Lost Jacksonville: Sugar Hill

[BigVon730courtH]

@Coolyfett: I feel you! Unfortunately I'm from the Blodgett Home, 730 Court H! It was very rough growing up out there. Growing up around hustlers, pimps, and gangsters was all me and my siblings saw! Like said, then we moved to the westside to "The Darkcyde" also known as Gregory Drive. I wasn't fortunate enough stay out of trouble. I was certified as an adult at 15, and sentenced to 18 years in prison for murder. I rehabilitated myself to do better. I was released in 1995, everything was still the same. I move to Atlanta 3 months later, went to college, and now I advise felons on how to uplift themselves. I own four paint and body shops. I'm about to open some in my hometown to help stop the cycle of destruction with our youth. And help anyone who chooses to take care of their families LEGALLY! I teach my sons about where I come from, so they'll know why I'm so tough on them. I have 3 nephews doing 30 years to life for drugs and murders. I'm the pillar of my family. Now I'm back, and we all can change this city the right way!

[Jaxson]

When I first reading this I kept thinking "sugarhill?" "what is that" then the all too familiar words popped up....BLODGETT PROJECTS!!! I remember the old ones vividly!!! Now that was a rough neighbor. I remember my mom sending me and my lil brother to spend the night with some kids that went to church with us....and these 2 women were fighting in the apartment street. One stabbed the other pretty badly. My mom came and got us that morning like 4 am. That was one of my first memories of seeing people behave in such a wild way. It had to be 87, 88. Blodgett Projects and Gregory West on Gregory Drive were some of the worst places in Jacksonville. The city tears them down and they just go an create another bad area like Cleveland Arms and Eureaka Gardens. A lot of people in on the Westside lost their homes to the completion of I10 & I295 just like what happened in this Sugarhill area. Hell you can go in Riverside and see streets that are divided due to the expressway. Makes me wonder if anyone lost their home when the Buckmen was being built.

That is a good question that you ask about Interstates 10 and 295.  I grew up in Orange Park and wondered what, if any, disruption was caused by the construction of those highways?  Does anybody have an answer?

[Seraphs]

It wasn't just I-95 that swiped out a lot of Sugar Hill.  It was also Methodist Hospital and what use to be Duval Medical Center, presently Shands Jacksonville.  It was eminent domain.

[Ocklawaha]

Looking at our photos I'm thinking photos 1 - 11 - 23 (from the top) are not of Davis Street, but some other area road and mislabeled. If you check the 1940's era photo 5, one can clearly see asphalt on Davis AND streetcar tracks. It would seem the crossover in photo 5 demonstrates that the Davis car line extended north of Kings... Which leaves me with a WHERE-T-F?

OCKLAWAHA

[thelakelander]

Ock, before the construction of I-95, Moncrief met Davis at 8th Street.  If the streetcar line ran up Davis to Moncrief, then image 23 would have been north of that area.

[acme54321]

That is a good question that you ask about Interstates 10 and 295.  I grew up in Orange Park and wondered what, if any, disruption was caused by the construction of those highways?  Does anybody have an answer?

If you look at a map of the western landing of the buckman you can see the divided streets where the road cut through.  Certainly someone lost a house in it's construction.  You can also see "Old Orange Park Rd" and follow the path where US17 used to go right up through what is now the weapons storage area of NAS Jax.

[HisBuffPVB]

The Ritz was built as a Movie Theatre and run by absentee owners, it was not a place of theatrical performances. Sugar Hill began past Blodgett on Davis, west of Springfield Park and was split down the middle by I-95. It was a middle class area for African Americans. Ray Charles, contrary to popular myth, did not spend too much time in Jacksonville, He went to Seattle as fast as he could after graduating from the St. Augustine School for the Deaf and Blind. What remained of Sugar Hill was demolished in the late 60s and early 70s and the residents were relocated. Brewster, the African American Hospital was morphed into Methodist Hospital, which eventually went away and its facilities became part of University Hospital as did part of Old St. Lukes. Springfiled Park was the demarcation line between White Springfield and African American Sugar Hill. The demise of Springfield began in the 30s when city zoning was changed to allow businesses on every street intersection in Springfield. There have been groups working to bring Springfiled back since the early 70's, it is not a recent effort.

[stjr]

HisBuffPVB, welcome to MJ and Stephen Dare  .  Stephen has strong opinions, especially about the tectonic social plate movements of our society, and is quick to exercise his "authority" as do many others here (myself excluded, of course  ).  Don't take his or anyone else's posts here too hard.  We have all been, at one time or another, subjected to such frequent "forwardness".  Feel free to return some of that forwardness back to sender.  I found your post most interesting regardless of the position staked out.  Better to have these discussions than not at all.  I look forward to your posts going forward.  Sorry your first post had to run into a buzz saw so soon.

[thelakelander]

I just ran across this image on the state's historic archive site.  I believe this is the old Brewster hospital on Jefferson Street that was torn down a few years ago.  This will be the site of the new VA Clinic.

[Ocklawaha]

Ock, before the construction of I-95, Moncrief met Davis at 8th Street.  If the streetcar line ran up Davis to Moncrief, then image 23 would have been north of that area.

That's where she went. Up Davis to Moncrief to 13th to Myrtle and back down to Kings. There was also an extension beyond which went form Myrtle to 21st to to Wilschen(?) down to 20th and back to Myrtle to return.

OCKLAWAHA

[Dog Walker]

I just ran across this image on the state's historic archive site.  I believe this is the old Brewster hospital on Jefferson Street that was torn down a few years ago.  This will be the site of the new VA Clinic.

Yes, that's Brewster Hospital.  I accompanied my father there on a number of occasions and saw my first surgery there as a kid; reduction and plating of a  compound humeral fracture.

[chas1445]

I very much enjoyed the Sugar Hill article.  It brought back a lot of my child memories. I grew up in the area.  I graduated from Davis Street Junior High School in 1950.  Later it was changed to Isiach Blocker.  I was at the Blodgett Homes Swimming Pool the fist night it opened.  When I returned home from a tour in the Army, the school was torn down.  At that time we could walk around at night, and go anywhere we wanted to go, and no one would bother you.  There were no Gangs, and all the Pimps stayed on Ashley Street.  I also lived for a while in the Blodgett Homes on Court I.  I don't remember the apartment number.  I can remember all of those homes on Davis Street, and 8Th Street.  The second picture of Davis Street in the 1940's is actually on the corner of Kings Road, and Davis Street.  Dr. Childs an African American physician had an office in that building.  The other picture is down Davis,  going towards 4Th and Davis.  I grew up in Jacksonville before the Express Way (I-95) was came through that area around 8Th St. & Davis st.  The original Ritz Theater was actually on the corner of State Street, and Davis Street.  It has been wonderful seeing that area again after all of these years.  It was a life time ago for me.   

[sheclown]

Thanks for sharing your recollections, Chas.  Do you have any pictures we haven't seen?

[chas1445]

I will look through my photoes.  I think I have a few

[chas1445]

How will I get the Photoes to you, and they will have images of my class mates and friends on them .  That may be a problem.