Remembering fallen Jacksonville companies.

[BackinJax05]

Merrill-Stevens shipyards.  At one time the shipyards were probably the largest employers by payroll in Jacksonville.

I've heard of them. Did they build ships here, or only repair them? On the subject of shipyards, I remember the drydocks Jacksonville Shipyards had. Those things were amazing.

[Dog Walker]

There were ships built here since the time of the city's founding.

Jacksonville was one of several places on the east coast of the US that built Liberty ships during WWII.  There was even a shipyard where Church of the Assumption and Bishop Kenny High School are now.

After the war ship building moved overseas and our shipyards did repairs.  Finally, even that went away.

[Debbie Thompson]

There is still a Setzer's on Philips Highway.

Does anyone else remember Kings Department Store on University? It sat back off the road.  It closed very soon after we moved here in 1966, so I don't now much about it. As I recall, it was like a Pic 'n Save or a Zayre.  The building is still there, used as something else.

The drive-in movies.  Speaker hanging on the window, mosquito coil burning in the ashtray (like that helped) necking on the bench seat, and hoping your parents wouldn't ask you what the movie was about when you got home.

[thelakelander]

Setzer's was a local grocery chain that had a large warehouse in the Springfield Warehouse District.  The Setzers on Philips Highway sells appliances.

[Debbie Thompson]

Oops.  Wrong Setzter's.  Sorry.  The one on Philips, I believe, is the Setzer family owned Pic 'n Save. But I could be wrong about that too.

[thelakelander]

Setzer's was a 40-unit chain that was purchased by Food Fair in 1958. 

A native of Lithuania founded the Setzer's chain, which stretched throughout Florida and South Georgia.  Benjamin Setzer arrived in the US in 1910, and he ran an ice business for many years after he moved to Jacksonville.  When Mr. Setzer opened his first retail grocery store, it stood at Fifth and Silver streets in Springfield.

In 1958, Mr. Setzer sold his 40 unit chain to Food Fair Stores, but soon afterwards he founded another local goliath, Pic 'N Save Drugs.  Before going out of business, this company operated over 40 discount department stores in Florida and Georgia.  Mr. Setzer was also a partner in Arlington's Town and Country Shopping Center.  And in the non-business realm, he served as the chairman of the board of trustees for the Jacksonville Jewish Center.  Mr. Setzer passed away in Jacksonville in 1969, with his final resting place at Center Memorial Park Cemetery.

http://www.jaxhistory.com/Jacksonville%20Story/Picture%20of%20Supermarket,%20Setzer's%20Storefront.htm

Here are a few shots:

Setzer's in San Marco:

State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, http://floridamemory.com/items/show/52880

Setzer's warehouse on Liberty Street in the Springfield Warehouse District.

State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, http://floridamemory.com/items/show/52954

Inside a Setzer's in Tallahassee.

State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, http://floridamemory.com/items/show/77754

Setzer's original store was that historic commercial building on the NE corner of Silver and 5th Streets that was torn down a couple of years ago for a residential project that was never built.

[BackinJax05]

There were ships built here since the time of the cities founding.

Jacksonville was one of several places on the east coast of the US that built Liberty ships during WWII.  There was even a shipyard where Church of the Assumption and Bishop Kenny High School are now.

After the war ship building moved overseas and our shipyards did repairs.  Finally, even that went away.

If only there was a way to bring back those skilled labor jobs; ship building & ship repair. Not much around here now but low paying sh*t service jobs.

[thelakelander]

We still have a couple of ship builders here.  North Florida Shipyards at Commodore Point and BAE off Heckscher.



Combined, they employ a couple of thousand.  Growing those types of jobs involves improving/educating our local workforce to be able to actually work them.  Also, we can can grow skilled industries but it will require a cultural change in the direction of where we're taking our city.  It doesn't seem that our city leaders overall are ready to head in that direction. 







