6 Lost Districts of Downtown Jacksonville

[Debbie Thompson]

We need a like button (and maybe a dislike button.)  Every time I read one of these, I grieve for what we have lost, and continue to lose, due to mismanagement and stupidity.

[Scarlettjax]

Love this series.  Please keep it up!

Such memories.  Good and bad.  Such lessons to be learned from our past.

[Ocklawaha]

Auto row? Shame we can't get it together enough to restore a remaining cluster of auto buildings and pull off a entertaining/learning and even night spot district such as OKC's Automobile Alley. The newly reconstructed streetscape, with the addition of OKC's neon signs for 'Hudson', 'Ford', 'Packard,' tires, bikes, etc, coupled with a real benefit for restoration along guidelines could reignite that area.

The meat packing district was largely closed by the time I was the local rail yard urchin, though I've walked all over those tracks, buildings etc... What I find interesting is the lack of any holding pens of any real size. Fact is I don't remember ANY! This would indicate the meats might have been killed, cleaned and dressed somewhere else then moved to the packing area for final packaging. In a fog I seem to recall some out around Grand Crossing and also Talleyrand Districts but wherever they were, it was low income or manufacturing as the smell at the LIVE feeder lots and holding pens is nearly unbearable. The rail yards themselves were controlled from the LEE STREET TOWER which was close to the east side of the viaduct behind the Federal Reserve Bank. These were 'interlocked' with a maze of mechanical lever controlled rods that extended from the tower operator to the trackside, hence out to various switches and signals. Thus as a conductor or engineer your orders might have come from the Lee Street Tower, you were in the 'LEE STREET INTERLOCKING PLANT'. We once had dozens of such towers, most much larger and more handsome (brick) then any other southern city, I don't believe a single local one was saved. Shock!

Downtown shopping was much more 'real' and fun then todays sanitized town centers. The same effect too place with big retailers attracting smaller ones, creating a married vibrancy. What made downtown cool was stir into that office workers, parks, Hotels, transit, churches, street vendors and many, many, people who actually lived among the buildings making for a constant 24/7 buzz.



Some have argued over the years that we should have kept the waterfront in place, but virtually this entire segment was literally falling into the river by the time I came along. The tradeoff for Coast Line Drive/Water Street was worth the effort. It was east of the Main Street Bridge on either side that a real effort at saving a pier, quay, fresh seafood market, river crabber market, passenger excursion area should have been saved or at least revived. We can hope that the Shipyards Project leads us to a modern taste of what was once there.

[thelakelander]

The meat packing district was largely closed by the time I was the local rail yard urchin, though I've walked all over those tracks, buildings etc... What I find interesting is the lack of any holding pens of any real size. Fact is I don't remember ANY! This would indicate the meats might have been killed, cleaned and dressed somewhere else then moved to the packing area for final packaging. In a fog I seem to recall some out around Grand Crossing and also Talleyrand Districts but wherever they were, it was low income or manufacturing as the smell at the LIVE feeder lots and holding pens is nearly unbearable.

Yes, meat wasn't killed on Bay Street. Armour had a stockyard and slaughterhouse on Talleyrand, where Southeast Toyota is today. There were also stockyards on West Beaver near King.

[Ocklawaha]

Across town carload movements by train is something you probably couldn't get anyone but Talleyrand Terminal, St. Marys Railroad and First Coast Railroad... MAYBE FEC to even talk to you about it. Most of the railroads recently walked away from 75,000 miles of branchline trackage for those exact reasons. Interest is only in the long haul, and interest in 'single car railroading' where you order your car to your warehouse, fill it and get it shipped out is getting more rare by the day. Big hubs, transfer cranes, intermodal transfer and bulk transfer centers are the future. In and out by local truck, dumped, pumped or loaded on the rail car by the hundreds and moved out 1,000 miles +.

There are two smaller sections of railroading called REGIONAL and SHORTLINE carriers. Many of these were berthed by local business 'mom and pop' people realizing the old paper mill still needed rail service, and typically a Palatka or Fernandina Beach like town couldn't expand and grow without it. Some of these have patched together anywhere from a single mile to a thousand miles of track and to me they represent the most interesting aspect of the industry as they are typically the most innovative. Here's a nice site by Iowa Pacific that really explains in story and photo how these unique businesses operate. Click on a few... We have 3 right here in the hood!

http://www.iowapacific.com/permian-basin-railways/texasnewmexico.html

THE Genesee and Wyoming Railroad map is interactive and is fun to play with: http://www.gwrr.com/operations#center%5B%5D=19.973349&center%5B%5D=-162.275394&zoom=5

[cellmaker]

... replaced with a surface parking lot.

It's like the story of Jacksonville in one sad phrase

[chas1445]

Will some one take a closer look at the first picture "Ashley Street" with the marching band. The writing under the picture implies that it is a picture taken in the 1940's.  If you look closely at the cars in the picture, you will see they are later models cars.  There appears to be a 1955 or 1956 two tone Ford in the picture. I can't see the gill of the car to be sure of the year.  That marching band is the Stanton High School Band. The school is about a block and a half east on the left on the corner of Broad and Ashley Street.

[Gunnar]

Will some one take a closer look at the first picture "Ashley Street" with the marching band. The writing under the picture implies that it is a picture taken in the 1940's.  If you look closely at the cars in the picture, you will see they are later models cars.  There appears to be a 1955 or 1956 two tone Ford in the picture. I can't see the gill of the car to be sure of the year.  That marching band is the Stanton High School Band. The school is about a block and a half east on the left on the corner of Broad and Ashley Street.

Correct - there is also a 55 Chevy in the lower right corner - the tail lights look smooth so that's why I think it's a 55 rather than a 56. As for the Ford - hard to tell if it's a 55 or 56 since the grille is blocked out.

Note that 55 models were often released in 1954 already, so that would be the earliest possible year for the picture.

[thelakelander]

Yes, it should read 50s instead of 40s. Btw, here's a sanborn of that block from the 1950s. The only buildings that exist today are outlined in red:

[Gunnar]

Just two buildings out of four blocks survived  

[DDC]

... replaced with a surface parking lot.

It's like the story of Jacksonville in one sad phrase

"The Knights of Pythias Building on Ashley Street was torn down in 1957 for a project that never came to reality."

You could adjust that caption with the name of a building and the date it came down for numerous historic structures Downtown.