Avondale: Riverside's Residential Ideal

[Metro Jacksonville]

Avondale: Riverside's Residential Ideal



Some neighborhoods are so popular, their borders significantly grow with neighboring communities embracing their name as the decades pass.  In Jacksonville, Avondale is an example of such a place.  Now significant part of one of the region’s largest historic districts, Avondale was originally platted as a mile long infill subdivision that was only 4.5 blocks in width.

Read More: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2017-may-avondale-riversides-residential-ideal

[lowlyplanner]

Sometimes just one sentence raises a whole lot of questions...

Can we learn more about the "proposed River Oaks Freeway"?

[thelakelander]

Basically, it would have been a six-lane, two-block wide freeway running along Boone Park and tying into a river crossing near Richmond and Dancy Streets.  Evidently, we liked our expressways back in those days.  How about an expressway for the Northbank instead of a riverwalk?

[thelakelander]

Parks were also seen as the perfect spots for highway improvements.  Here's one of the old proposals for an interchange through Riverside Park:

[Non-RedNeck Westsider]

How about an expressway for the Northbank instead of a riverwalk?

That would have been incredible if you can also assume that it would have been turned into a Dedicated Ped/Bike path by now.

[Steve]

God, if we could get another river crossing somewhere between the Fuller Warren and the Buckman, that would be incredible.

This wasn't the only proposal, but JTB-Timuquana and University-Timuquana

[cline]

Robert Moses would be so proud of those planned expressways.

[exnewsman]

So what are the commonly accepted boundaries for Avondale now?

[Steve]

It's a little grey, but the most commonly accepted border between Riverside and Avondale is McDuff. The USPS says it's King (zip code changes).

Generally most people say McDuff, Fishweir Creek, Roosevelt Blvd, and the River

[Tacachale]

^There's no commonly accepted border between Riverside and Avondale. Almost everyone has their own (often very strong) opinion. McDuff is probably most common today; it's what Wayne Wood's book Jacksonville's Architectural Heritage uses. The Avondale Historic District border for Avondale is at Seminole and Belvedere. I don't know of anyone who'd say King Street, but you hear it sometimes as that's where the zip code border is.

[Josh]

So what are the commonly accepted boundaries for Avondale now?

Depends on if you're listing your property for sale, or trying to argue valuation with the property appraiser.

[Jim]

It's a little grey, but the most commonly accepted border between Riverside and Avondale is McDuff. The USPS says it's King (zip code changes).

Generally most people say McDuff, Fishweir Creek, Roosevelt Blvd, and the River

I'd put the Southern Border at San Juan, not Fischweir. 

Isn't that location known as Fairfax?

[Tacachale]

It's a little grey, but the most commonly accepted border between Riverside and Avondale is McDuff. The USPS says it's King (zip code changes).

Generally most people say McDuff, Fishweir Creek, Roosevelt Blvd, and the River

I'd put the Southern Border at San Juan, not Fischweir. 

Isn't that location known as Fairfax?

Yes, but many would consider it part of Avondale. Names with cachet tend to take on more area over time.

[Adam White]

I've always thought the modern accepted boundaries to be McDuff, Roosevelt and Fishweir creek.

I remember reading that Belvedere and Seminole as the 'northern' (or whatever) boundary - but McDuff makes a nicer divider.

[Adam White]

It's a little grey, but the most commonly accepted border between Riverside and Avondale is McDuff. The USPS says it's King (zip code changes).

Generally most people say McDuff, Fishweir Creek, Roosevelt Blvd, and the River

I'd put the Southern Border at San Juan, not Fischweir. 

Isn't that location known as Fairfax?

Yes, but many would consider it part of Avondale. Names with cachet tend to take on more area over time.

The houses seem a lot different over there, though. The area feels different to me. Or always did.

Edit: come to think of it, once you get past Edgewood, it all starts to feel less "Avondaley" to me.