A Look at the Neighborhood of Lakewood

[BridgeTroll]

I love the eyewitness historical narratives... Thanks!!

[Doctor_K]

Agreed.  Nothing like a little e-oral history!

[WhatsUpJacksonville]

I have lived in this area for about 23 out of 25 years of my life. I didn't even think about the street lights being on one side of the road until now. I remember walking up to the old Pharamcy and getting vanilla and cherry cokes at the little soda bar they had. The new building at San Jose and University really helps the area. I hope Old San Jose can finish their project unlike the project behind Stonewood at Baymeadows and San Jose.

Good stuff...Good Stuff

-Anthony
www.WhatsUpJacksonville.com

[BridgeTroll]

Welcome WhatsUpJacksonville!!  Looking forward to more of your posts.  Thanks for the link!

[stjr]

.... and an ice cream place called Dipper Dan's was near Dobb's House.

Aaaah yes, Dipper Dans.  Nothing like a charbroiled burger at Dobbs and ice cream at Dipper Dans!

A few more tidbits about the subject area:

I recall Piners having an old black and white photo of their place from the 40's or thereabouts.  It may still be on the wall in the store.  They used to also be a good sized bicycle dealer selling Schwinn's.  It's where I got my first 3 speed bike.

A couple of doors down from Piner's was McGee Shoes.  Many a kid in San Marco/San Jose either got their shoes from Mr. McGee or at Buster Browns in San Marco.  Of course, in those days the shoe du jour was leather - laces or loafers!   When Mr. McGee expanded his store in the 60's, he added a stage at the back of the store.  Boy, did we love to run up and down its stairs and across the stage while we waited to be serviced.  Mr. McGee personally handled every customer, measured their feet, went to the stock room to hand select the right shoes, and try them on.  He kept meticulous index cards on every customer's purchase history for their entire lives.  He had a card on me from birth to high school.  And we always got a lollipop when we checked out!   A lost way of doing business!  Next door was a leather & shoe repair store.

The car repair shop on Hendricks a block south from Emerson used to be Chasteen's Texaco Station (yep, everyone knew the owner of their favorite station in the days before self serve).  The old gas station near Hendricks Avenue Baptist church where they now detail cars was a Union 76.  Another station next door was converted to a cleaners before HAB bought it and tore it down a few years ago.  More gas stations were at the Wine Warehouse (Mobil) and cleaners (Amoco) in the Miramar Center and in Lakewood at the bank tower building and the grass patch on the corner of Univ. and San Jose behind Starbucks.  [P.S. How many remember when there was a Gulf station where Balis park is in the center of San Marco Square?]

The Publix at University and St. Augustine Road opened in 1972 or '73.  It was the very first Publix on the First Coast at the time [the next one to open was Roosevelt Mall].  In those days, due to the founder's religious beliefs, Publix was closed on Sundays.  On Sat. AM's, when the store opened at 9 AM or so, a line was out the door and the parking lot was overflowing.  It stayed that way all day long.  The bakery was open both to the store and to the street with its own entrance.  It was called the Danish Bakery.  Everything was made fresh during the night and usually mostly sold out by noon.  Anything not sold was dumped or given to employees at day's end.  That Publix was the place for San Jose residents to see and be seen for a few years thereafter.  The Stein Mart next door was originally Rose's, a low priced department store with a food buffet inside.  Eckerds Drugs was down on the end of the strip.

Here is a bit more trivia - Publix's opening in Jax in the early 70's was their SECOND attempt in Jax.  The first was some 15 years or so earlier when they opened a store at Gateway Mall which I think is now a Winn Dixie.  Publix at that time was a more upscale gourmet type store than now and its original location was a marketing blunder.  It appears it took them a long time to get over it based on the time to return to Jax.

[uga_jax]

stjr, what do you know about Ridgewood neighborhood?

I live there and at a recent association meeting, was told the fabric store adjacent to Oakland cemetery used to be a bar/liquor store. 

