Quote(https://photos.moderncities.com/Cities/St-Petersburg-July-2020/i-XVcMH5g/0/5efd175d/L/20200718_145458-L.jpg)
Can you guess what were Florida's top ten largest cities in 1920? Take a look, the list may surprise you.
Read More: https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/florida-largest-cities-100-years-ago/
From what I understand, Miami started blowing up pretty quickly after this, but the real moment the balance shifted was in the 60s. It seems there was a point where Tampa and Orlando made the conscious decision and effort to step up on the national stage (perhaps buoyed by theme parks) while Jacksonville dropped the ball and never caught up.
Miami blew by us in the 1920s. South Florida was significantly larger by the 1960s. It did get a boost that kicked it into a different tier during the 60s, while Jax actually lost population prior to consolidating with the county. The Tampa Bay area was also larger than Jax by the 1960s. Although we were the largest city, Tampa was never that far behind in the late 19th and early 20th century. The 1920s growth of St. Petersburg and it being a cigar manufacturing city attracting Cubans, Italians, etc. combined to help push that area past Jax. Orlando is all Disney. It was smaller than current day Lakeland when Disney opened in 1971. As a result, despite having well above 2 million residents in the metropolitan area, it really lacks historic districts the scale and density of older districts you see in Jax and Tampa like Riverside/Avondale, Springfield, San Marco, Tampa Heights, Davis Islands, Ybor and Hyde Park.
With that said, one of the unique things about Jax is that it has districts of significant size that cover different periods in time. Miami largely lacks anything prior to the 1920s.
I have always thought the Jax historic districts are one thing that makes us unique. That said, I believe the maintaining of the historic districts character has prevented some of the type of growth you see in other cities, such as Nashville and Atlanta.
Interesting. Nashville seems more into preservation than Jax.
It depends on what is meant by preservation. Go to a Neighborhood like Sylvan, West End, Sylvan Heights, etc, etc and you'll find even in the nicest areas, a butt ton of tear downs. Scrape and build new all over. Some places like West End outside of a small historically protected area have been 80%, 90% rebuilt from scratch in the last decade or two.
This hill off of Charlotte with a great view of downtown used to be G H E T T O. Now all but a couple lots have been fully scraped and rebuilt.
https://www.google.com/maps/@36.1537494,-86.8265204,3a,75y,274.56h,88.26t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1scuDXUqoCgq4vqCVQkwIJ6w!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo0.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DcuDXUqoCgq4vqCVQkwIJ6w%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D75.25003%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i16384!8i8192
5 years ago
https://www.mapillary.com/app/?lat=36.15378055555556&lng=-86.82655833333332&z=17&pKey=aTnW0YiIbUNryQ166gqcrA&focus=photo
I was referring to the places that have been designated as conservation and historic districts. They have a lot more than Jax.
Ah yes. That would make sense.
I'd imagine they have more nationally registered historic districts.