J Magazine Winter 2017

THE MAGAZINE OF THE REBIRTH OF JACKSONVILLE’S DOWNTOWN 

HISTORY 

I S S U E 

MUSEUMS 

ADDING TO 

THE CULTURAL 

EXPERIENCES 

IN THE CORE 

P72 

RICH HISTORY 

THE ancestry 

YOU PROBABLY 

DIDN’T KNOW 

ABOUT 

P80 

RED TAPE 

CLEARING 

THE WAY FOR 

DOWNTOWN 

DEVELOPMENT 

P18 

DOWN & OUT 

TEN DECAYING 

BUILDINGS IN 

NEED OF OUR 

ATTENTION 

P84 

SALLY CORP 

GO INSIDE THE 

URBAN CORE’S 

MOST UNUSUAL 

COMPANY 

P32 

UNDAUNTED 

DISPLAY THROUGH FEBRUARY 2018 

$4.95 

MOST GAVE UP ON THE LAURA STREET TRIO 

& BARNETT BANK BUILDINGS YEARS AGO. 

STEVE ATKINS DIDN’T. 

P40 

WINTER 2017-18

contents 

Issue 3 // Volume 1 // WINTER 2017-18 

32 

THE FANTASY 

FABRICATORS 

BY PAULA HORVATH 

18 22 50 54 

THE END OF 

RED TAPE 

BY MARILYN YOUNG 

RISE OF THE 

GONDOLAS 

BY MIKE CLARK 

DOWNTOWN 

STREET ART 

BY CAROLE HAWKINS 

ONE WAY, 

WRONG WAY 

BY MIKE CLARK 

61 72 80 84 

LESSONS 

FROM IRMA 

BY MIKE CLARK 

SHOWCASING 

OUR TREASURES 

BY FRANK DENTON 

JACKSONVILLE’S 

RICH HISTORY 

BY ENNIS DAVIS 

DOWN & OUT 


& RON LITTLEPAGE 

WILL DICKEY 

6 

J MAGAZINE | WINTER 2017-18

J MAGAZINE 

PARTNERS 

Sally Corporation Marketing Director 

Lauren Wood Weaver shows the face for 

an animatronic character in a lab inside 

the Downtown Jacksonville company. 

S 

DEPARTMENTS 

9 FEEDBACK 

11 FROM THE PUBLISHER 

13 BRIEFING 

14 PROGRESS REPORT 

16 RATING DOWNTOWN 

45 12 HOURS DOWNTOWN 

70 EYESORE 

94 QUESTIONS & ANSWERS 

98 THE FINAL WORD 


HISTORY 

I S S U E 

RED TAPE 

CLEARING 

THE WAY FOR 

DOWNTOWN 

DEVELOPMENT 

P18 

MUSEUMS 

ADDING TO 

THE CULTURAL 

EXPERIENCES 

IN THE CORE 

P72 

RICH HISTORY 

THE ANCESTRY 

YOU PROBABLY 

DIDN’T KNOW 

ABOUT 

P80 

DOWN & OUT 

TEN DECAYING 

BUILDINGS IN 

NEED OF OUR 

ATTENTION 

P84 

SALLY CORP 

GO INSIDE THE 

URBAN CORE’S 

MOST UNUSUAL 

COMPANY 

UNDAUNTED 

P32 

DISPLAY THROUGH FEBRUARY 2018 

$4.95 

MOST GAVE UP ON THE LAURA STREET TRIO 

& BARNETT BANK BUILDINGS YEARS AGO. 

STEVE ATKINS DIDN’T. 

P40 

WINTER 2017-18 

ON THE COVER 

Despite the odds, developer 

Steve Atkins never stopped 

believing the Barnett Bank and 

Laura Street Trio buildings could 

be valuable assets to Jacksonville’s 

Downtown. // SEE PAGE 22 

STORY BY MARILYN YOUNG 

PHOTOGRAPHS BY BOB SELF

GREATER 

TOGETHER 

H 

THE MAGAZINE OF 

THE REBIRTH OF 


DOWNTOWN 

H 

PUBLISHER 

Mark Nusbaum 

GENERAL MANAGER/ 

CREATIVE DIRECTOR 

Jeff Davis 

EDITOR 

Frank Denton 

VP OF SALES 

Lana Champion 

VP OF CIRCULATION 

Amy McSwain 

WRITERS 

Michael P. Clark 

Roger Brown 

Paula Horvath 

Ron Littlepage 

MAILING ADDRESS 

J Magazine, 1 Riverside Ave., Jacksonville, FL 32202 

CONTACT US 

EDITORIAL: 

(904) 359-4197, frank.denton@jacksonville.com 

ADVERTISING: 

(904) 359-4471, lana.champion@jacksonville.com 

DISTRIBUTION/REPRINTS: 

(904) 359-4459, amy.mcswain@jacksonville.com 

WE WELCOME SUGGESTIONS FOR STORIES. 

PLEASE SEND IDEAS OR INQUIRIES TO: 

frank.denton@jacksonville.com 

No part of this publication and/or website may be reproduced, 

stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form without prior 

written permission of the Publisher. Permission is only deemed valid 

if approval is in writing. J Magazine and Times-Union Media buy all 

rights to contributions, text and images, unless previously agreed 

to in writing. While every effort has been made to ensure that 

information is correct at the time of going to print, Times-Union 

Media cannot be held responsible for the outcome of any action or 

decision based on the information contained in this publication. 

© 2017 Times-Union Media. 

All rights reserved. 

LOOK FOR J MAGAZINE AT SELECT RETAIL OUTLETS 

A PRODUCT OF 

EDITORIAL BOARD

DISPLAY THROUGH NOVEMBER 2017 


FEEDBACK 

OWNERSHIP 

I S S U E 

PAST ITS PRIME 

COULD A NEW 

CONVENTION 

CENTER BREATHE 

MORE LIFE INTO 

DOWNTOWN? 

P26 

DEVELOPMENT 

THE CATHEDRAL 

DISTRICT AIMS 

TO ADD HEART 

TO THE CORE 

P66 

HOMELESSNESS 

NO QUICK FIX 

IN SIGHT FOR 

DOWNTOWN 

HOMELESS 

POPULATION 

P78 

WHO OWNS 

DOWNTOWN? 

$4.95 

HINT: HE’S ONE OF THEM 

P18 

FALL 2017 

THE OWNERSHIP ISSUE 

AFTER LOOKING INTO WHO OWNS 

Jacksonville’s Downtown (along with who is 

and isn’t paying property taxes) in our fall 

issue, we knew this would be a hot topic 

with readers. More than 100 of you weighed 

in on the issue. 

RE: WHO OWNS DOWNTOWN? 

“Government owns 

400 properties 

Downtown. They 

need to start putting 

out RFPs for those 

properties and return 

them to the tax rolls.” 

Kerry Decker 

“What the public should really focus 

on is why is the old City Hall and old 

Courthouse property still sitting empty. 

Where is our City Council leadership on 

this issue?” 

Doug Diamond 

“Ownership aside, look at the impact of 

the zoning laws and regs ... the long-term 

impact of the zoning laws make it very 

difficult to re-establish a fully functioning 

downtown.” 

Paul Risner 

RE: Sub Prime: Is Jacksonville’s convention center past its prime? 

“If the city can ever 

get over it’s selfesteem 

issues and fund 

big ticket projects ... 

the sky is the limit. I 

wholeheartedly support 

Jacksonvillle’s effort 

for a new convention 

center, even if taxes were 

raised to support putting 

“Why doesn’t Jax do 

something like the Kansas 

City Power and Light 

District. Redo the Landing 

... it’s set up just like KC’s.” 

Paget Danielle Cooks 

“Until they fix the 

Downtown parking 

situation they’re never 

going to draw the numbers 

of people needed to truly 

revitalize the area.” 

Darin Delegal 

Jacksonville on the map.” 

Mike Clark 

“The ongoing talk of 

turning the terminal 

back into a train hub is 

exciting. If we build a new 

convention center, then it 

needs to be first class.” 

Shane Windhaus 

RE: ELBOW BOOM: With the opening of an upscale 

restaurant, The Elbow District is getting a shot of adrenaline 

“I live in The Elbow and 

we absolutely love it. 

It’s true that it’s quiet 

sometimes, but there is 

always something to do 

if you know where to 

look. And the neighbors 

are phenomenal people. 

It’s almost like living in a 

small town. You become 

familiar with all your 

neighbors and the local 

business owners.” 

Amanda Dillard 

RE: FLOAT TRIPS: 

Should Jacksonville’s 

water taxis be free? 

“The (water 

taxis) have to go 

‘somewhere’ that’s 

amazing. The 

Landing is not it.” 

Keri Kidder 

“The water taxi is 

fun to ride and see 

the city, especially 

at night. People 

who have never 

been on a boat 

would love it.” 

Laurie Boehme 

“I certainly don’t 

want to subsidize 

water taxis. No, this 

shouldn’t be free.” 

Peter Carroll 

RE: Uncovering The 

Emerald Necklace 

“I hope this happens. 

How exciting!” 

Susan Aertker 

WINTER 2017-18 | J MAGAZINE 9

FROM THE PUBLISHER 

‘Winds of change’ 

gusting favorably 

for Downtown Jax 

MARK 

NUSBAUM 

PHONE 

(904) 359-4349 

EMAIL 

mark.nusbaum@ 

jacksonville.com 

s you may or may not know — 

A and I hope a lot of you DO know 

— we launched a new product at 

The Florida Times-Union about six months 

ago, by the name of “J.’’ 

You are reading issue No. 3. 

J Mag, as I often refer to it, is produced four times a 

year and is 100 percent laser-focused on the revitalization 

of Downtown. 

This is unabashed advocacy journalism with a very 

specific goal in mind. 

We are thankful for the support of many partners 

and sponsors, who care very deeply about our community. 

Please take a look at the sponsors throughout 

the magazine, and give these folks a special thanks for 

participating in such an initiative for the greater good of 

Jacksonville. 

When we embarked on this journey, we promised 

to scrutinize our fair city, warts and all, with the goal of 

driving relentlessly toward excellence in our Downtown. 

We also augmented J Mag with an op-ed page each 

Wednesday in The Florida Times-Union devoted exclusively 

to Downtown revitalization. 

Now, six months after the launch, I ask myself: Are 

we all collectively making progress toward revitalization 

of Downtown Jacksonville? 

My answer at this point: an emphatic YES. 

As part of the launch of J Mag last June, we did some 

fairly extensive polling with the help of the good folks at 

the University of North Florida. 

Some of the results were predictable; others were, in 

fact, a bit humbling: 

n We asked: “Why have you not come Downtown 

more often in the past year?’’ Most respondents clustered 

in two segments: 34 percent said, “Nothing to do 

there/no reason to go.’’ Another 21 percent said it is too 

dangerous. Sure, we can be offended by the answers, 

and perhaps even dispute them. Or we can accept them, 

and commit ourselves to doing something about them: 

We can point out that statistics show Downtown is pretty 

darned safe, according to law enforcement officials. 

Until we change the perception, WE LOSE. 

n Another question: “In the past year, how many 

times have you gone Downtown for entertainment or 

leisure?’’ This one can sober you up pretty quickly: 26 

percent said never, and 49 percent said a couple of times 

a year, which isn’t much more. Those two answers comprised 

nearly 75 percent of the respondents. Let’s face it: 

NOT COOL. 

n We also asked: “In general, do you think Downtown 

Jacksonville is staying the same, improving or 

getting worse. The feedback was a little more positive on 

this one: 32 percent said “staying the same,’’ 37 percent 

said “improving,’’ and 19 percent said, “getting worse.’’ 

The data help us frame a picture and maybe make us 

feel a little uncomfortable, but maybe it’s good that we 

squirm a little. 

So what do we do with the polling results moving 

forward? 

Here’s my vote: Let’s capitalize on it. Let’s turn these 

numbers dramatically in a more favorable direction in 

the months and years to come. Let’s meet perception — 

particularly when it’s wrong — head on. 

We can do it. I believe Jacksonville is on the move and 

can someday be the showcase of the Southeast. 

In Toronto last month on JAX Chamber’s leadership 

trip, I was among 140 Jacksonvilleans impressed, many 

of them surprised, as a strong lineup of Jacksonville leaders 

outlined the many Downtown projects underway or 

in active planning. (See our Progress Report on page 14 

for a later update.) 

It’s happening, folks. 

The winds of change. 

We all have to continue to work together. It’s absolutely 

incredible what can happen when a community 

has that special collaboration of voices working in unison 

— from the mayor, to City Council, to JAX Chamber, 

to the Civic Council, the DIA and, most of all, to you, the 

citizens of Jacksonville. 

