Lost Jacksonville: Times Square

[thelakelander]

^Nice. What source did you get that aerial from?  It may be something I can utilize for all of the districts and neighborhoods I'm researching.

[thelakelander]

I echo the last two comments.

Cool and sad.

And like alot of things, Jacksonville is a city with a lot of "could have" and "should have". This is another example.

I appreciate all the historical articles written on this site. But damn if they aren't somewhat depressing also.

My hope is to expose some of Jacksonville's lost historical identity in the process. Seeing some things that no longer exists can hurt but it also can be a huge help in moving forward.

[thelakelander]

Are there any actual photos of how they entire area looked at the time??

I've found two so far. Neither is exactly what I'm looking for because one is a block or so, south on Philips and the other is a super close up.  Here's one of Biser's Restaurant from Vintage Jacksonville.com:


http://vintagejacksonville.net/page/8/

You'll notice a side view of one Times Square building in the background, behind the street banner in the distance.

[thelakelander]

Really looking forward to Lost Jacksonville. But what I'd really like to see is a book on our currently existing neighborhoods and districts. Good information on even some of our coolest areas, 5 Points, Eastside, Miramar, etc. is actually pretty hard to come by. If only we knew knew someone...

It's in the plans. I'm just getting warmed up!

[acme54321]

^Nice. What source did you get that aerial from?  It may be something I can utilize for all of the districts and neighborhoods I'm researching.

UF's historical aerial images archive.  It's a little harder to navigate than historicaerials.com but has older photography, lots of WWII vintage photos.  It also has a lot of images from less populated areas that you normally wouldnt find.

http://ufdc.ufl.edu/aerials/map

[acme54321]

Are there any actual photos of how they entire area looked at the time??

I've found two so far. Neither is exactly what I'm looking for because one is a block or so, south on Philips and a close up.  Here's one of Biser's Restaurant from Vintage Jacksonville.com:


http://vintagejacksonville.net/page/8/

You'll notice a side view of one Times Square building in the background, behind the street banner in the distance.

It's hard to picture that basically all of the vehicular traffic up and down the east coast of Florida started on that little road.  Things have surely changed.

[IrvAdams]

^^ Check out the street sign that says 'Mitchell'; it is made of a concrete block. Those used to be everywhere. Occasionally you see them now in a scrap yard (like Burkhalter's Wrecking on the Northside). I even saw one used as a car stop at a public park;, it was mostly unreadable, but definitely an old street sign.

Another historical tidbit you can still find in scrap yards (or on the Internet from a private collection) are some of the old street bricks used to pave roads back in the day. They are bigger than modern red bricks, and often had raised lettering showing where they were kilned. We have a few in our garden at home.

Oh man this stuff is nostalgic - much thanks!

[jcjohnpaint]

Amazing article.  I had no idea this ever existed. 

[thelakelander]

A similar district was located between Brooklyn and Five Points, along the Edison Street streetcar line to Lackawanna. That one was taken out for the I-10/I-95 interchange.

[Ocklawaha]

But what I'd really like to see is a book on our currently existing neighborhoods and districts.

Who needs a book when you have metrojacksonville.com?

We do! We have to eat... LOL! 

Streetcars of NE Florida is in the works too.

[Ocklawaha]

I remember going to the Edison location as a kid with my dad, there were streetcar tracks and switches all the heck over the place. Later research would show that the Streetcar's Edison Avenue-Seaboard-Lackawanna Shops line was intersected by the Union Terminal Loop at Myrtle and Edison, then just a block west, again by the Murray Hill Line at Dellwood and Edison. I want to say the original name of Dellwood was Banana, and at least one reference I saw to Edison called it 'Electric', maybe the name or maybe a reference to the railway. Those corners were full of businesses not unlike those at the corner of Dellwood and Margaret. It appears that at each jog in the line the Jacksonville Traction Company inspired the building of mixed use projects, stores and apartments. The Bold Bean coffee shop on Stockton is yet another jog in this same Murray Hill Car Line. Running from Edison-Dellwood-Margaret-Myra-Stockton-College-Plymouth-Edgewood. They might have been in a center median on Stockton and on Plymouth they really were alongside the road, between the street and the railroad. The entire Ortega Traction Company line and the Duval Traction Company line to the base out on Black Point was side-of-the-road running.

[Ocklawaha]

I think of the differences between us and a city like Savannah that the expressway(s) did not pass through - their historical character is almost intact. Preservation is gospel in that town.

Except that is exactly what Savannah did to their grand old Savannah Union Station when I-16 came to town. Demolished for a highway...  At least Jacksonville saved Jacksonville Terminal.

[finehoe]

^^ Check out the street sign that says 'Mitchell'; it is made of a concrete block. Those used to be everywhere.

Thanks for pointing that out!  I remember these down at the beach when I was a kid.

[Tacachale]

Me too. I always liked them.

[BoldBoyOfTheSouth]

At least Jax did something right in preserving our train station.