6 Lost Districts of Downtown Jacksonville
(http://photos.metrojacksonville.com/photos/4054331455_hSZrtR7-L.jpg)
A district is defined as an area of a country or city, regarded as a distinct unit because of a particular characteristic. In an era where the pedestrian was king in Jacksonville, downtown was loaded with distinct districts-- many of which are no longer with us. Here are a few lost districts that you may not be familiar with.
Read More: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2015-may-6-lost-districts-of-downtown-jacksonville
Love the pictures depicting the LOST working Waterfront District.
Was that an intentional typo ?
QuoteBy the 1970s, many of the district's surviving theaters made ends meat by showing porn and kung fu movies.
;D
Haha, you're awake this morning!
Nice pictures, On the last set of "White Row", did I miss the old Post Office Downtown? That was a beautiful building on Forsyth.
Thanks MJ. Nice article.
Small nitpick -- LaVilla, the Harlem of the South? We really need to stop that. I know some folks said it, but they (local boosters) probably said it about at least a dozen other locales all around the South. LaVilla was clearly not the Harlem of the South. Florida was *the* smallest Southern state until the 1950 census I do believe. Just stop it.
The "Harlem of Florida," yes.
^Actually, Harlem should probably be called the LaVilla of the North. Historically speaking what happened in Harlem took place in LaVilla a decade earlier. Much of LaVilla's population ended up in Harlem as a result of the Great Migration. Many of the key LaVilla figures ended up being key figures associated with the Harlem Renaissance. Harlem gets the press because it happened to be the largest urban black neighborhood in the world at the time. Thus, the "across the tracks" stuff being ignored in places like LaVilla, ended up being exposed on an international scale.
Quote from: thelakelander on May 20, 2015, 06:39:45 AM
Haha, you're awake this morning!
I'm in a different time zone (+6 hours) :-)
Also, Jax/LaVilla happened to be a somewhat progressive place for blacks during the late 1800s/turn of the century, moreso than its deep south counterparts farther north.
Found it.
(http://photos.metrojacksonville.com/Photography/Jacksonville-Library-of/i-SGLxH4P/0/M/4a06680v-M.jpg)
And it was hiding on your site all along....
There are a couple of places that deserve the title "Harlem of the South", and LaVilla certainly has a place along with Miami's Colored Town/Overtown, Richmond's Jackson Ward, and Memphis's Beale Street area.
As Lakelander says, one of the differences with Jacksonville (and to an extent Miami) from other Southern cities with black enclaves was that the wider community was comparatively more tolerant, or rather, comparatively less intolerant, toward its black citizens for some time after Reconstruction. This was heavily influenced by local business interests, who relied on Northern investment, connections and tourism. The erosion of mobility and agency for African-Americans in places like LaVilla in the early 20th century led many of the best and brightest to move to Harlem, where they created a Renaissance. When people like James Weldon Johnson and Zora Neale Hurston came from Jacksonville, it's no stretch to call it the Harlem of the South.
I like these features that showcase parts of Jacksonville's past. But damn if they aren't depressing as hell too.
Quote from: pierre on May 20, 2015, 11:20:12 AM
I like these features that showcase parts of Jacksonville's past. But damn if they aren't depressing as hell too.
+1
I have a few more in the works that will make you guys sick then! I'm working on a new series focusing on the Slabs of Downtown and the stories behind them.....
(http://photos.metrojacksonville.com/History/Slabs-of-Downtown-Jacksonville/i-47ZcBSg/0/L/DSCF6248-L.jpg)
There's also another story running this week that will detail the rise and fall of downtown's Ocean Street market (Jax's version of Pike Place)...
(http://photos.metrojacksonville.com/History/Central-Wharf/i-S8LNn8r/0/X2/Market%20-%20Sanborn%201928-X2.jpg)
(http://photos.metrojacksonville.com/History/Central-Wharf/i-NfNWWpP/0/X2/Market%20-%20Advertisers%2019th%20century-X2.jpg)
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.
Love this series. Please keep it up!
Such memories. Good and bad. Such lessons to be learned from our past.
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.
(http://photos.metrojacksonville.com/photos/4054331965_H9DcLjG-800x1000.jpg)
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.
Quote from: Ocklawaha on May 21, 2015, 01:25:35 PM
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.
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¢er%5B%5D=-162.275394&zoom=5
... replaced with a surface parking lot.
It's like the story of Jacksonville in one sad phrase
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.
Quote from: chas1445 on May 22, 2015, 11:29:48 PM
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.
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:
(http://photos.metrojacksonville.com/photos/520654659_bg28m-L.jpg)
Just two buildings out of four blocks survived ??? :'(
Quote from: cellmaker on May 22, 2015, 08:43:57 PM
... 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.