For our part, the T-U will continue to amp up the conversation 

about Downtown revitalization. Top-of-mind 

awareness, I believe, means everything, as it did when 

you approved extending the sales tax to fulfill pension 

obligations — by a whopping 65 percent of the votes. 

We’ll poll again next spring and ask the same 

questions about Downtown, and I believe those polling 

numbers will be much, much different. 

MARK NUSBAUM is president and publisher of 

The Florida Times-Union and T-U Media. He and his wife 

live in Jacksonville’s Riverside neighborhood. 


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7,411,273 

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«««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««««« 

DIGITS 

The total 

square feet of 

commercial 

office space 

in Downtown 

Jacksonville 

(of which 

only 15.4% is 

vacant). The 

average lease 

rate of $19.55 

per square 

foot is less 

than half the 

going rate in 

Miami. 

SOURCE: 

2016-2017 State 

of Downtown 

Jacksonville 

REPORT 

BRIEFING 

By The Florida Times-Union Editorial Board 

Thumbs Up: LaVilla is 

on the rise with new 

housing projects 

sprouting up along with 

JTA’s new regional 

transit center. 

Thumbs Up: The 

Jaguars are a 

Downtown centerpiece 

and regional asset. The 

team’s new winning ways 

have given the city’s 

residents a new energy. 

Thumbs Up and Down: 

A down thumb for the 

graffiti sprayed on 

the wall Downtown near 

the Duval Street parking 

garage. But an upraised 

thumb for the worker 

who began cleaning it 

up just 40 minutes after 

a Downtown visitor 

spotted it. 


ongoing 

revitalization 

of Hemming Park, 

the “front porch” of 

Downtown Jacksonville. 

According to stats 

compiled by the Friends 

of Hemming Park, 

violations for alcohol 

consumption and drug 

activity in the park have 

dramatically decreased 

since October 2016. 

HITS & MISSES 

Thumbs Down: Auto 

thefts and 

burglaries have 

been up Downtown, and 

the cause often is due to 

people leaving their cars 

unlocked. 

Thumbs Up: City 

government, 

nonprofits and 

many individuals 

helped their fellow 

residents after Hurricane 

Irma punched Jacksonville 

with severe wind and 

floods. 

Thumbs Up: Kudos for 

the public art that 

now adorns electrical 

boxes, bicycle racks and 

other previously dull 

items. 


Jacksonville 

Transportation 

Authority for 

continuing to be on 

budget and on schedule 

for completing Phase 

One of its Regional 

Transportation Center, 

which has a planned 

January opening. Phase 

One includes the new 

Greyhound bus terminal, 

a Megabus station and 

other amenities for outof-town 

transportation. 

FIRST PERSON 

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»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»» 

Thumbs Up: The fact is 

that most people 

who work in 

Downtown 

Jacksonville 

like it. According 

to Downtown Vision 

Inc.’s 2016-17 “State of 

Downtown Report,” 71 

percent of the people 

employed Downtown 

said they liked the core. 

Thumbs Down: 

The Florida 

Department of 

Transportation 

for poorly planning 

major roadwork on I-95 

to take place during the 

annual Georgia-Florida 

football weekend. 

Come on, FDOT, get an 

“Events in Jacksonville” 

schedule. 

Thumbs Down: 

An idea that’s been 

floated to have the 

city’s Downtown 

Ambassadors — the 

folks in distinctive 

orange shirts that you 

constantly see tidying up 

and greeting visitors in 

the city center — wear 

sponsorship logos as a 

way to monetize their 

visibility. Just say “No 

to the logos.” 

Leave that to NASCAR. 

“When other people would bail and walk away, 

(Laura Street Trio and Barnett Bank building developer 

Steve Atkins) found another way.” 

JIM BAILEY, DIA BOARD MEMBER (PAGE 22) 


J MAGAZINE’S 

PROGRESS REPORT 

DUVAL 

MONROE 

Monroe Lofts 

A 108–unit affordable-apartment 

project, approved by DIA and Downtown 

Development Review Board. 

STATUS: Construction started early, on Nov. 1, 

with completion planned for the end of 2018. 

Houston 

StREET 

Manor 

A seven-story, 

72-unit senior affordable 

housing project catty-corner 

from the Courthouse. 

STATUS: Under construction, 

with completion planned 

for late summer. 

HEMMING 

PARK 

BEAVER 

ASHLEY 

CHURCH 

BROOKLYN 

PARK 

FOREST 

OAK 

N 

LAVILLA 

PRIME OSBORN 

CONVENTION 

CENTER 

BROOKLYN 

PARK 

FORSYTH 

MAY 

OAK 

HOUSTON 

MAGNOLIA 

UNITY 

PLAZA 

JACKSON 

RIVERSIDE 

ADAMS 

RIVERSIDE AVE. 

MAY 

BAY 

WATER 

Burlock & Barrel Distillery 

The whiskey distillery and tasting room near Unity 

Plaza has its state and federal licenses and now 

Downtown Development Board approval. 

STATUS: Construction pending. 

MADISON 

JEFFERSON 

BROAD 

FULLER WARREN BRIDGE 

CLAY 

PEARL 

JULIA 

TRANSPORTATION CENTER 

The $57 million multi-modal hub will 

centralize local, regional and intercity 

transportation, including local bus, Skyway, 

regional bus and intercity bus and passenger rail service. 

STATUS: The Greyhound portion will be completed in 

2018, with the rest of the construction following. 

Lofts at LaVilla & 

JEFFERSON STATION 

The LaVilla I complex is poised 

to open, with full occupancy and 

FLORIDA 

a waiting list, but now there’s a planned second 

TIMES-UNION 

phase right next door, Jefferson Station, with 

132 units, 80 of them “affordable” and the rest 

“workforce.” 

STATUS: For Jefferson Station, developer Vestcor 

is seeking approval for tax credits, then for 

a city incentive, already approved by DIA. 

Vista Brooklyn 

A 10-story apartment tower with 

about 300 units, is planned as the 

next addition to the growing Brooklyn 

neighborhood on Riverside Avenue. 

STATUS: The DIA and DDRB completed their 

approvals, and the developers are seeking private 

financing for the approximately $63 million project. 

TIMES-UNION 

CENTER 

ACOSTA BRIDGE 

HOGAN 

LAURA 

JACKSONVILLE 

LANDING 

BOUTIQUE 

hOTEL 

Main Street LLC, 

developer of 

the parking building at Hogan 

and Independent Drive, is 

exercising an option to acquire 

the “Sister Cities” parcel next 

door, across from the Landing, 

probably for a 7-10-story 

hotel, with 100-150 rooms. 

STATUS: DIA is asking City 

Council to approve the transfer 

of the property, then the 

developer has 12 months to 

start construction. 

MAIN 

MAIN STREET 

BRIDGE 

FRIENDSHIP 

FOUNTAIN 

RIVERPLACE 

SAN MARCO BLVD. 

MARY 

OCEAN

NEWMAN 

FLAGLER 

SPRINGFIELD 

Laura Street Trio & 

Barnett Bank Building 

Renovation of the iconic buildings into 

residences, offices, a hotel and commercial/retail 

uses. Mayor Lenny Curry and DIA approved 

the $79 million project, with $9.8 million from the city. 

STATUS: Renovation of the Barnett building has 

begun! Work on the Trio should begin in the summer. 

MARKET 

NORTHBANK 

PRUDENTIAL DR. 

KIPP 

LIBERTY 

WASHINGTON 

SAN MARCO 

CATHERINE 

FSCJ student housing 

The project will have 20 apartments for 

58 students, and a café named 20West, 

part of the school’s culinary program. 

STATUS: 20West Cafe is to open the middle of February. 

The housing should be complete by April, with 

students moving in for the fall 2018 term. 

HENDRICKS 

BAY 

JACKSONVILLE 

LANDING 

The complex is a symbol 

of the failure of 

earlier attempts at revitalization. The 

city owns the land, but it has leased 

it long-term to Sleiman Enterprises, 

the operator, and they have long 

sparred over its future. 

STATUS: The city sent a letter 

alleging a breach of the lease by 

failing to operate as a first-class 

retail facility, and Sleiman responded 

by suing, blaming the city. 

KINGS 

ONYX 

SOUTHBANK 

MONTANA 

BROADCAST 

PALMETTO 

MEMORIAL 

ARENA 

ADAMS 

USS ADAMS 

The USS Charles F. 

Adams, a retired U. S. 

Navy guided-missile destroyer, 

will soon be anchored as a museum 

ship in the St. Johns, off Berkman 

Plaza (then ultimately off the Shipyards). 

STATUS: Hopefully in Philadelphia 

dry dock for repairs this month, then 

towed to Jacksonville by February. 

The San Marco apartments 

A four–story building with courtyards and parking garage, 

this $25 million development will have 143 units 

of workforce housing. 

STATUS: Both the DIA and the Downtown Development Review 

Board have cleared the project, which is now in credit underwriting. 

THE DORO 

DISTRICT 

Plans include a 

restaurant, bar 

and bowling and possibly a 

hotel or multifamily residential. 

STATUS: Approved by the 

Downtown Development Review 

Board and the DIA, and 

construction on the second 

building should start in 2018. 

A. PHILIP RANDOLPH 

ARLINGTON 

EXPRESSWAY 

BASEBALL 

GROUNDS 

SPORTS COMPLEX 

S T . J O H N S R I V E R 

BROADSTONE 

RIVER HOUSE 

This five- to-six-story 

structure will have 263 

apartments, with a parking structure. 

STATUS: The project should be 

finished by late summer. 

GEORGIA 

The Shipyards 

Shad Khan’s plan for 

mixed-use redevelopment 

of the old Shipyards 

and Metropolitan Park. Approved 

by the DIA. 

STATUS: Negotiations on details are 

ongoing, including resolving covenants 

from a half dozen old state and federal 

grants that affect use of some of the 

property. There have been pointed 

hints that the concept may expand to 

the north and east. 

EVERBANK 

FIELD 

METROPOLITAN 

PARK 

DOWNTOWN 

JACKSONVILLE 

FRANKLIN 

GATOR BOWL BLVD. 

DAILY’S 

PLACE 

The District 

Peter Rummell’s community 

concept will have up 

to 1,170 residences, 200 

hotel rooms, 285,500 square feet of 

commercial/retail and 200,000 square 

feet of office space, with a marina. 

STATUS: The redevelopment agreement 

is still being negotiated but The 

District took big steps when its marina 

was approved and its hotel was 

named as an AC Hotel by Marriott. 

TRACKING DEVELOPMENT IN THE URBAN CORE 


POWER 

RATING DOWNTOWN 

By The Florida Times-Union Editorial Board 

Downtown momentum building 

despite Hurricane Irma’s impact 

5 

8 

4 

3 

MIN 

MAX 

MIN 

MAX 

MIN 

MAX 

MIN 

MAX 

PUBLIC SAFETY 

LEADERSHIP 

HOUSING 

INVESTMENT 

Hemming Park is far safer with 

private security working with the 

JSO, and Downtown Vision Inc. 

is hiring more ambassadors. But 

until more people are Downtown 

consistently, public misperceptions 

about safety will continue. 

Mayor Curry continues his 

activist leadership to help 

Cowford Chophouse and call the 

question on the Landing. The JAX 

Chamber leadership trip took 

140 civic leaders to learn about 

Toronto’s booming downtown. 

More projects are arising 

in LaVilla, Brooklyn and San 

Marco, but we also need to 

complete projects in the heart, 

like the Barnett Bank building 

and FSCJ’s Adams Street 

student housing. 

City Council is supporting the 

DIA’s requests for tax incentives 

for new developments. Mayor 

Curry insists plenty of big-buck 

investors are itching to jump 

into Downtown projects — 

and now is the time. 

PREVIOUS: 4 

PREVIOUS: 8 

PREVIOUS: 4 

PREVIOUS: 4 

3 

5 

3 

2 

MIN 

MAX 

MIN 

MAX 

MIN 

MAX 

MIN 

MAX 

DEVELOPMENT 

EVENTS & CULTURE 

TRANSPORTATION 

CONVENTION CENTER 

Cowford is open and drawing 

raves. Barnett and Trio work 

has begun. But the city needs 

to get some of its dormant 

property into the hands of 

private investors and on the 

tax rolls. 

PREVIOUS: 4 

More and more eye-catching 

public art — from paintings 

to sculptures — is popping 

up all across Downtown and 

brightening up the city center. 

See our story on page 54. 

PREVIOUS: 5 

Phase One of the Regional 

Transportation Center, with its 

new bus stations, should open 

in January. But when will the city 

finally start doing something 

about the infernal two-way 

streets Downtown? 

