Durkee Gardens: Jax's first black historic district

[Tacachale]

Situated on the opposite side of Interstate 95 from Downtown Jacksonville, Durkeeville is a historic neighborhood that most Jaxsons may not know or have visited. Developed for Jacksonville's rapidly growing middle class black community during the prime years of Jim Crow, a portion of the neighborhood is now designated as a National Register of Historic Places historic district.

Read more: https://www.thejaxsonmag.com/article/durkee-gardens-jaxs-first-black-historic-district/

[bl8jaxnative]

Thank you again for this piece.

I love these lil' neighborhood bits.   I'd encourage folks to now and then print up a couple of them and go for a lil' road-trip but staying local -  Kinda like like a staycation - and check them out. 

[thelakelander]

Thanks! Yes, please check these places out. They are a good way to discover other areas, businesses, parks, etc. of the city.

[Steve]

I'm assuming the baseball field in the lower right hand corner of the map is JP Small Park/Durkee Field?

Additionally, and you may not know this: It's interesting to me that the streets broke the grid on 10th and 11th street. I know to the east of the site is the S-Line and Moncrief Road (which at a diagonal), but the grid picks back up to the west of Durkee Gardens. Was this a sort of early prdecessor to more closed in subdivisions? I wouldn't think so because you mention the public transit but trying to follow the logic there.

[thelakelander]

This particular development was infill. Everything around it had already been platted. Then on the east side, there was a railroad and the Hendersonville plat, which had a totally different street grid. Hendersonville was designed around Moncrief Road and was largely razed with the construction of I-95 and the 8th Street interchange.