of the race track is still visible today as a remnant parking lot at Golfair & Brentwood.

[thelakelander]

^That's the auto racing track shown in the image above. It's possible the neighborhood of Moncrief was built over the other. I've come across a few sources that suggest this. If so, it would have been gone by the early 1920s. I'm going to have to go back and check the sanborns.

[spuwho]

I checked the 1918 USGS topo and it does show a large vacant lot at Moncrief and Myrtle where the 1920 map shows the race track. But when I check the 1920 USGS map, that vacant lot is gone and the streets were built through it.

The track up on Golfair doesn't exist in 1918, says it is the "County Prison Farm".

[spuwho]

Hey Lake,

I went back to find that old track.  Here is a 1943 aerial of the track.  I also went and looked at the site and found a ring of grass growing that just happens to follow the inside of the west side turn.  I had thought between I-95 and the development on top it couldn't be located.

1943



Today

[thelakelander]

There were two tracks. The horse racing track was destroyed and developed over before 1920s land boom. The one near present day I-95 came later. The next time I'm at the library, I'll try and find the turn-of-the-century horse racing track on some of the early 20th century Jacksonville maps.