A Blast From The Past: 1990s Downtown Jacksonville

[Tacachale]

My memories are about the same. When I was a kid my mom would take us down there all the time to have lunch with my dad. My most vivid memories were the Landing and later, walking on the Riverwalks and taking the Skyway to nowhere in particular. Off the river there never was much going on unless there was an event of some kind. I think the biggest change between then and now is that now there are people who really want to go downtown. I can remember hearing one Southpoint bigwig actually saying that "Downtown Jacksonville" didn't exist, that our "real" downtown was the Southside.

[escaped_to_LA]

Nice.  I love the "decades before" photo.  I tell anyone who will listen about how Jacksonville actually had a core downtown in the 50/60/70's.  I remember being a kid and going to the downtown Sears, and the hotels.. the Robert Meyer.  And gasp, there were record stores!  My mom worked at Hoyt's which was downtown then.

Thanks First Baptist Church, for making sure that downtown Jacksonville will forever be deserted.

[thelakelander]

Today I came across a 1980s photo album of downtown and LaVilla. It's pretty depressing that we completely ripped down LaVilla. Even in blight, it was beautiful. I ended up scanning a good chunk of those images to share on Metro Jacksonville. Expect to see a "Last Days of LaVilla" photo article this upcoming week.  In the meantime, here's a shot of West Forsyth Street in 1987. Without the Southern Bell Building (EverBank Center) in the background, you would never know that this scene was Jacksonville's LaVilla of yesteryear.

[thelakelander]

Two more shots...


Residential building density....


Davis Street, near the Ritz Theatre....

[TheGeo35]

Wow what an amazing collection! When I filmed in LaVilla back in November, I had a sense there were some great places that had been there.