(https://photos.moderncities.com/Cities/Jacksonville/Neighborhoods/Durkee-Gardens-Historic-District-February-2020/i-rwqS2Nz/0/a995baf4/L/20200201_105923-L.jpg)
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Situated on the opposite side of Interstate 95 from Downtown Jacksonville, Durkeeville is a historic neighborhood that most Jaxsons may not know or have visited. Developed for Jacksonville's rapidly growing middle class black community during the prime years of Jim Crow, a portion of the neighborhood is now designated as a National Register of Historic Places historic district.
Read more: https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/durkee-gardens-jaxs-first-black-historic-district/
Thank you again for this piece.
I love these lil' neighborhood bits. I'd encourage folks to now and then print up a couple of them and go for a lil' road-trip but staying local - Kinda like like a staycation - and check them out.
Thanks! Yes, please check these places out. They are a good way to discover other areas, businesses, parks, etc. of the city.
I'm assuming the baseball field in the lower right hand corner of the map is JP Small Park/Durkee Field?
Additionally, and you may not know this: It's interesting to me that the streets broke the grid on 10th and 11th street. I know to the east of the site is the S-Line and Moncrief Road (which at a diagonal), but the grid picks back up to the west of Durkee Gardens. Was this a sort of early prdecessor to more closed in subdivisions? I wouldn't think so because you mention the public transit but trying to follow the logic there.
This particular development was infill. Everything around it had already been platted. Then on the east side, there was a railroad and the Hendersonville plat, which had a totally different street grid. Hendersonville was designed around Moncrief Road and was largely razed with the construction of I-95 and the 8th Street interchange.