PREVIOUS: 3 

Maybe there’s action behind 

the scenes, but odds are there 

likely will be no real movement 

until pending projects create 

a revitalized Downtown 

environment to support a 

new convention center. 

PREVIOUS: 2 

OVERALL RATING 

Since our last ratings, Hurricane Irma flooding and winds 

bashed Downtown, wreaking havoc on the Riverwalk 

and areas of San Marco and closing some businesses, 

mostly temporarily. But it hasn’t dramatically slowed the 

intensifying momentum to revive and enhance Downtown. 

PREVIOUS: 4 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 

JEFF DAVIS 

16 


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THE END OF 

Red Tape 

BY MARILYN YOUNG 

ILLUSTRATION BY RETRO ROCKET 

FOR J MAGAZINE 

18 J MAGAZINE | WINTER 2017-18

For developers, bureaucracy is the bane of 

their existence. A nightmarish 

quicksand swallowing dreams, 

money and projects along 

the way. As Downtown 

Jacksonville begins to 

rise, the red tape is gone 

and an era of fostering 

growth in the urban core 

is well under way. 

Developers wanting to open a business in Downtown 

Jacksonville have a much smoother road 

now than in years past. 

The red tape that many believed had a 

stranglehold on Downtown development 

appears to be no longer, many believe. Including 

those whose projects are helping 

lead the reincarnation of the urban core. 

Developers of the Cowford Chophouse, 

The District, Lofts at LaVilla and the Barnett 

building/Laura Street Trio projects 

praised the collaborative and proactive approach 

of the Downtown Investment Authority, 

which helped usher them through 

the regulatory process. 

From start to finish, from concept to approval. 

Aundra Wallace, DIA’s CEO since August 

2013, believes there was a perception 

that it was more difficult to do business in 

the urban core than in the suburbs. 

In order to change that belief, he knew 

developers needed clarity. Wallace made it 

simple: 

If you want to take on an urban core project, 

start with the DIA. 


“You used to hear about things that 

were going to happen, now you’re 

actually seeing things happen.” 

Steve Moore, president of The Vestcor Companies 

If you want allocation of development rights, start with the 

DIA. 

If you need to go through a design review process, start 

with the DIA. 

If you need to work with other agencies, such as the city’s historic 

preservation department, the DIA will assist you. 

Not to interfere with the process, Wallace said, but to let the 

agency know the project is one the DIA wants to potentially see 

move forward. 

That approach has helped write a new story for Downtown, 

adding multimillion-dollar projects from Brooklyn to LaVilla to 

the core to the Sports Complex. 

“You used to hear about things that were going to happen,” 

said Steve Moore, president of The Vestcor Companies, which is 

developing the Lofts at LaVilla and the Lofts on Monroe. “Now 

you’re actually seeing things happen.” 

Review workshops making a difference 

The Downtown Development Review Board used to be considered 

a necessary evil. A place where projects would be picked 

apart at public meetings, with developers having to return more 

than once to get through the convoluted process. 

Now, especially on larger projects, there’s likely to be a workshop 

before a project is heard by the DDRB. A productive meeting 

of the minds to answer questions and hammer out concerns. 

That process worked well for Vestcor, Moore said. 

“We walked through potential issues, worked through all 

those, and by the time it got to the board, it had already been reviewed 

and vetted,” he said. 

There were minimal comments at the board meeting, and although 

the company had to return a second time to address a 

couple of issues, it was a quick approval, Moore said. 

Moore said the DIA and DDRB are committed to maintaining 

standards, but have “a mindset of getting through the process 

and not just beating things to death and slowing development.” 

Vestcor is a substantial investor in Downtown. The Lofts at 

LaVilla and Lofts on Monroe are approximately $23 million and 

$20.5 million projects, respectively. The public incentives included 

loans totaling $1.19 million and the use of tax credit programs. 

The company is pursuing a second phase of the Lofts of LaVilla, 

called Lofts at Jefferson Station. 

Vestcor also owns 11 East Forsyth and The Carling apartment 

buildings. 

Michael Munz, a partner in The District on the Southbank, 

also praised the DIA for its supportive approach to the project, 

which will be $450 million to $500 million at total build-out. 

He said the authority’s staff began providing feedback and 

guidance early in the master-planning process. “If we needed to 

make a change, we knew early during the process and not just at 

the end of the road,” he said. 

That was critical in this case because the project is a first 

for Downtown, Munz said. 

“It is a complicated piece of dirt to develop,” he said. “Everyone 

at the table worked hard to find solutions that would work 

while living within the confines of the regulatory guidelines that 

the city has in place.” 

Despite the fact the process took a year, Munz believes it saved 

time and money and “plowed new ground for the next big project. 

“Being both responsive and coming to the table with a problem-solving 

attitude has been a great shift under the leadership 

we have in place today,” he added. 

The District developers aren’t seeking public incentives for 

vertical construction, Munz said, but there have been discussions 

about public improvements to the Riverwalk or other public 

aspects. 

Redevelopment Coordinator Jim Klement, who began working 

with DDRB in 2006, said a positive aspect of the DDRB is the 

makeup of the board, whose members include business owners, 

architects and those with urban-planning backgrounds. 

“They have these same challenges when they’re working on 

a site themselves, whether it be outside of the city or in different 

areas,” he said. 

issues with outside agencies 

The renovation of the Cowford Chophouse was a unique 

process, one where crews literally took the crumbling historic 

building apart and put it back together again. 

From the outside, the deterioration to the former Guaranty 

Bank & Trust building at Bay and Ocean streets was obvious. 

But there were hidden issues, as well, including the fact that the 

southeast corner had moved four-and-a-half inches. 

“There were numerous times during the demolition where 

we almost lost a big part of this building,” said Jacques Klempf, 

co-founder and partner of Forking Amazing Restaurants. 

Klempf bought the building in 2014 at a tax auction for 

$165,100. Three years and nearly $10 million later, the Cowford 

Chophouse opened in October. It was the first renovation project 

overseen by the DIA. 

Getting through the approval, permitting and regulatory 

steps for a project like this was a complicated and meticulous 

process. 

It included a yearlong effort to receive City Council approval 

for a $500,000 grant from the Downtown Historic Revitalization 

Trust Fund. The project also was awarded a $250,000 loan from 

the Downtown Economic Development Trust Fund, an economic 

tool of the DIA. 

Alex Klempf, director of development for Forking Amazing 

Restaurants, said the team attended at least nine meetings to 

discuss the certificates of appropriateness required for exterior 

work on historic buildings. Topics included the brick work, 

cornice, doors, windows, roof top and signage. The certificates 


“(Mayor Lenny Curry) instilled that 

business-friendly environment, 

so therefore, it trickles down.” 

Aundra Wallace, CEO of Downtown Investment Authority 

were necessary before permits could be issued or the grant 

could be awarded. 

She said the DIA was helpful in the process, as was City Planner 

Lisa Sheppard and the historic preservation staff. 

While that process was positive, others were frustrating, particularly 

when dealing with the Florida Department of Transportation, 

the Klempfs said. 

They had to get a couple of permits from the department to 

do work in the right of way on Ocean Street, which is a state road. 

It took about six months to get the full permit for the site work, 

Alex Klempf said. 

Then things got worse. 

The day before the restaurant was scheduled to open on the 

Thursday of the Florida-Georgia weekend, a DOT employee 

shut down asphalt work being done on Ocean Street. 

“She flashed the badge and said she was going to call the Florida 

Highway Patrol if we didn’t demobilize and quit doing what 

we were doing,” Jacques Klempf said. 

Ultimately, Mayor Lenny Curry’s office called Tallahassee officials, 

and the work got back on track. 

“They basically told us, you go ahead and proceed. We’ve 

got your back here, and we’ll make sure you get open,” Jacques 

Klempf said. 

Curry’s office also stepped in when there was an issue with 

JEA about whether the utility’s underground equipment posed a 

risk to the Chophouse building, the Times-Union reported. The 

problem was a communication issue, Jacques Klempf said. 

“As soon as we sat down and we all figured it out, they responded 

to our requests within 12 hours,” Alex Klempf added. 

The DIA also was helpful to the Klempfs when it came to basic, 

but critical, issues such as how trash pickup is handled Downtown 

and by helping the restaurant work out parking options. 

“We are there with projects every step of the way,” Wallace 

said. 

Saving time, saving money 

The development boom underway in Downtown had to have 

been the goal when the Northbank Redevelopment Task Force 

was formed in 2010 to examine the stagnant urban core. 

The group was the result of former Mayor John Peyton and the 

Jacksonville Civic Council agreeing the deterioration of Downtown 

was “a matter of urgent civic priority” that needed to be 

addressed. 

One of the task force’s ideas in its 2011 report was to create an 

agency dedicated to redeveloping and reinvigorating the urban 

core. 

The city once had a Downtown Development Authority, 

which was abolished in 2005 and its duties absorbed by the 

Jacksonville Economic Development Commission. That left the 

urban core without an agency whose sole mission would be to 

champion Downtown. And that lack of attention became painfully 

obvious over the years. 

The report said one of the new agency’s responsibilities would 

be to offer clarity — the same clarity Wallace is now focusing on 

providing. 

Ultimately, former Mayor Alvin Brown created the Downtown 

Investment Authority in 2012. Wallace was hired the next year 

and quickly earned the trust of political and business leaders. 

Wallace’s push for the DIA to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with 

developers through the process has proven effective and is appreciated. 

“Aundra and I have been engaged on this project from almost 

the first day that he got into town,” said Steve Atkins, who 

is developing the Barnett building and Laura Street Trio with The 

Molasky Group of Companies at a cost of $104 million. “It’s been 

a long effort and I’m very appreciative of all the hard work that 

Aundra has put into it. 

“It’s a win for Aundra,” Atkins said, “just as it is for us.” 

Another win comes through Wallace’s working relationship 

with Curry’s staff. 

“That is the epitome of everything,” Wallace said. “The mayor 

says he wants a business-friendly environment, and it starts with 

him. And he’s instilled that business-friendly environment, so 

therefore, it trickles down.” 

Because of that open-door policy, Wallace doesn’t hesitate to 

call Curry’s team, particularly Chief Administrative Officer Sam 

Mousa. 

“He’s a morning guy. I’m the late guy. But either way it goes, 

he’s available for the question and to provide guidance, if needed,” 

he said. 

Wallace looks for ways to streamline the process, to save time 

along the way. And saving time, he said, is saving money. 

If developers do what the DIA asks, Wallace said a project can 

make it through the DDRB process within 120 days, perhaps 90. 

He would like to be able to save time in other areas, too, including 

having a more automated system where developers can 

file plans and other documents online. 

It would allow the authority to begin writing reports when the 

documents are filed instead of having to wait 24-48 hours for the 

applicant to make copies and bring them to the DIA’s office at 

City Hall. 

Wallace was among the officials who went to Toronto in November 

on the annual JAX Chamber leadership trip. He came 

back feeling pretty good about the DIA’s proficiency. 

“I listened to a major international city talk about their whole 

entitlement process, etc., and was floored with how long it took 

them to get things done,” he said. 

How would he compare it to Jacksonville’s? 

“We’re easily 365 days less,” Wallace said. “Easily. Easily.” 

Marilyn Young was an editor at The Florida Times-Union in 

1998-2013 and was editor of the Financial News & Daily Record 

in Downtown in 2013-2017. 


GROUND ZERO 

Steve Atkins, principal and managing 

director of SouthEast Group, looks 

out the giant arched windows on 

the first floor of the Barnett Bank 

Building at the southwest corner of 

Adams and Laura streets. 


UNDAUNTED 

With plans back on track to transform Downtown’s 

iconic Barnett Bank and Laura Street Trio buildings, 

Steve Atkins is ready to prove the naysayers wrong 

By Marilyn Young/For J Magazine Photograph by Bob Self/J Magazine 


There Steve Atkins stood. 

Surrounded by decades of trash that had accumulated in the 

crumbling historic buildings along a key Downtown Jacksonville 

corridor. 

In some places, it was waist deep. Particularly in the former Barnett 

National Bank building where a previous developer had cut 

holes in the floors to create a makeshift chute to dump the debris 

down instead of carrying it to the ground level of the 18-story structure. 

Most would have seen only what it was at that moment — a guy 

standing in the middle of a heap of trash. 

He would need the perfect partner for that, many said. Someone 

not just with the financial wherewithal but extensive development 

experience. 

Atkins knew those doubts were there. 

He would have had to have been deaf to not hear the not-so-quiet 

whispers of all the reasons he’d never succeed. Especially when they 

grew louder and more frequent as the project stalled over the span 

of three mayoral administrations. 

They quieted some when he got some financial help from Jacksonville 

Jaguars owner Shad Khan, whose commitment to Downtown 

revitalization is well-known. But 

when the ill-fated collaboration ended 

up in a legal battle, the doubts returned 

with a vengeance. 

