''Bay Street was a center of commerce"

[Jason]

''Bay Street was a center of commerce"


Wednesday, March 25, 1998

Story last updated at 12:34 p.m. on Tuesday, March 24, 1998


Psst!

Wanna buy an alligator tooth?

Ostrich egg?

Hey, how 'bout a whole, entire alligator?

Not another roadside attraction this.

Downtown Jacksonville at the turn of the century.

Before pulp and pine and naval stores, paper mills, cigars and the Jaguars, bric-a-brac was a staple of the Jacksonville economy.

From throughout the United States and the more civilized parts of Europe, tourists flocked to Jacksonville in those gaudy days, and none would dream of leaving without the ubiquitous souvenir.

The lofty hotels of the elegant swells belied the earthy bazaar of downtown Jacksonville streets. Baubles, bangles and bright shiny things were hawked in cubbyhole and salon alike the length of Bay Street and up Hogan from the river to Hemming Park.

It is a commerce that persists in less gaudy proportion today; who among us has never bought a rubber alligator or a Slider's tee shirt?

Yet, who today would imagine that the local knick-knack traffic was once described as ''a branch of trade that, it is claimed, furnishes more employment to more people than any other line of manufacturing or mercantile industry in Florida.''

''Webb's Historical, Industrial and Biographical Florida'' so described the manufacture and sale of Floridiana and curiosities.

''Lanier's Florida'' describes Bay Street in 1875 as a string of curio shops exuding sea beans, gator teeth, plume of heron, feather of curlew; crane wings, angel wings, mangrove and orange tree walking canes, coral branches and coquina dolls.

''The great progress that has been made in this line of trade in the last 10 or 15 years has been most remarkable,'' said Webb's guide in 1885. Mackey's Florida Curiosity Bazaar was cited as a fine example.

''Upon entering the store the visitor is confronted by a life-sized effigy encased in Chinese armor. The walls and ceiling are handsomely frescoed and a large skylight throws a flood of light. Erected against the sides are elaborately carved and gilded cases for the reception of specimens of taxidermy, works of art and bric-a-brac. Large plate-glass showcases contain numerous articles of jewelry and curiosities made from alligator teeth, boar tusks, sea beans and other material. . . In the center of the store is a large tank with a glass top in which are kept a great number of small alligators.''

Hogan Street after the Great Fire of 1901 boasted the Oriental Bazaar and the shops of E.J. Myers and J.H. Goodin. In a curious counterpoint of time, the Goodin shop was operated by Thomas C. Imeson, later known as the father of all most modern in Jacksonville: Its municipal radio station and airport.

At the shop of J. Osky, 121 W. Bay St., one could buy alligators big and small. A 13-foot gator once was shipped by Osky to Los Angeles, for what purpose history does not disclose. ''Live and stuffed alligators, alligator bags, pocketbooks, etc. The largest alligator in captivity in free exhibition,'' boasted the proprietor.

The quaint little shop was a frequent source of excitement. Gators now and then wandered loose and through the lobby of the abutting Seminole Hotel. A runaway horse once crashed through the entrance of the shop and found himself amid a room of saurians, something he probably did not have in mind at all.

Shops acquired their curios the old-fashioned way, buying them from locals adept at cottage industry. The principal source of alligator teeth was local gator-baiters, who simply revisited the remains of the departed reptiles and plucked the teeth, which sold for $4 to $8 a pound, back when that was real money.

What did one do with an alligator tooth? Watch fob. Whistle. Lucky charm. What do you do with an ostrich egg?

Ostrich eggs from the ostrich farm were a hot item. And ostrich plumes and ostrich hats and whatever other stuff you could get from an ostrich. And gators from the alligator farm were ranched and wholesaled: three shipments of some 200 each were sent to Germany before World War II.

Commerce never entirely stamped out the curio shop from downtown Jacksonville. Often grubby cubbyholes selling a range of novelties persisted, chiefly along Bay Street, until downtown commerce itself became extinct.

''Floridiana'' today persists mainly at the roadside tourist attraction, in the drugstore perhaps; wherever rubber alligators and clamshell ashtrays are sold. But it is a pale shadow of that colorful past in Jacksonville commerce, back when none of that stuff was made in Taiwan.

Except maybe the Chinese suit of armor.

Source: http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/032598/nef_allfoley.html