(http://photos.metrojacksonville.com/photos/496506078_BiD2f-M.jpg)
Hey, MetroJax. How about a retrospective on Jacksonville's great hotel history? Here's a start:
The Robert Meyer/Center City Holiday Inn (now the home of the Federal Courthouse which is wrongly attributed in Wikipedia to the George Washington block), Mayflower (Demolished. Site of the ATT building as I recall.), George Washington (Demolished. Turned down the Beatles for a room due to a mixup!)[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_George_Washington_(Jacksonville,_Florida) ], Roosevelt (now the Carling apartments and home to one of America's deadliest hotel fires [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hotel_Roosevelt_fire ]in 1963 in which 22 people lost their lives; the reigning Miss America was rescued from the roof top.), Seminole (Demolished), St. James (now City Hall), Windsor (Demolished), San Jose Hotel (now Bolles School), etc.
Here is a partial list from a UNF Library site to help also: http://www.unf.edu/library/sc/hotelscontainer.html#Jacksonville,%20Fla.
Roosevelt Fire (1963; 22 perished):
(http://www.jacksonvillefiremuseum.com/image035.JPG)
(http://www3.gendisasters.com/files/newphotos/Hotel%20Roosevelt%20Fire%20Jacksonville%20FLA_tn.jpg)
(http://www3.gendisasters.com/files/newphotos/Hotel%20Roosevelt%20Fire%20Jacksonville%20FLA%201_tn.jpg)
Mayflower:
(http://www.landonhighschool1956.com/MEMORY%20LANE/Mayflower.jpg)
George Washington:
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/b/bc/Hotelgeorgewashington.JPG/250px-Hotelgeorgewashington.JPG)
Seminole:
(http://www.landonhighschool1956.com/MEMORY%20LANE/Seminole.jpg)
That's great. Too bad it's our history and not our present, which consists of low-quality grade facilities that can be found anywhere in the country.
I mean, will we really look back 100 years from now and say, "That Days (Ramada?) Inn on Lane at I-10 should be restored and be granted historical status"?
One day I hope to have the means to be a partner to rebuild the fabric on the 23895723 vacant lots downtown and in LaVilla.
We already did it. The story is in the "history" section on the front page.
Downtown: The Hotels of an era gone by
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/content/view/182/120/
Of course you have Lake ;D It is hard to get ahead of you guys. With that being said, Jacksonville could really use a unique hotel downtown. A smaller, non chain boutique hotel. What a great rehab project for one of the old buildings downtown. What about the Laura Street Trio buildings or the 121 Atlantic building (by the old Gold's Gym)? It would be nice to have this on Bay Street, but none of the buildings are tall enough. If I had the money, I would consider it.
Right before the Super Bowl, there was a proposal to convert the Barnett into a boutique hotel. Unfortunately, that proposal fizzled out.
Quote from: thelakelander on April 18, 2009, 08:54:12 AM
We already did it. The story is in the "history" section on the front page.
Downtown: The Hotels of an era gone by
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/content/view/182/120/
Lake, thanks for noting a fine article. It's not easy finds some past threads here and I wouldn't have guessed to go back to 2006! Maybe MJ could start subject indexing its articles or combining threads under a new topical or themed index. Many of these threads contain lots of lost Jax history and would make for some good local Wikipedia style articles.
That said, it appears there were many more fine hotels in the North Florida area not covered by the original article, so maybe you could do a supplemental article and include a few more (from not just Downtown).