Through it all, though, Atkins never 

gave up. Never even thought about 

walking away, he said, even when Angela, 

his wife of 16 years, told him the intense 

stress of it all “wasn’t worth dying 

over.” 

Of course, Atkins knew that, but he 

wouldn’t walk away. He couldn’t. 

This was his chance to help rebuild 

the Downtown his family used to shop in 

when he was a boy. His chance to be involved 

in the dawn of a new resurgence 

for the urban core. 

And his chance to do it in his hometown, 

despite the army of those who 

didn’t believe he could. 

Atkins saw it differently. The self-proclaimed “sticks and bricks 

guy” envisioned the Barnett building and Laura Street Trio as they 

would look after being restored. Century-old structures that would 

serve as the catalyst for another century’s urban core revitalization. 

Soon Atkins found himself surrounded again. 

This time by a growing mountain of doubts that he had the horsepower 

and expertise to pull off the massive project. And they persisted 

for years. 

Urban revitalization of historic buildings was not in his bailiwick, 

some said. Neither was the creative vision the project would require 

in a Downtown that badly needed an infusion of success. 

And then there was the funding issue. Atkins would never be able 

to secure financing for the project, which started at $70 million when 

he first pitched it in 2010 and grew to $104 million in its final iteration. 

Ready to take on 

urban development 

Atkins’ path to a career in real estate 

was determined early. His parents were 

brokers, and he got his real estate license 

at age 18. His interest in design and 

construction led him to start the Atkins 

Group. 

The company fell into the niche of 

building specialty medical facilities, including surgical centers. A 

strong market and economy helped Atkins amass an eight-figure 

portfolio by 2005. Three years later, the market crashed and swallowed 

up 30 percent of it. 

At that point, Atkins told himself, “OK, if I’m going to stay in this 

business, I’m going to focus on what really interests me.” 

And that was urban development. 

His first attempt at a major Downtown project was in 2005. He 

wanted to buy the old Haydon Burns Library for $5 million and demolish 

it to make way for a high-rise condominium building, a movie 

theater, retail and restaurants. 

The morning he made his first pitch to the city, his wife was in labor 

with their son. He did make it to the hospital before Joe was born. 

Failed negotiations with the city killed the library deal, accord- 

An artist’s rendering of a 

redeveloped Laura Street Trio. 

SOUTHEAST GROUP 


SOUTHEAST GROUP 

ing to The Florida Times-Union. 

Ultimately, the Jessie Ball duPont Fund bought the building in 

2013 for $2.2 million and spent $25 million to open a center for nonprofits 

in the summer of 2015. Atkins called it the “perfect fit” for the 

building. 

He said his first inquiry into the Barnett building and Laura Street 

Trio came in 2009 when some of the brokers handling the structures 

told him, “Hey, this might be the project you are looking for.” 

Atkins agreed. He was born and raised here, went to school here 

and was raising his children here. 

“Somebody needed to do it,” he said. “And I thought, ‘Well, why 

not me?’” 

Soon, a host of critics began voicing their concerns on why it 

couldn’t be him. 

Working with three 

mayoral administrations 

The first public pitch came in 2010 with a partnership between Atkins’ 

Linea LLC of Jacksonville and Capital City Partners of Jacksonville 

for a $70 million project. 

Many of the elements pitched then remain today: a hotel, residences, 

restaurants and retail. That’s because Atkins said he planned the 

programming around what would work most efficiently in the historic 

buildings versus making them fit specific businesses. Select the major 

tenants first, he said, and the smaller pieces kind of fall into place. 

Even in 2010, Atkins knew it would be critical for the development 

to reactivate the core and create a 24-hour node of activity. “Nothing 

does that better than a hotel,” he said. 

The Laura Street Trio will include a Courtyard by Marriott that will 

be designed to fit the historic buildings. 

“It allows you to create a boutique-style hotel with all the bells and 

whistles of the Marriott flag,” he said. 

Atkins said his plan had the support of the three mayors to whom 

he pitched it. But, for years, timing wasn’t on his side. 

The first proposal came near the end of former Mayor John Peyton’s 

eight years in office, but also during a tough economy. 

The plan resurfaced early in former Mayor Alvin Brown’s four 

years, which were hampered by the recession’s slow recovery and the 

growing pension debt that had a stranglehold on the city’s budget. 

Then again in 2015 to Mayor Lenny Curry, who had made it clear 

that fixing the pension crisis was his No. 1 priority. 

Despite those delays, Atkins continued to work on the project, including 

accepting a $3 million loan from Khan’s investment firm in 

April 2013. Many saw the infusion of capital as a much-needed step 

for Atkins to finally make the project work. 

Jim Bailey, one of the original DIA board members since 2012, said 

he thought Khan would either assist Atkins or help the developer find 

an exit strategy, then take on the project himself. 

He said Khan’s intentions “were as good as Steve’s,” but the relationship 

between the two never “jelled and came together.” 

Two years after the loan, the Jaguars owner filed a foreclosure 

lawsuit against Barnett Tower LLC that said no payments had been 

made. In July 2016, a judge ruled Khan’s Stache Investments Corp. 

was owed $4.6 million. 

Atkins wouldn’t discuss specifics about Khan’s loan. 

“What I’ll say is … the whole process was an unconventional 

means to an end. … It was a process that we had to go through to get 

to where we are today,” Atkins said in November. 

Many saw it as another setback for Atkins. Another failed attempt 

to move forward. 

Few realized that in the midst of the lawsuit drama, Atkins had 

found the financial partner he needed. And his dream project was 

closer to being a reality. 

Staying the course 

in uncertain times 

At first glance, the partnership of Atkins’ SouthEast Group and The 

Molasky Group of Companies is not an obvious one. 

An artist’s rendering of a 

redeveloped Barnett Building. 

Most of Molasky’s projects are large-scale, Atkins said, including a 

substantial amount of work for the federal government. He said the 

Las Vegas-based company is one of the principal owners of the building 

that houses the Veterans Administration Center in Jacksonville. 


But Molasky was interested in a historic-preservation project and 

could provide the investment capital that Atkins needed. He and Molasky 

Chief Financial Officer Brad Sher met in 2015 through mutual 

industry contacts, and the two hit it off. 

“It was a great marriage … of a local group with expertise with a 

large group that was from out of town that could help bridge some of 

that financial divide,” Atkins said. 

INSIDE STEVE ATKINS’ 

DOWNTOWN PROJECTS 

Barnett National 

Bank building 

About the building: 18 

stories built in 1926 

Total project cost: $46 

million 

Expected time to complete: 

14 months 

Taxpayer incentives: $4 

million grant from the city to be 

paid upon the release of the final 

certificate of occupancy. 

Highlights: 

n Two floors of banking and retail. 

Developer Steve Atkins wouldn’t 

identify the bank, but JP Morgan 

Chase Bank was listed as a tenant 

in Downtown Investment Authority 

paperwork, according to The Florida 

Times-Union. 

n 36,000 square feet of office 

space on five floors. The University 

of North Florida is negotiating to 

lease the fourth floor for its Center 

for Entrepreneurship and the fifth 

floor for classrooms for the Coggin 

College of Business’ MBA and Master 

of Science in Management graduate 

programs, as well as possibly programs 

in other UNF academic colleges. 

n 108 apartments, with rents ranging 

from $750 to $1,350, on 11 floors. 

LAURA STREET TRIO 

Comprised of: 

n Marble Bank Building (two stories) 

n Bisbee Building (10 stories) 

n Florida Life (12 stories) 

Total project cost: $45 million 

Expected time to complete: 20 to 22 

months 

Taxpayer incentives: $4 million grant from the 

city to be paid upon the release of the final certificate 

of occupancy and $1.8 million Recaptured Enhanced 

Value grant that is a rebate of 50 percent of the ad 

valorem taxes generated by the completed project for 

20 years. 

Highlights: 

n 145-room boutique Courtyard by Marriott in the 

Bisbee and Florida Life buildings. 

n The Bullbriar restaurant by 20 South chef Scott 

Schwartz in the Marble Bank Building. 

n Bodega grocery store operated by a former Winn- 

Dixie executive. 

n Constructing addition to Florida Life Building that 

will increase the 2,000-square-foot floor plates to 

about 7,000 square feet. 

n Rooftop bar. 

PARKING GARAGE 

Expected time to complete: End of 2018 

Total project cost: $13 million 

Highlights: 

n The developers will build a 550-space structure at 

Forsyth and Main street. For 20 years, the DIA will 

make annual master lease payments of $660,000. The 

developer will then lease 250 spaces for 20 years for 

an estimated cost of $300,000. The DIA will lease the 

rest of the spaces to other customers. 

n 5,500 square feet of retail space. 

He and his SouthEast partner, Andrew Ham, had already established 

a Community Development Entity that was certified in 2013. 

Since then, Atkins said, it has quietly secured $36 million in federal tax 

credits being capitalized as equity invested in various projects, including 

the Downtown venture. 

Molasky was the partner Aundra Wallace felt Atkins needed for 

the project to work. From the first day Wallace started as CEO of the 

DIA in August 2013, he was adamant that any city 

funding for the project would not be at-risk. 

The $9.8 million in public incentives won’t be 

paid until the work is finished, which Atkins understands. 

“The city had already been at risk with the previous 

developer,” Wallace said of Cameron Kuhn. 

The flashy Orlando developer made a grand entrance 

into Jacksonville via helicopter, ultimately 

buying several buildings, including the Barnett 

building and the Laura Street Trio. Eventually, reality 

replaced his bloated promises, and the buildings 

fell into foreclosure. 

Molasky, though, brought a reputation of success 

and credibility along with the financial means 

to pull off the Downtown project. 

“That’s what I give Steve credit for. He brought 

Molasky in,” Wallace said. 

Bailey called the Las Vegas company “the perfect 

match” to partner with Atkins, whom he initially 

thought “was in over his head for a development 

like this.” 

Seeing Atkins go through the many starts-andstops 

over the years was “hard to watch,” Bailey 

said. 

“It looked like it was going to fall apart numerous 

times. When other people would bail and walk 

away, Steve found another way. He kept coming 

back,” said Bailey, a Downtown businessman for 

more than four decades. 

“He always found light around every corner,” 

Bailey said. “It might not have been much, but 

he’d grab it and go.” 

Even the optimistic Atkins admitted he had 

down times. “I mean, there were days when I 

thought people might be right. Maybe this isn’t 

going to work,” Atkins said. 

But nothing is dead unless you allow it to die, 

he said, and Atkins was committed to keeping the 

project alive. 

Finally, Atkins made it to the final leg in his 

years-long quest, one he wanted to share with his 

biggest supporters. 

A big idea person 

with patience 

Getting to the City Council vote in June wasn’t a 

long process for just Atkins but his family, as well. 

For years, his wife, Angela, had heard rumblings 

about the project’s delays from coworkers 

and acquaintances. People saying, “This is taking 

too long or whatever,” she recalled. 

But those remarks didn’t concern her. She 

knows her husband — a man she called a “big 

FLORIDA TIMES-UNION (2) 


Formed to revitalize and preserve downtown property values 

and prevent deterioration in the downtown business district. 

The Downtown Investment Authority was created to revitalize 

Downtown Jacksonville by utilizing Community Redevelopment 

Area resources to spur economic development. The Downtown 

Investment Authority is the governing body for the Downtown 

Community Redevelopment Areas established by the City 

Council of Jacksonville. The DIA offers a variety of incentives for 

businesses to locate Downtown, including expedited permitting 

and economic development incentives.

STEVE ATKINS 

Principal and managing director of SouthEast Group 

Age: 49 

Hometown: Jacksonville 

Family: Wife, Angela, and two 

children, Grace, 15, and Joe, 12 

Companies: SouthEast 

Development Group LLC, SouthEast 

Holdings LP and SouthEast 

Community Investment Fund LLC. 

Acquired Dav-Lin Construction Co. 

in 2010. Founded Atkins Group Inc. 

in 1997 

Previous projects include: 

Baptist Health Care, St. Vincent’s 

HealthCare, North Florida Surgeons, 

U.S Bank, Engle Homes USA, SunTrust 

Bank, Fields Famous Brands, Solantic 

Urgent Care and City of Jacksonville 

Other projects underway: 

Three, which he wouldn’t disclose 

Most important lesson 

learned in business: Patience 

idea” person — is very patient. “He waits for 

things that matter most,” she said. 

That included waiting for her. The two 

met when she was a waitress at a Chili’s near 

his office. Each time he came in, he asked to 

sit in her section. She was oblivious to why 

he was doing that, she recalls with a laugh. 

