1980s Downtown Jacksonville
(http://photos.metrojacksonville.com/photos/3912552905_JJPgfcr-L.jpg)
A glimpse of Downtown Jacksonville during the 1980s.
Read More: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2015-mar-1980s-downtown-jacksonville
City still has a lot of improvement needed, but it's definitely come along way since then.
What was the building/s in front of the Haskel building?
Quote from: jcjohnpaint on March 05, 2015, 08:20:13 AM
What was the building/s in front of the Haskel building?
I believe those buildings are to the side of Haskell, not directly in front. The farthest one from Haskell is the YMCA.
Quote from: Keith-N-Jax on March 05, 2015, 07:31:47 AM
City still has a lot of improvement needed, but it's definitely come along way since then.
Based strictly on the pictures, I don't see any improvement, just the opposite. A house that in all likelihood could have been beautifully restored (#7) has been demolished. The great looking building in #18 could be lofts or just about anything, but I assume it has been demolished too. I can't discern the exact location of #18, but I sure don't recognize it.
Somethings have improved, Acosta bridge, riverwalk to name a few. The could haves are just that could haves.
Quote from: vicupstate on March 05, 2015, 08:46:27 AM
Quote from: Keith-N-Jax on March 05, 2015, 07:31:47 AM
City still has a lot of improvement needed, but it's definitely come along way since then.
Based strictly on the pictures, I don't see any improvement, just the opposite. A house that in all likelihood could have been beautifully restored (#7) has been demolished. The great looking building in #18 could be lofts or just about anything, but I assume it has been demolished too. I can't discern the exact location of #18, but I sure don't recognize it.
#7 - East Jacksonville. The block that house sat on, and a few more, became the Veterans Memorial Arena in the early 2000s.
#18 - NE corner of Forsyth and Newnan. Demolished for a new wing at the tax collectors office.
Quote from: jcjohnpaint on March 05, 2015, 08:20:13 AM
What was the building/s in front of the Haskel building?
By the 1980s, it was the Professional Insurance Building. It was designed by HJ Klutho in 1912 for the Germania Club.
(http://www.prairieschooltraveler.com/html/fl/lost/germania.jpg)
http://www.prairieschooltraveler.com/html/fl/lost/Lost-Treasures.html
(https://www.cardcow.com/images/set513/card00878_fr.jpg) (http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51GBOY6wicL.jpg)
It was torn down in the late 1990s. Just about everything on that stretch of Riverside Avenue was torn down a few years later when FDOT widened the narrow road into a modern 6-lane highway.
Quote from: vicupstate on March 05, 2015, 08:46:27 AM
Based strictly on the pictures, I don't see any improvement, just the opposite. A house that in all likelihood could have been beautifully restored (#7) has been demolished.
Isn't #7 the Merrill House, which was relocated and restored from its old spot on Lafayette St.?
^Yes. I wasn't aware that this structure was relocated. You learn something new every day.
I am loving these photo series for decades past!
WELL DONE!
These pictures confirm my memories of downtown in the 80s when I was a kid. We would go downtown to pick our cousin up from the greyhound station and since I didn't go downtown very often, i'd always marvel at how many old buildings there were surrounding it. I definitely remember their being a lot more older, low to midrise buildings than what you see today. The Rhodes furniture building in particular sticks out in my memory.
I never heard of 666 cold medicine, looks like you can still get it:
http://www.amazon.com/Electronic-World-Plus-Cold-Medicine/dp/B000RRTDOK#
Just hard to find. Was this a Jax company?
Germania Club building.. what a loss.
Quote from: coredumped on March 05, 2015, 11:44:15 AM
I never heard of 666 cold medicine, looks like you can still get it:
http://www.amazon.com/Electronic-World-Plus-Cold-Medicine/dp/B000RRTDOK#
Just hard to find. Was this a Jax company?
Yes.
http://www.monticellodrug.com/
Quote from: jcjohnpaint on March 05, 2015, 11:57:57 AM
Germania Club building.. what a loss.
And to think they tore it down to widen a friggin' road >:(
The Hotel Robert Meyer. Good intentions, but turned into a dump.
Crikey! These were absolutely lovely! Thank you so very much for sharing them with us!
I was wondering whether anyone might possibly have a photo of the Phelps Fabric's building, which at one point in time, also known as The Hotel Phelps?
And not to appear too selfish, I'd absolutely love to see some interior photos of the old Hotel Robert Meyer, especially of the Pharmacy, the Bali Hi Lounge, Cafe Caribe, and some of the old business that were in the lobby/reception area....either of the era when the hotel was in vogue, or, heaven forbid, when that drug rattled designer did the hotel in bright purple and white vinyl furniture.... what a disaster!
As a child I spent many nights at the HRM...my father and I would arrive on the overnight ACL train, then transfer to the HRM for two nights...then we'd head out to the Ponte Vedra Club. My father was what we would describe as a creature of habit. We had no reason to stay at the HRM...it was simply what 'he did.' And we'd visit the same places, have the same meals, and then off to Ponte Vedra...always to the Inlet as it was removed from the hustle and bustle....
