QuoteDowntown Jacksonville is reclaiming its spirited past.
The new owner of 525 W. Beaver St., believed to have been Florida's first funeral home, proposes to transform it into The Raven, a nod to 19th century mystery and macabre poet and writer Edgar Allan Poe.
Eric Adler, owner of Silver Street Management, wants to convert the building into a long-term residential and Airbnb rental property as well as transform the former hearse garage into a retail opportunity.
Adler, 41, said he will not exploit the building's past, but won't hide its history, either.
"I'm not going to shy away from that. We will market it for people who like ghost tours, but I've been in the building a bunch of times and I've never seen anything," he said.
Full article: https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/article/the-raven-themed-airbnb-may-rise-from-old-lavilla-funeral-homehttps://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/article/opened-in-1916-the-structure-was-a-funeral-home-until-it-closed-in-2019
Love this idea. I was showing it to a customer in 2019 when the couple who purchased it, Ryan and Danielle, were there taking a look. It was an amazing building. The Sellers at the time lived there, it had a decent large upstairs apartment. A lot of it was a big project however.
I was thinking what type of Air BnB market downtown could support. Evidently some of the containers that JWB installed are being used for that. Maybe Jack Meeks should open up one of his Elena Flats lofts to that effect as well? Last I saw they were completely vacant.
I don't mind the use (apartments, Airbnb and retail) and I'm glad to see the building being preserved and restored. However, the theme could be viewed as being culturally disrespectful to the actual history of the space and the Black community that's still connected with it (the funeral home literally just closed in 2019). Plus the Edgar Allen Poe part in a place like LaVilla could be considered a form of whitewashing. Something themed around Pratt, Blodgett and/or LaVilla would be way more appropriate.