Photos of Jacksonville (Springfield, Harlem: lofts, condos, house)

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Memorial Park (Riverside)


This is one of two major parks in the area. It was designed and built by the Olmsted Brothers out of Brookline, MA in 1922 (the other park, Riverside Park, was designed and built in 1893). Ninah Cummer and the local Rotary Club pushed the drive for the park (originally a very large hotel to “rival the big hotels of the East” was planned for the site). Roy Benjamin oversaw the construction of the park, and stopped plans for a floating dock to allow access from the river (gee, that would be great now…extend the riverwalk down at least ). The sculpture depicts the winged figure of youth rising from the mad maelstrom of earthly passions. It is a nude figure and caused a controversy among Riverside society when it was first unveiled. Back in the day, Riverside was the wealthiest neighborhood of Jacksonville, and the avenue was lined with so many large mansions it was known as “the Row”. All but two of these mansions and a carriage house are razed today.











The 1915 San Juline Apartments in the background


I took two separate groups’ photos in front of this thing (their cameras) when I was there.

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Views from Memorial Park, and Park Lane Tower

Park Lane Tower was constructed in 1926. The developer, Francis Mason, built out the units as co-ops, a novel idea at the time that he brought down from New York. This was Florida’s first residential high rise and really jump started the FL condo boom. It was also the 3rd tallest building in Jax for quite a while, and the first building to use “setbacks”. These setbacks allowed the upper unit owners to have balconies/open terraces. Units originally started at only $12,000.







Known as the Cloister Condominiums. The average age is probably 85






A much “younger” building. Average age might only be 40 here.


Forgot this photo of Nemours Clinic, a clinic started by Alfred duPont, who built the Nemours Mansion near Wilmington, DE and his later home, Epping Forest, here in Jacksonville. Alfred duPont is one of about 5-6 prominent, wealthy northerners who basically started Jacksonville. He is responsible for a large, multi-billion dollar trust run out of a building here that I show later on. He started the Florida National Bank, Nemours, and St. Joe.

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Jacksonville has a nickname: Hartford of the South

It is definitely still a worthy insurance hub, but not nearly like the good old days where several large companies had their HQ’s here. Today, BCBS, Aetna, Humana, AHL, Prudential, and Allstate still have their names on buildings, mainly downtown. Chicago Title was acquired by Fidelity National Financial, which is also headquartered here.

Here is BCBS’ downtown/Riverside tower. Their big campus is on the Southside of town and I show it in another previous thread.

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Time for some Urban Grit!! I know you guys like this, so here goes



Sexy new highway overpass




Annie Lytle Public School Number 4
Recently purchased by a S FL investor who sits on properties and lets them fall down. The previous owners did the same. The school was built in 1917, and was the 4th school built as part of a $1,000,000 bond issue in 1915. It originally overlooked Riverside Park, but a nearly $200 million interchange linking 95 and 10 was built directly overhead and completed this year. The fate of the building does not look good.






Reminiscent of New Orleans


Notice the “Camel Rider”. This is a staple of Jacksonville. There are tons and tons of Arabs here and you won’t find another city in the South with as many delis run by Arabs serving up various “Rider” sandwiches. This building is no longer a sandwich shop run by Arabs, though.

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New Construction: The 12 floor Wolfson's Adult Hospital Tower

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Alfred I. duPont Trust Headquarters

Other bigshots with their names attached to Jacksonville from 1885-1930 include: -Andrew Carnegie who wintered nearby (my fireplace comes from his Cumberland Island home)
-J. Pierpont Morgan who personally financed the development of several Jacksonville neighborhoods
-the Vanderbilts who nearly built a very large resort in Jacksonville where Alfred duPont built his large Mediterranean estate instead
-William Astor who started the Florida Yacht Club and was a local philanthropist
-Henry Flagler of Standard Oil fame, partner of J. Rockefeller, built a rail and tourism empire here in Jacksonville and St. Augustine before moving further south in the 1920s.

The list goes on…

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Northbank Riverwalk and Tillie Fowler Memorial

The memorial was designed by Mid-Ocean Studio out of Providence, RI/New York City. The architect is actually an Atlanta native. Tillie Fowler was a local long term Congresswoman and actually attended my church. She passed in 2005 I think.

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The Jacksonville Terminal

Built in 1917. The terminal was modelled precisely and almost exactly after Penn Station. The architect was Ken Murchison out of New York and the contractor was Irwin & Leighton out of Philadelphia. At its busiest, 142 trains bringing 20,000 passengers came through every day. Now the terminal is a convention center, but is soon to be our multi-modal transportation hub, servicing Amtrak, future HSR, commuter rail, the skyway, JTA busses, JTA offices, Greyhound, and potentially streetcars or light rail.





The remains of the 1896 station.

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More Grit!!!