The association is doing what they can to prevent the empty lot for sale next to this fabric store from being a future commercial-use bldg (good luck!).  I figured that lot used to be a home at one time, but from that meeting I found out it used to be part of the road bed for Hendricks/San Jose.  In fact all the home lots that front Hendricks across from the Miramar shopping center are larger than other home lots in the neighborhood due to the former road bed was sold to them, increasing their lot sizes.  In fact if you look closely some of the lots still have fences that only extend so far from their homes, leaving a large grassy area.  I guess they reconfigured the San Jose/Hendicks exchange due to a number of accidents, etc.

I also hear that the woods/land behind the Ridgewood neighborhood has many citrus trees due to there once being a farm of citrus trees, etc.  Not too sure about that, but sounds interesting none the less.  If you have any more info about Ridgewood please share.

[stjr]

stjr, what do you know about Ridgewood neighborhood?

I live there and at a recent association meeting, was told the fabric store adjacent to Oakland cemetery used to be a bar/liquor store. 

This is true.  It was called The Saki Shop.   I think it was a package store on the ground level and a bar upstairs.  The place always seemed a bit seamy to me and, being a minor at the time, I stayed clear of it (my parents warned me drunk drivers could be in its vicinity!).  Only since my wife dragged me to Calico Corners, the current occupant, did I enter it.    Even as a kid, I could never understand how they got approval to plop that establishment in the middle of a mostly residential area.

I have seen the adjacent lot (I presume you are talking about the one at the southeast corner of San Jose and Peachtree Circle South) next door for sale.  I just checked it out on the property appraiser's web site and they show it zoned Residential "RLD-G".  It is also a mere .241 acres.  So, I don't see commercial coming to that site.  Who is telling you that?

By the way, the Ridgewood subdivision is a real gem.  I don't know anywhere else you can live that is as close to downtown, as quaint, peaceful, stable, and neighborly,  in those quality houses (circa mid-40's to mid-50's) for the prices those houses go for.  It's a nice dose of the 40's/50's lifestyle still alive and well.  I have always thought it was a bargain opportunity overlooked by many.

[billy]

The Saki Shop closed afrer it burned.

[jack@frenchnovelty.com]

A few more Lakewood comments:
Here are a couple of links to photo's of the French Novelty at Lakewood in the early 1960's.

http://www.frenchnovelty.com/mm5/graphics/FN%20-%20Lakewood%20-%20Crop.jpg

http://www.frenchnovelty.com/c/AboutUs/About+Us.html

[Dog Walker]

We lived across the street from the Mizrahi family in San Marco in the early '50's.  Truly lovely, generous people, all of them. 

In those pre-air-conditioning days we used to listen to son Charlie practicing his trumpet each afternoon.  He was a very gifted player.  Daughter Deborah taught me how to play several card games.

Saki Shop does bring back memories.  The were less than careful about checking ID's so many of us could drink there before we could vote.  Upstairs was allegedly a illegal gambling club and there was always an attendant guarding the door to the stairway.

[stjr]

A few more Lakewood comments:
Here are a couple of links to photo's of the French Novelty at Lakewood in the early 1960's.

http://www.frenchnovelty.com/mm5/graphics/FN%20-%20Lakewood%20-%20Crop.jpg

http://www.frenchnovelty.com/c/AboutUs/About+Us.html

Yep. that's how I remember that store.  Any more pictures, Jack, of the Lakewood Shopping Center showing a larger portion of stores at the time?  Or, more memories of various tenants?

[lastdaysoffla]

So, I have a bit of a mystery. I live in the Lakewood area. I enjoy having the large lake in the neighborhood. It's called New Rose Creek on the map. So the mystery is: at the bank of the lake near Cruisers Grill there are a bunch of large concrete blocks. Some on the bank or embedded in tree roots, so they must have been there quite a while. You also find brick fragments in tree roots and tree trunks grown around them. You also find a dam like structure there regulating the outflow of the lake. On the creek bed there are large fragments of concrete .

It is all very interesting and unlike anything else I've seen in Jacksonville neighborhoods. Does anybody know what used to be there on the bank? Maybe some sort of dock? I'm really puzzled. There is a possibility the location was once a dump site but it doesn't feel that way.

Thanks