Help! Create a San Marco Timeline With Us!

[stephendare]

Please help us create a timeline for the shops, places and things that helped create San Marco over the decades!

70s
Pic N Save
Atomic Cleaners
The Phoenix.
AppleJacks Barbeque

80s.
Pic N Save.
Dress Up!
Lee Allen.
White's Bookstore.
Mimi's
The San Marco Bookshop.
Atomic Cleaners
Pic N Save
The Grotto (back in the witchcraft supplies, tea and spices days)
Cafe on the Square
The Original Loop
Peterson's Five and Dime
Cafe Carmon
The San Marco Theater
Peterbrookes
Baron Gas Station
Apple Jacks
Bad Boy Club
Theater Jacksonville
Ward's Room
Big Jim Tires

90s


White's Bookstore.
Mimi's
The San Marco Bookshop.
Atomic Cleaners
The Grotto (When "C" moved it and turned it into an uppity coffee shop)
Cafe on the Square
The Original Loop
Peterson's Five and Dime
Cafe Carmon
The San Marco Theater
Peterbrooke's
Theater Jacksonville
Ward's Room
Krista Eberle

2000s
Sushi Rock Cafe
The san marco Deli
Pizza Palace
Square One
Cafe Carmon
Bistro Aix
Diamond Dolls
Corner Brasserie
La Nopalera
Underwoods Jewelers
Theater Jacksonville
San Marco Theater
Ward Room
Krista Eberle
San Marco Gym
Moe's
The Grotto (snobby winebar incarnation)
San Marco Bookshop
Uncommon Grounds
Tavern on the Square
Subway Sandwiches
Jackrabbit's



Please add to this list, and Im sure there are people who remember way further back than I do.

[Bewler]

European st.
Laylas
Sherwoods
Endo Exo
Local’s
BBs

The record store that used to be next to Jack Rabbits.

Sorry, not sure of the year on some of these

[stjr]

San Marco Square: 60's and early 70's (as I recall it):

On Bank of America site :
  Duck pin bowling alley (small pins and bowling ball, a lot harder than today's bowling!)
  A & P Grocery Store
  Coley Walkers Drug Store
  Wilson's (?) Office Supply (?)

Balis Park:
  Gulf Gas Station

Southside of Square:
  Arcade Men's Store
  Utseys and/or Buster Brown Shoes
  Petersons 5 & 10
  Setzers Food Store (became Pic N Save)
  The Town Pump (recently Cafe on the Square)
  Bowlins  (sp?) Womens Store (next to Underwoods)
  Little Theater/ Theater Jacksonville (I believe the oldest community theater in the United States!)
  San Marco Theater
  Whites Bookstore/Duval News

Future Site of Publix and Condos:
  American National Bank
  La Mae Florist
  Uible Orthodontist (successor practice across street from Hendricks Avenue Elementary)

Northside:
  Stand n' Snack Sandwich Shop (free delicious whole pickles on the counters - all you could eat)
  Site of Stellers Gallery:
    Geisenholfs (sp?) Gift Store
  Herman Jackson's Atomic Cleaners
  Site of Firehouse Subs:
     Goodyear or Firestone Tire Store
  Fire Station (we went to on school field trips.  Loved watching them demonstrate that fire pole!)

There may have been an Abe Livert's Record Store at one time there.  Whites Bookstore had a long presence.  Peterson's sold artificial flowers upstairs (now Jaycox-Reinel Architects, et. al. offices).  I think Boyer and Boyer architects was there for a while also.

Other Area Locations in the 60's and 70's:
Site of European Street:
  Worman's - San Marco

On King's Road, site of PRI Productions:
  Skateland, followed by Brandons Camera Store (which was originally on the Southbank)

Jacksonville Orthopedic Institute:
  Originally, Barnett-Winston REIT HQ's, then the Duval County School Board (before present location)

Aetna Building:
  Originally, Prudential Insurance Co.southeastern U.S. HQ's (with the State Bank on the ground floor and the River Club on the top floor until Independent Life/Modis was built)

Riverplace Tower:
  Originally, Gulf Life Tower and before that, Jacksonville Shipyards, Southside facilities.

New Acosta Bridge, Southbank:
  Diamond Head Discotheque

Current Prudential Building:
  Travel Lodge

Go to the MJ History Forums and you will find several threads where I have posted pictures of some of these sites.

[lindab]

Did anyone mention Mims Bakery on the square from the 1950s to around 1980? Goodness gracious, seriously good cakes and other baked goods.

