Jack magazine January 2017

Right: The Whetstonian has captured the
imagination of urbanites for over 20 years
in downtown.
to imagine the Whetstonian “multiplied by
everything that disappeared in LaVilla,”
and says, “There’s a lot of black history
around here. Including me.”
For years, Walter constantly added to
and altered Jacksonville’s great “Outsider
Art” masterpiece. Outsider Art — associated
with Simon Rodia’s Watt’s Towers, St.
EOM’s Pasaquan, and Howard Finster’s
Paradise Garden — refers to art created
by people neither trained in the arts, nor
seeking artistic fame, who yet have an
unyielding passion and compulsion to
create. Artists, academics, and activists
across Jacksonville would love to see the
Whetstonian saved, but the Whetstones
are weary.
Walter Whetstone has spent most of
his life “outside.” When he delivered telegrams
for Western Union, the law forbade
him to sit on benches in downtown’s
Hemming Park. Once, before Walter
was presented with an insurance sales
award at a swanky hotel, a business executive
flagged him down to carry his luggage
to his room.
Walter will be 80 in January. He’s suffered
two strokes in the last two years.
His wife Dot often speaks for him now.
His health is failing fast, vandals have stolen
Whetstonian artifacts, and with Walter
no longer able to sell life insurance from
his corner office, back taxes have accrued.
“This is not how I envisioned living the
last years of my life,” Dot says. Walter
looks to a mural on an inner Union Street
wall depicting the narrative of his life,
drops his tired eyes, and says, “This too
shall pass. This too shall pass.” We hope
not. The Whetstonian deserves to be preserved
for generations to come. j
jackaboutjax.com jack
19