And whether we liked it or not, I remember how he'd force us to have a rather boring lunch across the river at a Deli, in a shopping centre where there was ....if I recall correctly, a cinema and a 'pic N save' store...it was called 'Waldz,' Waldz had the most disagreeable owners you could ever imagine. They were born and bred New Yorkers and had a penchant for being 'cheap.' If I'd ask for a coke without ice, it would arrive in a glass half-filled, and always the owner would point out that 'it would be full if you had ice in it!' Or, with knees knocking, if I asked for a second pat of butter, we'd find a charge on the bill for two cents....Yet we tolerated the place....I think it was because the people who owned the place were the very Antithesis of the people of Jacksonville. They were crude, rude, and often obnoxious. But it was fun to have the woman play Jewish Mother to me, always telling my father that I wasn't getting enough to eat...and her husband secretly telling me the most vile and dirty jokes - many of which I didn't understand at all, especially when some of the words would be in Yiddish. But I still loved it. And if truth be known, I miss the people in a strange sort of way.
And if I were really being selfish, I'd love to see a photo of interiors of the old terminal station when the trains were actually there! And a rather strange tiny little shop downtown that sold, as I recall, nothing other than Coconut Milk and perhaps Pineapple Juice. I'm going back almost 40-50 years, so I'm sure those things are long gone...
nevertheless....it never hurts to ask! :-)
Thank you for resurrecting some nice memories!
Fr B+
www.dogdogma.blogspot.com
www.bigworldsmallboat.blogspot.com
love the cover photo...All the different banks names, Barnett, First Union, Florida National, etc. Now if wee could just get the old Barnett Bank clock/temp sign back up and running!
Quote from: VillageVicarage on March 05, 2015, 03:10:30 PM
Crikey! These were absolutely lovely! Thank you so very much for sharing them with us!
I was wondering whether anyone might possibly have a photo of the Phelps Fabric's building, which at one point in time, also known as The Hotel Phelps?
And not to appear too selfish, I'd absolutely love to see some interior photos of the old Hotel Robert Meyer, especially of the Pharmacy, the Bali Hi Lounge, Cafe Caribe, and some of the old business that were in the lobby/reception area....either of the era when the hotel was in vogue, or, heaven forbid, when that drug rattled designer did the hotel in bright purple and white vinyl furniture.... what a disaster!
As a child I spent many nights at the HRM...my father and I would arrive on the overnight ACL train, then transfer to the HRM for two nights...then we'd head out to the Ponte Vedra Club. My father was what we would describe as a creature of habit. We had no reason to stay at the HRM...it was simply what 'he did.' And we'd visit the same places, have the same meals, and then off to Ponte Vedra...always to the Inlet as it was removed from the hustle and bustle....
And whether we liked it or not, I remember how he'd force us to have a rather boring lunch across the river at a Deli, in a shopping centre where there was ....if I recall correctly, a cinema and a 'pic N save' store...it was called 'Waldz,' Waldz had the most disagreeable owners you could ever imagine. They were born and bred New Yorkers and had a penchant for being 'cheap.' If I'd ask for a coke without ice, it would arrive in a glass half-filled, and always the owner would point out that 'it would be full if you had ice in it!' Or, with knees knocking, if I asked for a second pat of butter, we'd find a charge on the bill for two cents....Yet we tolerated the place....I think it was because the people who owned the place were the very Antithesis of the people of Jacksonville. They were crude, rude, and often obnoxious. But it was fun to have the woman play Jewish Mother to me, always telling my father that I wasn't getting enough to eat...and her husband secretly telling me the most vile and dirty jokes - many of which I didn't understand at all, especially when some of the words would be in Yiddish. But I still loved it. And if truth be known, I miss the people in a strange sort of way.
And if I were really being selfish, I'd love to see a photo of interiors of the old terminal station when the trains were actually there! And a rather strange tiny little shop downtown that sold, as I recall, nothing other than Coconut Milk and perhaps Pineapple Juice. I'm going back almost 40-50 years, so I'm sure those things are long gone...
nevertheless....it never hurts to ask! :-)
Thank you for resurrecting some nice memories!
Fr B+
www.dogdogma.blogspot.com
www.bigworldsmallboat.blogspot.com
There's a recent book called Lost Restaurants of Jacksonville by Dorothy Fletcher that I am pretty sure contains some residents' memories of Waldz.
Quote from: Gunnar on March 05, 2015, 01:21:59 PM
Quote from: jcjohnpaint on March 05, 2015, 11:57:57 AM
Germania Club building.. what a loss.
And to think they tore it down to widen a friggin' road >:(
Now a dirt lot.
"Remember the good old 1980s? When things were so uncomplicated . . ." From an Electric Light Orchestra song (forget which one).