LaVilla Boarding Houses Library of Congress desciptions and drawings

[BridgeTroll]

Absolutely fascinating... If someone can download and post the pictures and PDFs it would be great... for now you will have to click the links...

Significance: Houston Street previously known as Ward was an elegant red light district from the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. This structure is the newest but perhaps the most architecturally distinguished of a group of three houses which are the last remaining examples of the character of the area. Unified by similar scale and function, the houses were built as "female boarding houses" between c. 1895 and c. 1905.

http://cdn.loc.gov/master/pnp/habshaer/fl/fl0200/fl0257/data/fl0257data.pdf

http://www.loc.gov/resource/hhh.fl0259.sheet?st=gallery

http://www.loc.gov/search/?q=Jacksonville+Florida&sp=17

[thelakelander]

There's a picture of these bordellos in one of the old LaVilla articles. They were demolished for a transportation center that was never built.

[BridgeTroll]

There are many pictures on that Library of Congress site of Jacksonville that I have not seen before including some descriptions such as... "Negro Lodging" or "Darkie house" etc...

Tons of audio recordings... one for you Lakelander... enjoy!

-  A lining rhythm generally distributed throughout Florida, learned from Charlie Jones on a railroad construction camp near Lakeland, Florida, in 1933. -  Zora Neale Hurston, originally of Eatonville, Florida, was already a published novelist and folklorist when she took a job with the Federal Writers' Project in Florida. -  Performance Note: "Shove It Over" (vocals) performed by Zora Neale Hurston at Federal Music Project Office, Jacksonville, Florida, on June 18, 1939.

http://memory.loc.gov/afc/afcflwpa/313/3136a1.wav

[RattlerGator]

I don't think it's just me but . . . whenever I hear her, I'm always struck by how much Zora sounds like Corrine Brown!

[Gunnar]

There's a picture of these bordellos in one of the old LaVilla articles. They were demolished for a transportation center that was never built.

That would actually be an interesting article - which building was demolished why / for which proposed project and what became of it.

[thelakelander]

The New York Inn, Turkish Harem and 836 Houston Street brothels, just west of Davis Street. Image courtesy of the Florida State Archives.


The site of the New York Inn, Turkish Harem and 836 Houston Street today.

More info: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2013-nov-ghost-of-jacksonville-davis-street

[Gunnar]

The one on the far right (836 Houston Street?) looks particularly interesting.

Oh well, at least something was built in their place.