Angela was 18 and in college. He was 

seven years older. When Atkins asked her 

out, her father wouldn’t let her date an older 

man. She wrote her phone number on a 

check, which she said he kept. 

After leaving the restaurant and graduating 

from college, she thought about Atkins, 

got his number and asked him to lunch. 

Seven months later, they got married, she 

said, and a year after that, they had their 

daughter, Grace, who is now 15. 

While so many people have said Molasky 

is the right partner for Atkins, his wife sees it 

differently. 

“My view is Steve is the right partner for 

them. They are fortunate to have him,” she 

said. “They’re nice folks, too. Nice folks doing 

good work with other nice folks. That’s 

good.” 

Angela remembers telling her husband 

the project was not worth dying over. That 

the work would not define him or their family. 

“It will be definitive of our city but not 

definitive of him,” said Angela, a bereavement 

counselor at Community Hospice of 

Northeast Florida and an adjunct professor 

at Jacksonville University. 

At the June 27 council meeting, there 

was no discussion about the long-debated 

project before the incentives were approved 

16-0. But then-council President Lori Boyer 

didn’t let it go by completely unnoticed. 

“Congratulations. This one has been a 

very long time coming and is an important 

step forward for our city,” Boyer said. 

“Amen,” added council member Jim 

Love. 

Atkins was joined at the meeting by his 

wife, their children and his parents. Afterward, 

they celebrated by having dinner at 

The Candy Apple Café + Cocktails, across 

the street from City Hall. 

There Atkins sat, surrounded by the people 

who never doubted him. 

Marilyn Young was an editor at The Florida 

Times-Union in 1998-2013 and was editor of the 

Financial News & Daily Record in Downtown in 

2013-2017. 

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121 Financial 

ruce Fafard, president and CEO of 121 

B Financial, is relatively new to Jacksonville. 

But he was immediately made aware of 

how friendly and welcoming the city can be. 

“In 2015, when I came to 

Jacksonville from the Northeast, 

I was warmly welcomed 

and embraced by the business 

community,” he said. “That is 

one of the strengths we have here that speaks volumes 

to our character as a city.” 

Fafard brings his perspective and experiences to 

Jacksonville from other cities he has lived in or visited 

regularly, and they have helped to form his vision of a 

vigorous, alive Downtown. 

“A vibrant core is critical for the overall success 

of a city,” he said. “Here, Downtown is a destination 

for the arts; there are museums, the Florida 

Theatre, but it must not be only a destination. But 

also a place for residents to live and walk about and 

J PARTNER PROFILE 

By Barbara Gavan 

Credit union president and CEO says Downtown 

is ‘critical for the overall success’ of Jacksonville 

interact with each other on a day-to-day, hour-tohour 

basis. Plans for the riverfront are amazing; the 

recent renovation of historical buildings is wonderful. 

History is important to a city’s legacy, but 

shouldn’t stand in the way of 

future development. The way 

that history and revitalization 

are being brought together in 

projects like Cowford Chophouse 

is the perfect blend of the two.” 

Fafard also is excited about new housing in 

Downtown, especially having residences for a mix of 

income levels, and expects that to bring more merchants 

and retail downtown. 

“As a newcomer, I see a city on the edge of something 

new and very exciting,” he said. “Jacksonville 

has so many possibilities that we need to leverage 

and bring forward. Things are beginning to move in 

the right direction. We have the momentum; we just 

have to sustain it into the future.” 

QUICK 

TAKES 

THE FACE 

OF A CITY 

“Downtown is the 

face of Jacksonville. 

When people visit 

the city, we need a 

vibrant Downtown 

to remind them of 

just how diverse 

and how strong 

this community is. 

We must ensure 

that Downtown is 

representative of 

who we are.” 

FITTING INTO 

THE VISION 

“As part of 

121 Financial’s 

commitment to 

Downtown, we 

have relocated 

our headquarters 

to Brooklyn and 

maintain a branch 

office on West 

Adams Street. 

We should be 

available not only 

to businesses, but 

to the financially 

underserved as well. 

Accommodating 

everyone — that 

is the key to our 

overall strategy.” 

CELEBRATING 

DIVERSITY 

“We need to 

remember that, 

while we’re all one 

community, what 

makes Jacksonville 

so exciting is 

all our different 

neighborhoods, 

these various 

pockets of humanity 

that make us who 

we are — and we 

should celebrate 

that, we must 

celebrate that.” 

WILL DICKEY 

30 


Why can’t financial institutions be 

as unique and personal as you are? 

Why can’t they care as much about 

making our community better as 

they do about making a profit? 

They can. At Jacksonville’s 

member-owned, not-for-profit 

121 Financial Credit Union, 

we are about you, because 

we are you and you are us. 

9700 Touchton Rd. | 9730 Hutchinson Park Dr. | 1500 Beach Blvd., Suite 218 

501 W. Adams Street, Suite 1224 | 300 W. Adams Street 

12250 San Jose Blvd. | 1714 Blanding Blvd. | 14023 Revell Dr. 

6072 Youngerman Circle | 655 W. 8th Street | 8101 Normandy Blvd. 

www.121fcu.org | 904.723.6300 or 800.342.2352 

Federally insured by NCUA.

Fantasy 

The 

Fabricators 

WITH A GLOBAL REPUTATION SPANNING 

FOUR DECADES, DOWNTOWN JACKSONVILLE’S 

SALLY CORPORATION IS ARGUABLY ONE OF 

THE MOST FASCINATING BUSINESSES IN THE WORLD 


PHOTOGRAPHS BY WILL DICKEY 

J MAGAZINE 


Surrounded by 

a roomful of 

animatronic faces, 

Sally Corporation 

Chairman and 

CEO John Wood 

sits in a lab at the 

company’s offices 

in Downtown 

Jacksonville. 


Sally Corporation Art Department Supervisor Luda Budnik carefully works on a face for an animatronic character to be featured in a new attraction. 

Imagination 

is a powerful resource. And when it’s 

combined with business acumen, the 

results can be commercial magic. 

At least that’s the potent formula 

behind what may be Jacksonville’s most 

intriguing company — a corporation 

that relies upon its employees’ inventive 

powers to manufacture a world that is, 

quite realistically, out of this world. 

Just step inside the front door of the 

company’s Forsyth Street studio, and 

take a look around. 

Yes, there’s an actual receptionist 

seated behind the large curved desk in 

the foyer! But immediately to her left is 

the real greeter, an animatronic figure 

known only as the Director. 

As the carefully coiffed character 

introduces you to the world of Sally, his 

eyes rove over the crowd. His animatronic 

bits and parts may be 10 years 

old, but his realistic glance can still send 

shivers up a spine. 

So begins a journey of discovery into 

the depths of a corporation that since 

1977 has been quietly building animatronic 

creatures and amusement-park 

rides in Jacksonville, for the past 15 

years in its Forsyth Street studio. 

Although Sally Corp. exists mainly 

under the radar in Downtown Jacksonville, 

within the entertainment industry 

the company is anything but low-key. 


Just ask someone in management at 

amusement parks such as Six Flags or Universal 

Studios or LEGOLAND, and chances 

are they’ve heard of this Jacksonville-based 

company. It’s the largest producer of dark 

rides for the regional theme park market. 

The company has built scores of 

award-winning dark rides, which take people 

on motorized trips along a themed journey 

— think the “Pirates of the Caribbean” 

ride at Disney — for theme parks and other 

places around the world. 

In fact, the company recently opened 

the latest of its “JUSTICE LEAGUE: Battle 

for Metropolis” 4-D interactive dark rides 

at Six Flags parks in California, Georgia and 

New Jersey. 

But parks aren’t its only customers. It’s 

now planning a history-themed dark ride 

and animatronic greeter for a distillery in 

Peru that produces pisco, an amber-colored 

brandy created from Peruvian and Chilean 

grapes. 

You don’t need to travel to Peru or even 

Atlanta, however, to sample Sally’s wares. It 

offers free tours Tuesdays and Thursdays, 

and reservations can be made via its website 

or by calling the company. 

A push through the doors that separate 

the foyer and its Director from the inner 

workings of Sally brings visitors immediately 

into a space where Scooby Doo helps 

Shaggy vanquish evil and the Joker shoots 

green rings of smog from a giant cannon. 

Here, molded heads of humans and assorted 

creatures sit on shelves waiting to 

have hair threaded through their plastic 

skulls and wrinkles inserted. Artists spray 

black-light paint onto sets for eventual display. 

The head of an Inca warrior talks and 

blinks its eyes at a station where its animatronic 

guts are tested for reliability. A mammoth 

and talkative black bear motions visitors 

closer and a transparent robot allows 

visitors to glimpse the wires and electrodes 

that govern its motion. 

Things may drop from the ceiling. Figures 

may pop out from behind walls. Lights 

TOP: Drew Hunter, vice president of creative 

design at Sally Corporation, shows the mask and 

model train car of his fictional character Dr. Blood. 

MIDDLE: An animatronic Joker featured in 

the Battle for Metropolis attraction at Six Flags 

amusement parks is on display at Sally Corporation. 

BOTTOM: Sally Corporation Scenic Supervisor Ric 

Hostetter paints ghosts for a dark ride attraction 

that will go to Sweden,

“It’s a great place to work, 

especially if you like being a big kid.” 

Ric Hostetter, scenic supervisor AT SALLY CORPORATION 

may flash as visitors walk past. Interactive 

guns beg to be picked up for target shooting. 

But the biggest, most scream-inducing 

creature appears midway through the tour. 

This Sally monster-in-residence is Tyrannosaurus 

rex, probably the company’s 

Shelves full of faces for animatronic characters line a lab at Sally Corporation. 

most often produced character, which rises 

growling out of a gigantic crate to terrorize 

anyone who dares walk past. 

This animatronic figure no longer elicits 

yelps from Lauren Wood Weaver, the marketing 

director for Sally and the daughter of 

its CEO, but it once did. 

She remembers with fondness her 16th 

birthday party, held at Sally, in which the T 

rex figured prominently. 

“Best birthday party ever,” Wood Weaver 

remembers. “It produced some screams 

when it popped up and left lasting memories.” 

For its visitors, a trip through Sally is one 

part delightful and one part enchanting. 

For its 45 employees, SallyLand is the 

stuff of childhood dreams. 

“To me, it’s very much like a Lego set,” 

says Bill Kivi, who works in the company’s 

design department. On that day he 

was creating a character on his computer 

screen. 

In another part of the gigantic studio, 

Scenic Supervisor Ric Hostetter is painting 

fluorescent ghosts for a Ghost Busters 

attraction in Sweden. He’s been working at 

Sally for almost 30 years and says it’s never 

grown old. 

“It’s a great place to work,” he says with a 

smile, “especially if you like being a big kid.” 

But the biggest kid of all is probably 

68-year-old Drew Hunter, Sally’s vice president 

of creative design. He’s been with Sally 

for over 20 years. 

It wouldn’t be an understatement to say 

that Hunter is obsessed with rides. 

In fact, Hunter’s journey to employment 

at Sally is a testament to his fascination 

with all things dark. 

He remembers as a child seeing Disney’s 

“Fantasia” and being thrilled with 

the frighteningly animated segment “Night 

on Bald Mountain.” That’s when he knew 

where his career path would lead him. 

He came to Sally with an extensive 

background in both art and theater. He had 

managed a wax museum and even created 

his own Dallas-based Halloween entertainment 

company centered on a character 

he dreamed up called Dr. Blood. 

Hunter was first hired as, what else, 

design director of haunted attractions. He 

never looked back. 

“I certainly call this my dream job,” he 

says today as he sits in an office filled with 

his artwork. 

Hunter says he loves his work at Sally 

because it gives him a chance to be involved 

in the creation of a dark ride from 

start to finish, something that an employee 

working at a larger company couldn’t do. 

But that kid who was enthralled by the 

magic and darkness of “Fantasia” has never 

left him. Every Halloween eve, Hunter 

still watches the movie, completely engrossed 

by the emergence of ghosts and 

goblins from atop Bald Mountain, dancing 

furiously before they are extinguished by 

the morning’s light. 

“If I had to be on that desert island with 

one movie, that would be it,” he says. “In 

my opinion one of the greatest treasures of 

my life is that I’ve been able to retain the 

wonder and joy of a childlike perspective.” 

The business brain behind Sally is John 

Wood — the only remaining of the three 

Johns who started the company so long 

ago. 

The story of Sally began when dental 

student John Rob Holland, who in his 

mind was a frustrated engineer, was asked 

to create a teaching tool for one of his 

Chapel Hill classes. 