The images above are of the North Florida Shipyards near downtown. Next time you cross the Mathews Bridge, look south.  Most of your downtown visionaries want to see places like this and Maxwell House gone and replaced with condos or parks.  However, just remember when that happens, thousands of high paying manufacturing jobs in the urban core will disappear too!

[BackinJax05]

^^ I agree.

We need MORE of what you pointed out, not less.

The St. Johns is pretty to look at & all, but commerce pays the bills!

[Dog Walker]

What ever happened to Diversified Cooperative Training?  DCT.

When I was in high school in the late 1950's, some of my fellow students went to school half the day and worked in industry training programs for the other half.  Those of us on an academic track looked down on the DCT students as not up to our intellectual standards.

Joke was on us!

One of my classmates, who was in the DCT program, worked at the shipyards.  He was involved in the building of a NOAA research vessel.  He graduated at the same time the ship was finished and was hired on as an Assistant to the Engineer since he had helped install all of the systems over the three or four years it took to built it.  He spent the next couple of years based in American Somoa earning a hefty salary.  He learned to fly there.

The Chief Engineer had some health problems, quit, and he was promoted to the position.  At age twenty, he was earning the equivalent of $100K per year with no living expenses.  He saved all his money.

Two years later he returned to the US, bought a P-51 Mustang from a Central American air force and had it converted to a two seater.  He returned to school at JU, where I ran into him again, and then went to MIT to finish a Phd in Mechanical Engineering.

He was gracious enough, based on our previous acquaintance, to let me take the controls of the P-51 once or twice.  I was pumping gas at Craig Airfield at the time to make money for flying lessons.

So much for DCT students not measuring up to academic standards!

If we want a skilled workforce we need to bring back programs like that.  What opportunities it can open up.

[Wacca Pilatka]

There were ships built here since the time of the city's founding.

Jacksonville was one of several places on the east coast of the US that built Liberty ships during WWII.  There was even a shipyard where Church of the Assumption and Bishop Kenny High School are now.

After the war ship building moved overseas and our shipyards did repairs.  Finally, even that went away.

The story of Liberty ship construction in Brunswick is a great one too.  Tasked with building 6 ships during the month of December 1944 (I think it was 1944), the shipyard completed 7, and every employee refused to take overtime pay.  There is a model Liberty ship on display in a downtown park.

[Ocklawaha]

The images above are of the North Florida Shipyards near downtown. Next time you cross the Mathews Bridge, look south.  Most of your downtown visionaries want to see places like this and Maxwell House gone and replaced with condos or parks. However, just remember when that happens, thousands of high paying manufacturing jobs in the urban core will disappear too!

AMAZING! I remember the Jacksonville Ship Yards and Merril Stevens Yard, and always thought of them as 'anchors' for the east side of downtown. The thousands of people they employed get to work via streetcar, then via bus and private automobiles, and when they went to lunch, guess where they walked? This math is pretty simple really. Guy goes to lunch downtown and hands off a shirt for the dry cleaners, then spends MONEY on food. On the way back from lunch he stops at the jewelers to pick up his wires watch and they have a sale on pearls (his wife's favorite) so he also buys two tiny pearl earrings. Just before ducking back through the fence, he stops at the downtown C-store and picks up a couple of soda's to take back to work with him... $80 dollars spent downtown. Multiply this by another 2,000 workers and you can see why chasing our shipyards away was another stupid stunt.