[ChriswUfGator]

Pic N Save

What happened to Pic N' Save? They were WalMart/Kmart before there was WalMart or Kmart.

Every time you'd go the place would be packed, then one day they just closed.

Same thing with Phar-Mor. They were great, then one day, gone.

[lindab]

That Pic N Save was just great. Every good neighborhood needs a place to buy that must-have stuff from toilet paper to birthday cards to canned spaghetti and the pot to cook it in. 

The way I heard the story was that it was a family owned business and the family got into a quarrel about selling the business or continuing it. Voila! No more Pic N Save.

[civil42806]

That Pic N Save was just great. Every good neighborhood needs a place to buy that must-have stuff from toilet paper to birthday cards to canned spaghetti and the pot to cook it in. 

The way I heard the story was that it was a family owned business and the family got into a quarrel about selling the business or continuing it. Voila! No more Pic N Save.

Used to love Pic N Save, was at one point a major buy on the market, but the family destroyed it after the founder passed away.  Still miss it, couldn't get cheaper jaguars stuff anywhere

[Bewler]

Brief summary about Phar-Mor's demise from wikitty wikitty

In 1992, when the company had grown to over 300 stores and 25,000 employees, Monus and his CFO Patrick Finn were accused of embezzlement: they had allegedly hidden losses and moved about $10 million from Phar-Mor to the World Basketball League that Monus had founded. Based on deceptive data and inventory, Phar-Mor borrowed multi-millions from banks and similar institutions under the premise of financing its unusually rapid growth. In actuality, this infusion of cash was necessary to pay off suppliers. As a result, Phar-Mor had to file for bankruptcy protection, closed 55 stores and fired 5,000 employees. Finn testified against Monus and received 33 months in prison. Monus' first trial ended in a hung jury in 1994; he was convicted at the second trial on 109 federal counts, mostly related to fraud, and sentenced to 19 years and 7 months in federal prison. Prosecutors estimated that the total loss to all investors exceeded $1 billion. The sentence was appealed and later reduced to 11 years. Monus was fired from his position as COO of Phar-Mor.

One friend of Monus later admitted to having offered a bribe to an acquaintance of his on the first trial's jury; the juror had not taken the money but confirmed the scheme. Monus was tried for jury tampering and acquitted.

Several investors in Phar-Mor filed a civil suit against the company's auditors, Coopers & Lybrand. A jury decided in 1996 that the accountants committed common law and federal securities law fraud by falsely representing they had performed GAAS audits when in fact they had failed to do so.

Phar-Mor emerged from bankruptcy protection in 1995, having lost two-thirds of its stores.

More in depth article here

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3374/is_n15_v14/ai_12511758/

[The Compound]

Sushi Rock and La Nopalera were in the 90s

[Ernest Street]

If I remember Diamond Dolls was in the building in the 90's, then it was Apple Jacks Barbecue for several years.
what was in there before they knocked it down to create the "Oral Explosion"?

[The Compound]

If I remember Diamond Dolls was in the building in the 90's, then it was Apple Jacks Barbecue for several years.
what was in there before they knocked it down to create the "Oral Explosion"?

That building was so many places.. It was The Eagle way back when, it was "1421" or whatever the number is, as another gay bar, & several different strip clubs

[ChriswUfGator]

Wow.  Great information.

And how could I have possibly forgotten Wormans!   My ex fiancee Janice Price and I spent many many afternoons in there whilst we lived on Naldo.

The Napolean Cream Pastries were fracking unbeleivable.

Worman's is still open at their downtown location.

Makes me sad to go there, though. Thanks to COJ's "efforts", Worman's sits in the center of about 18 blocks worth of vacant lots in varying states of decay. It's desolate looking. They've torn EVERYTHING down. Worman's is about the last thing over there that A: is still open and B: still has a building standing.

[blizz01]

There was also a "German/Hungarian" restaurant that was owned by a crotchety old guy a few years ago (near Matthew's) - what was that place called (?) - it was more of a sandwhich shop if I recall.

[BridgeTroll]

Vienna house or something... Ate breakfast there a few times.  He was crotchety...

[stjr]

Just to get these photos I previously posted under the
"History" forum matched with this thread:





Here are some great postcards of San Marco/South Jacksonville from the postcard collection of the Jacksonville Public Library ( http://jpl.coj.net/coll/florida/PCindex2.html ) :