He invented an animatronic head that 


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WILL DICKEY (JUSTICE LEAGUE), SALLY CORPORATION (TUTANKHAMUN, GHOST BLASTERS) 

THE BEST OF SALLY 

Chairman and CEO John Wood shares his all-time favorite Sally Corporation dark rides. 

spoke and blinked. When he left school to 

set up a dental practice in Jacksonville, the 

head — named Sally — was relegated to a 

box in his garage. 

But he never forgot about Sally and 

one day introduced her to his neighbor, 

John Fox, then a homebuilder in Jacksonville. 

The two were fascinated with the 

possibilities of animatronics but they 

lacked the business knowledge to make 

it economically feasible. 

Enter John Wood, who had graduated 

from Wake Forest with a degree 

in history and economics. 

“John Fox said to me, ‘Me 

and my next door neighbor are 

going to launch a new company 

selling robots!’ 

“I said, ‘You’re kidding.’ 

“But I went along, and that’s 

how it started.” 

Four robotic prototypes later, Sally 

Corp. was born. It was around the same 

time Chuck E. Cheese and its animatronic 

band took the kid world by storm. 

Other establishments, hoping to 

capitalize on the pizza company’s success, 

scrambled to get their own animatronic 

musical groups. 

And there was Sally. 

So were born Bubba and the Badland 

Band, a musical group consisting of bears; 

Ursula and the Oom Pah Pahs, a German 

group with a Bavarian waitress as its lead 

singer; and Daniel and the Dixie Diggers, a 

band of dogs, among others. 

But within a few years, “the pixie dust 

had fallen off the pixie,” Wood says. 

Animatronic bands were passé and Sally 

struggled to rebrand itself. 

The trio began looking for other products. 

One of the places that attracted their 

attention was Disney and — bingo — an 

idea began to ferment. 

What if we used our knowledge of animatronics 

to build amusement rides, they 

reasoned. 

“And that decision has stuck for 30 

years,” Wood says. 

Since then, the company has added interactive 

elements into its rides and created 

a special niche for itself in the themed 

entertainment business. 

On some rides, participants interact 

by shooting guns and their accuracy dictates 

the length of the ride. On other rides, 

the louder people scream, the longer they 

ride. 

The process of creation for each ride 

begins with a script detailing the story 

that will unfold as customers travel 

through the feature. Artists next create 

storyboards that picture each aspect of 

every room. 

Other artists then begin creating the 

animatronic figures, scenery, backdrops, 

character voices, music, sounds, lighting, 

electronics and even aspects of project 

management to make it all come alive. 

The turnkey process is nothing short of 

a production. 

Each year the company produces some 

four dark rides that cost customers anywhere 

from $1 million to $10 million. Although 

some of its rides, such as the Justice 

League rides, are duplicated, other rides 

are one of a kind. 

“We can give our clients anything they 

want,” Wood Weaver says, “no matter what 

their goals.” 

While visitors are certainly welcome 

to tour Sally’s studio, they can also see examples 

of the company’s work in the Ritz 

Theatre, for which it created talking animatronic 

figures of Jacksonville’s Johnson 

brothers who wrote “Lift Ev’ry Voice and 

Sing,” or at the Old School House in St. Augustine. 

“Justice League: Battle for Metropolis” 

Six Flags Magic Mountain, Valencia, Calif. // Opened in 2017 

The plot begins with Joker and Lex Luther taking over the city of 

Metropolis and preparing to unleash laughing gas on its populace. The 

riders’ mission is to do battle with the two villains and save the city. 

Because this park had to compete with other parks in the Los Angeles 

area, the Six Flags company asked Sally Corp. to make it extra special. 

“Challenge of Tutankhamun” 

Walibi Belgium, Wavry, Brussels // Opened in 2003 

The ride begins by entering the annex to Tutankhamun’s tomb. Riders fight their way 

through a gauntlet of creatures while the spirits in the tomb get more and more 

angry. Entrance to additional rooms is gained depending upon the shooting accuracy 

of the riders. Although this ride was installed nearly 15 years ago, it remains the No. 

1 attraction at the park. The ride contains 60 animatronic figures. 

“Scooby Doo’s Ghost Blasters” 

Six Flags St. Louis // Existed from 2003 to 2015 

The plot was simple but the ride was fun. Internally, members of the Sally 

team called this one the “Scary Swamp Adventure.” In it, riders would be 

taken through a swamp where they’d encounter numerous villains. The 

riders’ mission was to eventually unmask the most evil character and aid 

police in his capture. 

Or, of course, they also can take themselves 

to Atlanta or Seoul or Mexico City 

and buy a ticket to one of Sally’s dark rides. 

It would be there that the real magic of 

Sally is revealed. 

Drew Hunter says these rides never get 

old. 

“You can go on a roller coaster for a 

thrill. You know you’re going to get scared, 

but you also know you’re going to eventually 

get off and laugh. 

“But part of the allure of a dark ride is 

you don’t see what you’re going to get so 

there’s an air of anticipation, an air of mystery 

and an air of discovery. 

“There’s nothing that can equal being 

immersed in a theatrically controlled environment, 

getting yourself plunked down 

in the vehicle, getting ready to go in and 

think ‘Oh this is great,’ then having things 

revealed to you slowly. 

“It’s an absolute visual feast. 

“It’s a really special ride, a dark ride is.” 

Paula Horvath is an editorial writer and 

editorial board member at The Florida Times-Union 

and teaches multimedia journalism at the University 

of North Florida. 




The Vestcor Companies 

Developer intends to be a vital component 

of a revitalized Downtown Jacksonville 

he Vestcor Companies has had a considerable 

presence in downtown Jacksonville 

T 

for nearly 15 years, and has believed in its 

future at least that long. 

“Vestcor has been Downtown since the early 

2000s with the renovations to the 

Carling and 11 East,” said Vestcor 

Companies President Steve 

Moore. “Our chairman, John 

Rood, is a big proponent of Downtown and the company 

has invested millions in the area. Now, we’re 

excited about all the things that are happening in the 

core city.” 

Moore pointed to the recent development in the 

Brooklyn area, with its variety of residential options, 

new businesses, restaurants and other retail establishments. 

“We have positioned Lofts at LaVilla to be the 

bridge between Brooklyn and Downtown,” he said. 

“Lofts will open in December, and all 130 units are 

pre-leased, with a waiting list. Lofts at LaVilla is 

affordable housing [for those who make 60 percent 

of the area’s median income or less], which gives the 

ability to live, work and play Downtown for people of 

all economic levels. 

“The Downtown Investment 

Authority is excited and providing 

support for Lofts at Jefferson Station, 

which is adjacent to Lofts at 

LaVilla and will be a mix of affordable and workforce 

housing. Then, hopefully, we’ll start to see commercial 

development in LaVilla.” 

Moore sees Vestcor as an integral part of Downtown 

development, both now and in the future. 

“We’re also building Lofts at Monroe; we’re going 

to stay involved and keep looking for additional opportunities 

to contribute to the growth of the city,” he 

said. “We never sit still and we’re not going anywhere. 

This is our city and we want to see our city viewed in a 

positive manner.” 

QUICK 

TAKES 

JUDGING 

THE CITY 

“Your city is 

judged by your 

Downtown. 

Jacksonville 

is great; it has 

wonderful 

neighborhoods, 

beaches, and the 

Town Center 

area is growing by 

leaps and bounds. 

But the sky is 

the limit with 

our Downtown 

— with the 

businesses, 

the river, the 

infrastructure that 

we already have. 

Positive growth 

is our future 

Downtown. We’re 

happy to be a part 

of it now and to 

continue being a 

part of it for years 

to come.” 

COMBATING 

NEGATIVITY 

“In the past, 

Downtown has 

had a negative 

stigma and 

everyone has 

focused on fixing 

the negative 

aspects, but the 

best way to fix it 

is to overcome 

the negative with 

positive activity. 

And it’s happening 

now. You used to 

hear about things 

that might happen 

Downtown, but 

now you can 

actually see them.” 

WILL DICKEY 

40 


NOW OPen 

Urban Living in 

Downtown Jacksonville 

Coming Fall 2018

We know 

Jacksonville. 

Times-Union is a name you can trust. 

We have built our business on a commitment to truth and 

fair-dealing, and we take very seriously our role in the community 

as the arbiter of truth, and the protector of our democracy. 

The trust we have earned is a privilege and we work continuously 

to keep and nurture that trust. We’re committed to pushing 

the conversation of Jacksonville’s growth forward at every turn. 

1 Riverside Avenue 

Jacksonville, FL 32202 

904.359.4318 

jacksonville.com



Leon Haley (left), CEO of UF Health Jacksonville, 

and Stuart Klein, executive director of the 

UF Health Proton Therapy Institute. 

UF Health Jacksonville and 

UF Health Proton Therapy Institute 

Healthcare essential to Downtown Jacksonville’s development 

ith many innovations, updates and additions, UF Health 

W has been a powerful presence in Downtown Jacksonville 

since its inception in 1870 as Duval Hospital and Asylum. It 

has never left the Downtown area. 

“Our mission is to heal, to comfort, to educate 

and to discover,” said CEO Leon Haley. “And our 

vision is to be the region’s most valued healthcare 

asset. As such, we seek out opportunities to partner 

with business, government and the community in 

improving the Downtown core by bringing new 

jobs and creating wellness opportunities.” 

The UF Health Proton Therapy Institute also is a 

big draw in Downtown Jacksonville, and a contributor to its improvement. 

“We are a regional resource for the city and the state, but about 60 

percent of our patients come from outside the area,” said Executive 

Director Stuart Klein. “Treatment usually lasts for six to eight weeks, 

so patients are essentially moving here for two months. We have 

access to a 35-unit apartment building on Main Street that is normally 

90 percent filled. Patients spend about $5,000 to 

6,000 each on housing, entertainment and food 

— and many of our employees live Downtown — 

giving quite an economic boost to the area.” 

Both men feel that Downtown is on the way up 

and consider their organizations to be an integral 

part of that movement. 

“The entire community is served by better 

healthcare, and we all benefit from living in a 

healthier community,” Haley said. “From there, we have to look at 

who and what we want to attract to Downtown, what will add value 

for the larger picture of what Jacksonville wants to be. That is the ultimate 

goal for everyone who cares about Jacksonville.” 

WILL DICKEY 

QUICK 

TAKES 

RESPONSIBLE GROWTH THE KEY 

“We’re very excited about the growth coming in areas like The Shipyards 

and The District. As a major healthcare provider, we would like to put things 

in place that will assure best practices, to offer our research and education 

capabilities to assist those who are improving Downtown with the creation 

of healthy living spaces, varied areas for exercise and healthy eating options.” 

– Dr. Leon Haley, CEO, UF Health Jacksonville 

ACCESS IMPORTANT FOR GROWTH 

“Access is very important for a vibrant Downtown and for our 

patients, who come here from across the country – and around the 

world. In Jacksonville, patients have easy access to the airport, to 

I-95, to Downtown. But, as visitors to Florida, I’m sure they would 

appreciate having improved access to the river and beaches.” 

– Stuart Klein, executive director, UF Health Proton Therapy Institute 


12 HOURS IN DOWNTOWN 

By Paula Horvath 

Visitors to Jesse 

Ball duPont 

Park at 1123 

Prudential Drive 

stop to admire 

the 250-year-old 

Treaty Oak. 

JEFF DAVIS 

Excursion Downtown filled with 

urban and not-so-urban treasures 

ome on a 12-hour adventure to sample the 

beauty of the St. Johns River. 

C It is, after all, the heart of Jacksonville and 

loops through its center beneath the metal 

spans of the bridges that connect Downtown’s 

Southbank with its Northbank. 

For decades, the river has defined this city — from its days 

when a crossing for cows was this area’s most important 

feature to today as its banks are slowly being developed to 

attract more residents and visitors. 

Yet the river is a significant destination in Jacksonville. 

One that should be celebrated, while it is being enhanced 

and vitalized. 

Follow us as we celebrate the river and its Downtown 

surroundings for a water-filled day beginning at 8 a.m. and 

ending after the clock has spun forward 12 hours. 

CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE 


LEFT: A group of early morning runners put the Northbank riverwalk to good use near the Acosta Bridge. 

RIGHT: A ring glistens in the sun at Harby Jewelers located on the 25th floor of Riverplace Tower, 1301 Riverplace Blvd. 

1 

8 a.m. 

Riverfront Café & Catering 

in the Haskell Building, 111 Riverside Ave. 

Sunlight shimmers through the spans of 

the Acosta Bridge, flowing through the enormous 

riverfront windows of the small café. 

The windows span the entire wall facing the 

St. Johns River, offering one of the city’s most 

spectacular waterfront views. 

Another day in the river city begins. 

Few people are in the café this early in 

the morning. But as the clock ticks forward, 

more and more slowly drift to the counter, 

ordering coffees and omelets and toast. 