It always reminds me of 'Nelagoney Syndrome.' Nelagoney being a small town in the Osage Nation in Oklahoma. Once a busy railroad yard and oil field equipment staging area, Nelagoney boasted the Midland Valley Railroad and the Missouri-Kansas-Texas Railroad. When the oil drilling moved on, Nelagoney did act because they were still an important railroad junction. When the Midland Valley was bought by Missouri Pacific, they truncated the line north of Pawhuska (about 10 miles north of Nelagoney) not to worry though because they were sill a railroad junction. Next a flood washed out some track northeast of Oklahoma City, and the MKT simply bought the old Rock Island Line as their 'new' OKC access, and the old mainline through Nelagoney became a branchline. No problem because the railroads still 'could' use the old railroad junction. When the M-K-T applied to abandon the whole former OKC division in favor of their new Rock Island route, Nelagoney didn't speak up because they still had the MOP... ' Missouri Pacific'. The MOP wasn't really interested in operating north of a refinery in Barnsdall about 10 miles south of Nelagoney, and soon enough the track came up on that line too... Nelagoney no longer had a railroad but they still had a cool old station that tourists would flock to. Um, THAT never happened, so the depot was razed and guess what? NELAGONEY IS GONE!

Hey, at least they got rid of those unsightly old railroads!

[BackinJax05]

What ever happened to Diversified Cooperative Training?  DCT.

When I was in high school in the late 1950's, some of my fellow students went to school half the day and worked in industry training programs for the other half.  Those of us on an academic track looked down on the DCT students as not up to our intellectual standards.

Joke was on us!

One of my classmates, who was in the DCT program, worked at the shipyards.  He was involved in the building of a NOAA research vessel.  He graduated at the same time the ship was finished and was hired on as an Assistant to the Engineer since he had helped install all of the systems over the three or four years it took to built it.  He spent the next couple of years based in American Somoa earning a hefty salary.  He learned to fly there.

The Chief Engineer had some health problems, quit, and he was promoted to the position.  At age twenty, he was earning the equivalent of $100K per year with no living expenses.  He saved all his money.

Two years later he returned to the US, bought a P-51 Mustang from a Central American air force and had it converted to a two seater.  He returned to school at JU, where I ran into him again, and then went to MIT to finish a Phd in Mechanical Engineering.

He was gracious enough, based on our previous acquaintance, to let me take the controls of the P-51 once or twice.  I was pumping gas at Craig Airfield at the time to make money for flying lessons.

So much for DCT students not measuring up to academic standards!

If we want a skilled workforce we need to bring back programs like that.  What opportunities it can open up.

They still had it when I was in school, back in the 80s. It was called DECA then. Distributive Education Clubs of America. That was a long time ago now, so I dont know if DECA is still around. Had alot of classmates in DECA. They all did pretty well.

College is fine, but its not for everyone. Im glad I graduated college. Now Im going back to Florida Coast Career Tech for a Commercial Driver License (CDL).

[Tacachale]

We still have a couple of ship builders here.  North Florida Shipyards at Commodore Point and BAE off Heckscher.



Combined, they employ a couple of thousand.  Growing those types of jobs involves improving/educating our local workforce to be able to actually work them.  Also, we can can grow skilled industries but it will require a cultural change in the direction of where we're taking our city.  It doesn't seem that our city leaders overall are ready to head in that direction. 







The images above are of the North Florida Shipyards near downtown. Next time you cross the Mathews Bridge, look south.  Most of your downtown visionaries want to see places like this and Maxwell House gone and replaced with condos or parks.  However, just remember when that happens, thousands of high paying manufacturing jobs in the urban core will disappear too!

UNF's Construction Management Department just launched a new track in maritime construction. It's one of the few in the country. I had a great meeting with the chair last month about promoting it, he's very optimistic about it all and thinks it could be a good compliment for the region. I hope there's enough student interest for it to take off.

[BackinJax05]

^^ I sure hope so. There's nothing wrong with being a blue collar town! Once upon a time it seemed Jacksonville did quite well as a blue collar town. Then somewhere along the way we got an inferiority complex that still exists to this day.

F**K the outside world! This is Jacksonville, and this is who we are.*

*While there's nothing wrong with being blue collar, its nice having the river relatively clean and the air not stinking to high heaven from the paper mills & Buckman Street sewage plant. (my late mother used to call it THE SH!T FACTORY) r.i.p. Mom