Samantha McKendre is one of the first. 

She glances at the blackboard menu but 

already knows what she wants: a sausage, 

egg and cheese burrito, she tells the counter 

minder, with a side of hash browns. 

This place is God-sent, she says. A Haskell 

employee who works in its water division, 

McKendre is 13 weeks pregnant. That’s 

made it difficult for her to eat early before 

she leaves home for work. 

“I’ve been super sick, so it’s real convenient 

to be able to come down here,” she 

says. “And besides, I love their breakfasts 

here.” 

Karen Fritts, the owner of the café, 

pushes McKendre’s cellophane-covered 

plate across the counter. McKendre 

gratefully picks it up and makes her way 

back upstairs to her office. 

Although Fritts admits the clientele is 

mostly in-house, people do come in off the 

street too, especially for lunch. That’s when 

its tables, both inside and outside, are mostly 

full. 

But breakfast is a special quiet time in the 

restaurant, perfect to savor not only the food 

but also the magnificent St. Johns River as it 

flows past just outside. 

• The Riverfront Café and Catering has been 

a staple of the Haskell building for 15 years. It 

offers breakfasts and lunches from 7 a.m. to 

2:30 p.m. on weekdays. Customers can enjoy 

the river views from inside or outside on a patio 

that spans the length of the restaurant. 

2 

9 a.m. 

Northbank Riverwalk 

A walk along the St. Johns River is the 

perfect aftermath to a hearty breakfast at 

the Riverfront Café. A path off Jackson Street 

leads to the Northbank Riverwalk and begins 

a jaunt that can be as short or as long as 

the walker desires. 

On this day, the sun is shining and a cool 

breeze wafts across the river. The water softly 

slaps against the rocks on the river’s bank 

and a floating tiki bar on a flat platform toots 

its horn as it cruises beneath the railway 

bridge. 

Michael Lacy strolls slowly along the walk, 

glancing to his right and left. He just left his 

wife, Christina Lacy, at the courthouse for 

jury duty and decided he wanted to experience 

something new in Downtown. 

He’s never done the river walk before. 

And he’s impressed. 

“It’s great. I absolutely love it,” Lacy says. 

“I started from the Landing, and now I’m 

looking for someplace to eat breakfast.” 

He says the morning’s walk has given him 

a new perspective on a city that he’s lived 

in since his birth. “You just see things on 

this that you don’t see from any other place. 

For example, look at that railway bridge. It’s 

wonderful.” 

Back on the river, a luxury yacht sails 

smoothly down river. The sun behind it is 

rising higher in the sky. 

• The Northbank Riverwalk extends from I-95 to 

Berkman Plaza. Walkers can take it the entire 

3.8 miles or double back at any point. 

3 

10:30 a.m. 

Harby Jewelers 

25th floor, Riverplace Tower, 1301 Riverplace Blvd. 

Time to slip across the river and shop — 

for jewels. And not just any jewels, but jewels 

in a jewel-box of a store overlooking the river 

from the 25th floor of Riverplace Tower. 

Brad Harby, the vice president of Harby 

Jewelers, calls his establishment a “destination,” 

tucked as it is into a niche at the end of 

a long hallway. Unlike other jewelry stores 

that offer their wares to passersby, Harby’s 

JEFF DAVIS (4); MAP: JEFF DAVIS 


LEFT: A fresh-from-the-oven chocolate chip cookie at High Tide Café in the Stein Mart building, 1200 Riverplace Blvd. 

RIGHT: The sun begins to set as the St. Johns River Taxi heads out after picking up passengers at Friendship Fountain. 

customers come especially to this out-ofthe-way 

store for its fine and estate jewelry. 

But it’s not only the jewelry that catches 

the eye. For, behind the cases of glittering 

jewelry, equally glittering floor-to-ceiling 

windows give visitors hawk’s eye views of the 

river beneath them. 

Inside the cases, red rubies and green 

emeralds shimmer within settings filled with 

diamonds. A rectangular yellow-green tourmaline 

clasped by silver arms studded with 

diamonds hangs from a silver chain. 

Harby says that most of the store’s 

customers find their way there 

through either word of mouth (or, 

nowadays, the online equivalent). 

That’s been true since the 

family-owned business opened 

90 years ago in Jacksonville. 

Although some customers 

make appointments before they 

show up, Harby says that’s not 

1 

necessary. 

“Because of where we are, 

people sometimes think we’re 

a secret, speakeasy sort of place 

where you have to know somebody 

to get in,” he says, “but that’s 

not the case.” 

• Harby Jewelers is open from 9:30 

a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. 

Its jewelry ranges from unique 

and estate pieces to those especially 

N 

designed for specific customers. 

4 

Noon 

High Tide Café 

Stein Mart building, 1200 Riverplace Blvd. 

Now it’s on to lunch at a tiny noontime 

spot tucked into the first floor of the Stein 

Mart building. At the end of a long corridor 

sits the High Tide Café, a place you smell 

before you see it. 

The aroma wafting into the main atrium 

on the first floor immediately conjures 

memories of baking cookies with mom. It’s 

12 HOURS IN DOWNTOWN 

ACOSTA BRIDGE 

Water St. 

2 

ST. JOHNS 

RIVER 

7 

Hogan St. 

THE 

LANDING 

FRIENDSHIP 

FOUNTAIN 

San Marco 

Laura St. 

Main St. 

MAIN STREET 

BRIDGE 

4 

5 

Bay St. 

Coastline Dr. 

3 

Newman St. 

Riverplace Blvd. 

Flagler Ave. 

Prudential Dr. 

sumptuous. It’s sweet. And it’s deadly. 

It’s the smell of what very well might be 

the best cookies this side of the St. Johns. 

They sit on the counter in large aluminum 

pans, packed full of coconut, pecans and 

other morsels of goodness. 

And although much of the lunchtime fare 

is splendid at the High Tide, it’s the cookies 

that draw people back again and again. 

Larry Hazouri, the café’s owner for 48 

years, stands behind the counter as a line of 

noontime customers snakes out the door. 

He busily takes orders and answers the 

constantly ringing phone to take 

more orders. 

Nearly every other person tops 

off their order with one of Hazouri’s 

special home-baked cookies. 

Law partners Joe Camerlengo 

and Gregg Anderson just moved 

their firm, Camerlengo and Anderson, 

the Truck Accident Law 

Firm, into the Stein Mart building. 

Camerlengo has already 

sampled one of the café’s cookies 

and has urged his partner to try 

one. 

Anderson reaches into the 

parchment bag in which the 

cookie is encased, breaks off a 

6 

piece and pops it into his mouth. 

He closes his eyes and savors the 

sweet hunk. 

“Oh,” he swoons, “that was 

Market St. 


eally good for me.” 

“Yeah, now he needs a cigarette,” Camerlengo 

jokes. 

“You know, you can’t say no to those 

cookies,” he continues with a smile. “We 

really only moved here for the cookies.” 

Anderson glances up at his partner 

before he reverently pulls off another cookie 

bite. 

“We should have moved in here long ago,” 

he concludes. 

• The High Tide Café, 1200 Riverplace Blvd., 

serves breakfast and lunch and is open from 7 

a.m. to 3 p.m. weekdays. Its cookies are usually 

ready for consumption by about 10:30 a.m. 

5 

1 p.m. 

Treaty Oak 

Jessie Ball DuPont Park, 1123 Prudential Drive 

There are few things more beautiful — 

or older — in Jacksonville than the mammoth 

oak tree known as the Treaty Oak. 

Its massive arms, tattooed with the 

whorls of ancient bark, swoop to the 

ground, stretching for long yards before 

tilting upward again. A boardwalk takes 

visitors beneath the branches where they 

can pause under the cool dome of limbs 

and leaves to marvel at the sight. 

This live oak tree was merely a sapling 

when Cowford, Jacksonville’s first name, 

was settled in 1791. 

Over the years it has survived developers 

who wanted to destroy it to make way 

for this or that attraction or building, in 

part due to a fictitious tale that beneath its 

strong branches Indians and settlers once 

signed a treaty. 

Yet it has survived and today serves as a 

shady retreat for visitors. So, bring a book 

or your lunch from the High Tide and settle 

back here for a relaxing afternoon. 

High school students Miranda Rogers 

and Allistare Flores had paused this day 

beneath the oak’s canopy to do just that. 

The River City Science Academy pair 

admit they’d heard of the massive oak 

many times but had never seen it. Now that 

they were standing on the boardwalk, they 

were awed. 

“I think it’s great we’ve been able to keep 

this tree for this long,” Flores says. “It’s really 

a great part of this city’s history.” 

He points to a hole in the tree from 

which they’d just seen a squirrel emerge. 

Their short visit to the long-lived remnant 

of Jacksonville’s past had given them a new 

way of looking at the world. 

“It really gives you a different perspective 

on life,” Flores says, “and exactly how 

small a part of it you really are.” 

• The Jessie Ball duPont Park, which contains 

the Treaty Oak, is located at 1123 Prudential 

Drive. 

6 

4:30 p.m. 

Chart House 

1501 Riverplace Blvd. 

The Chart House may be the most iconic 

restaurant in all of Jacksonville. 

Yes, there are many restaurants that serve 

luscious food. Yes, there are many restaurants 

that draw visitors because of their 

location and ambience. 

But the Chart House combines them all 

into one location, situated as it is front and 

center on the St. Johns River. 

The building itself is also a marvel. 

Designed by architect Kendrick Bangs Kellogg, 

it has been named one of the top 100 

buildings in the state for its Modern Organic 

Architecture design. 

The front features massive concrete 

barrel-shaped structures while the side 

facing the river resembles nothing less than 

a fanciful Jules Verne creation with tarnished 

copper ribs and gigantic windows. 

And the wood that covers the restaurant’s 

interior ceiling and its ornamentation is 

pine, soaked in the brown water of the St. 

Johns, then cut and bent on site into sweeping 

shapes. 

Susie Anderson of Jacksonville and 

Tammy Frith of Atlanta are there tonight to 

celebrate Anderson’s 42nd birthday. They 

motion over a willing waiter to take a photo 

of themselves in front of a riverfront window. 

Anderson moved to Jacksonville only 

months ago to take advantage of the city’s 

outstanding medical services for her son, 

Lane, who has ulcerative colitis. Already, 

she’s smitten with the city. 

“I love the weather, and I love the fact that 

when I go to take my dry cleaning in, the 

shop has the name ‘Beach’ in it,” she laughs. 

It’s both women’s first visit to the Chart 

House, and they agree it’s love at first sight. 

“I love this place, and I’d never even been 

here before,” Anderson says. “I just love this 

place.” 

• The Chart House is open from 4:30 p.m. to 9:30 

p.m. Sunday through Thursday and from 4:30 

p.m. to 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. 

7 

6 p.m. 

Sunset Cruise 

Jacksonville River Taxi 

By now, the sun is slowing sinking 

beneath the spans of the Acosta Bridge as a 

handful of people step aboard the Miss Hadley 

from the Landing’s dock. It’s time for the 

St. Johns River Taxi’s Sunset Cruise, a perfect 

complement to a perfect day. 

At the front of the boat, a woman clad 

in black stands before a microphone and 

tunes her ukulele. She’s Mere Woodard, the 

featured performer on tonight’s cruise. 

Her 4-year-old daughter, Edie Woodard, 

clothed in a yellow embroidered dress she 

says her grandmother bought in Mexico, 

bounces up and down on one of the seats. 

She’s especially excited because her mother 

has promised they’ll sing a duet this evening. 

As the boat pulls away from the dock, a 

white heron sails beside it just above the 

water. A long, slow train is crossing the track 

near the Acosta Bridge so the pilot turns east 

toward Exchange Island. 

Woodard begins to sing, a melodic Brandi 

Carlile-type voice that floats across the water 

as the lights of riverbank buildings begin to 

wink on. 

She tells visitors that she moved to Jacksonville 

in 2003, first moving to the beaches. 

She just recently moved near Downtown in 

Murray Hill. 

“When I first moved here I loved the 

beach. Now I love the Riverwalk so much 

more,” she admits. “It’s gorgeous. I walk five 

miles at least three days a week.” 

The boat rounds Exchange Club Island, 

and the entire Downtown, sparkling now 

with lights, fills the sky. Lighted bridges 

stretch across the river and the sun is just 

sinking beneath the horizon. 

To say that Downtown Jacksonville 

is beautiful at night can’t even begin to 

describe the experience with the lights twinkling 

on buildings, a glittering river stretching 

before us, roosting birds settling into 

their nighttime perches on the island, and 

the voices of the mother and her daughter 

joining together in song to Woodard’s “Wild 

Heart.” 

“I wish I had a wild heart, 

“I wish I had a wild heart... 

“I’d set fire to the sky.” 

It’s nearing 8 p.m., and the fire in the sky 

behind the shimmering buildings winks and 

is extinguished just as another day in this 

river city ends. 

• The Sunset Cruise is one of several special 

cruises operated by the St. Johns River Taxi. 

More information can be found and reservations 

can be made at jaxrivertaxi.com. 

Paula Horvath is an editorial writer and 

Editorial Board member at The Florida Times-Union 

and teaches multimedia journalism at the 

University of North Florida. 


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RISE OF THE 

GONDOLAS 

COULD A NETWORK OF GONDOLAS 

GLIDING ABOVE THE ST. JOHNS RIVER ATTRACT 

VISITORS TO DOWNTOWN JACKSONVILLE? 

BY MIKE CLARK // ILLUSTRATION BY JEFF DAVIS // J MAGAZINE 


S 

t. Louis has the arch. 

Seattle has the space needle. 

Jacksonville’s icon involves 

an orange roof at the dilapidated 

Landing. 

Yet Downtown Jacksonville 

looks great from the air. The St. 

Johns River sparkles in the Florida 

sunshine. You can get that 

view from the River Club in 

the Wells Fargo building, 

in a helicopter or from a 

blimp. 

What Jacksonville needs 

is a way for both residents 

and visitors to get this 

view on a regular basis. 

Not with a helicopter or 

a blimp but with aerial 

gondolas, the kind most 

often seen on mountainsides. 

But you don’t need a ski 

lift to justify an aerial gondola 

in a city. They are becoming 

the hot topic for urban 

planners worldwide. 

Urban gondola systems are used in cities 

like La Paz, Bolivia; Caracas, Venezuela, 

and Cali, Colombia. 

There are many other proposals, most 

of which have not moved beyond the idea 

stage. A few examples include one at the 

New York State Fairgrounds; across the 

Hudson River in Albany, N.Y.; around the 

Lake Erie lakefront in Cleveland; along 

the Lake Michigan waterfront in Chicago 

and crossing the Potomac River from the 

Georgetown neighborhood in Washington, 

D.C., to Rosslyn, Va. 

The reason for the popularity of aerial 

gondolas? By taking to the air, the cost and 

difficulties of rights-of-way on the ground 

are avoided. 

Also, the number of units on gondolas 

can be easily adjusted for the number of 

passengers expected. 

The two best-known urban gondola 

systems in America are in Portland, Ore., 

SPOKANE, WASH. 

and New York City. 

The Portland aerial tram was needed to 

connect the city to a medical center on a 

mountainside. There are only two-lane 


DANIS 

PORTLAND, ORE. 

SPOKANE, WASH. 

NEW YORK CITY 

roads there now. The gondola system was 

built for mass transit. Without it, the medical 

center probably would have had to 

move. 

The trams travel 3,300 feet at 22 miles an 

hour, rising 500 feet. The entire trip takes 

just four minutes. 

The aerial tram allows the forested area to 

remain pristine while it still moves Portland 

residents to and from the medical center 

In New York City, the Roosevelt Island 

Tramway extends 3,100 feet, moving at 

about 18 miles an hour. The trip takes about 

three minutes. 

Roosevelt Island was developed for affordable 

housing in the 1970s. There was 

no subway station at the time, and trolley 

tracks had deteriorated. As in Portland, the 

tram made financial sense. 

The Memphis Suspension Railway was 

seen in the movie “The Firm.” It connects 

the city with Mud Island. It is 3,500 

feet long and travels at about 7 miles an 

hour. 

Perhaps less known nationally is the 

Spokane Falls SkyRide that takes riders 

right past city hall, drops down 200 feet 

above a falls on the Spokane River, loops 

under a bridge and ends near Riverfront 

Park. 

In 2013, the SkyRide was named “One of 

the Top 12 Scenic Cable Rides in the World” 

by Conde Nast. 

Most of the successful trams make similarly 

short trips. Ideally, they combine 

some transit with tourism. 

Expanding the aerial gondola idea to 

mass transit was studied in Austin, Texas, 

where rapid growth has choked the local 

roads. The idea was to build an aerial tramway 

over a road. A study concluded, however, 

that it simply wouldn’t work as mass 

transit. 

Closer to home, Walt Disney World apparently 

is planning an aerial gondola system. 

Documents obtained by the Orlando 

Sentinel describe six stations and three 

lines connecting Hollywood Studios, 

Epcot, Caribbean Beach Resort and the 

lakeside area between Pop Century and the 

Art of Animation resorts. 

European manufacturer Doppelmayr 

would be the gondola vendor. 

Since Disney has its own government, it 

can build this system with a minimum of 

bureaucracy. 

Like so many other great ideas, this is not 

new to Jacksonville. 

Developer Mike Balanky floated a proposal 

in 2006, and the Times-Union re- 

SCOTT LUCE (Spokane), AP (Portland, New York City)

sponded with a supportive editorial. “Let’s 

not be afraid to consider new ideas, while 

carefully examining the costs and consequences,” 

the Editorial Board wrote. 

So what’s different now? Everything. 

Development along the river Downtown 

is the difference. 

It appears that the District on the Southbank 

and the Shipyards on the Northbank 

are on the way. 

Shad Khan with the Shipyards and Peter 

Rummell with the District are big-time 

leaders who make things happen. 

Other developments along the Downtown 

riverfront could include a tourist attraction 

in the USS Adams near the Shipyards, 

a convention center near the Hyatt 

and a refurbished Museum of Science and 

History on the Southbank. 

Now imagine linking this riverwalk activity 

with a nearby aerial gondola. 

Balanky has been speaking to a worldwide 

leader in gondolas, Doppelmayr, and 

has been told that it could be built in a JTAowned 

lot next to Balanky’s planned tower 

near Kings Avenue on the Southbank 

and connect on the Northbank near the 

site of a proposed convention center. 

So who is going to pay for this? Balanky 

WHY GONDOLAS? 

One of North America’s most prominent 

advocates for various forms of cable-propelled 

transit is Creative Urban Projects. One of 

its spinoffs is The Gondola Project, which 

includes on its website a handy explanation of 

the common-sense uses of aerial gondolas. 

THEY’RE safe 

There is no traffic 25 feet in the air. The 

chance of being injured in a gondola is less 

than while skiing. 

THE Technology is proven 

Modern cable technology has been in use for 

70 years. The first passenger gondola was used 

in the 1930s. 

THEY’RE easy to build 

Smaller, less complex systems can be designed 

and built in one year. 

THEY’RE reliable 

Systems are over 99 percent reliable. 

THEY’RE not a cure-all 

It’s best used to fill a gap in an existing 

transportation network. 

THEY’RE flexible 

Cars can be added and subtracted depending 

on the number of people to be moved. 

says it could be a public-private partnership. 

If there is a consistent flow of riders 

from the convention center combined 

with some local traffic, aerial gondola 

could be lucrative. 

With a stupendous river crossing, Jacksonville 

could have a win-win. 

The aerial gondolas would be instantly 

recognizable as Jacksonville, a fun and exciting 

iconic signature. 

The gondolas would have some use as 

transit across the river with the ability to 

add gondola cars for high-usage periods 

like Jacksonville Jaguars games. 

It may make more sense to open the aerial 

gondola system once the Downtown riverfront 

has an active new convention center, 

a Landing development on the Northbank 

and the District on the Southbank. 

But planning should begin now. 

This is not pie in the sky. It’s an idea 

whose time has come. 

Let’s dream and make it reality. 

MIKE CLARK has been reporting and editing for 

The Florida Times-Union and Jacksonville Journal since 

1973. He has been editorial page editor for the last 

12 years following 15 years as reader advocate. 

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From colorful murals 

to unique sculptures, 

downtown jacksonville 

is BECOMING A VIBRANT AND 

UNIQUE URBAN CANVAS 

STREET 

ART 

BY CAROLE HAWKINS // FOR J MAGAZINE 

PHOTOGRAPH BY JEFF DAVIS // J MAGAZINE 

haun Thurston chose a theme of shattered 

glass for the mural he painted in 

November on an empty Downtown 

warehouse across the street from Lee 

& Cates Glass repair. He was going for 

more than irony, and more than a basic 

art effect. 

The glass shards morphed into 

surrealistic ice- and rock-like structures, 

mimicking little landscapes. 

“It’s a way to show your perception 

is shattering — like into a whole new 

illumination,” the Jacksonville artist 

said. 

It’s not just Thurston’s wall, but all 

of Downtown that’s emerging into a 

whole new illumination. Driven by 

more than one person and more than 

one organization, there’s a movement 

S54 J MAGAZINE | WINTER 2017-18

Pop surrealist Okuda San 

Miguel of Spain posed in front 

of his vibrant Downtown 

mural (“The Dance of the 

Seven Sins Muses”) during 

November’s ArtRepublic. 


to shatter perceptions of Jacksonville as a 

place of little culture. 

It’s coming in the form of street art, an inyour-face 

tactic that puts art in front of the 

public, whether the public knows it needs 

art or not. 

One effort is a grassroots project that 

installs a dozen or so giant-sized murals on 

Downtown buildings within a one-week 

span. 

Another is a government-sponsored 

streetscape program that’s re-imagining 

bike racks, benches, electrical boxes and 

concrete posts into works of art, one district 

at a time. 

A third is a privately funded, almost 

anonymous venture that’s putting abstract 

sculptures on street corners. 

One advocate calls it an art intervention. 

If we listen, it could change the way we see 

Downtown. 

progressive roots 

The Jacksonville we know today is a descendant 

of commerce — corporate giants 

in shipping, rail and banking — and the blue 

collar workforce that industry brought. In 

2014, a study by MIT named Jacksonville the 

fifth most conservative city in America. 

But there’s a liberal undercurrent that’s 

always run through Jacksonville’s history 

too, said Jessica Santiago. Last year Santiago 

founded ArtRepublic, a multi-day expo that 

transforms the blank walls of private Downtown 

warehouses and parking garages into a 

Jacksonville artist Shaun Thurston (left) and Spanish artist Mohamed L’Ghacham (right) work on their respective murals in November as part of ArtRepublic. 

world-class museum for international street 

artists. 

In planning the venture, Santiago drew 

inspiration from stories of Jacksonville’s early 

20th century film industry, from LaVilla’s 

historic African-American businesses, 

women-owned bordellos and the nationally 

renowned jazz musicians they once drew in. 

“This city at one time was extremely progressive, 

and that’s still in our DNA,” she said. 

“Today Jacksonville has all of these incredibly 

creative minds, and they are looking for places 

to collect and come together. We want to 

pull that creativity out and give it momentum 

again.” 

An art dealer by trade, Santiago used industry 

contacts and social media to hand pick 

international artists who would kindle her 

hometown’s creative spirit. They came from 

Chicago, Paris, New York, Pittsburgh, Spain, 

Australia, Greece and the Ukraine. Within 

days, one parking garage was adorned with 

a flora-and-fauna themed abstract and another, 

with a pair of hands cradling a stack of 

books. Concrete silos in the Tallyrand industrial 

district were transformed into a portrait 

of two local residents, representing Jacksonville’s 

unity amid diversity. 

The world beyond Jacksonville noticed. 

Juxtapoz, a national urban arts magazine, ran 

a feature on ArtRepublic. Santiago picked up 

Estee Lauder this year as a sponsor for a fashion 

show tied to the mural expo. 

ArtRepublic returned in the fall, splashing 

bright geometric shapes, flowing portraits 

and graffiti-themed abstracts across even 

more blank walls. 

Asking forgiveness, 

not permission 

It’s not the first time Jacksonville has seen 

murals. Tony Allegretti, executive director of 

the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville, 

said the city has had murals for as long as it 

has had buildings. Commissioned by private 

owners, they’ve ranged from simple ads to 

artsy compositions, like the Day-of-the- 

Dead montage that adorns Brooklyn’s Burrito 

Gallery. But Jacksonville had never before 

seen this many murals at once. 

“They all went up at one time — that’s 

what made it so significant,” Allegretti said. 

“It changed the visual aesthetic of Downtown 

overnight.” 

Street art is a bit outlaw, and that syncs 

well with Jacksonville’s working class roots. 

It emerged as a serious art form in the 

1980s from the spray cans of unauthorized 

graffiti artists, such as New York City’s Keith 

Haring. 

As the works became more artistic and 

political, they found commercial success. 

One piece sold for more than a half million 

dollars at auction. 

Jacksonville has its own history of illicit 

graffiti art. An artist who called himself 

“Keith Haring’s Ghost” painted graffiti about 

racial equality and gun control under the 

cover of darkness following the shooting of 

Trayvon Martin. The Jacksonville Sheriff’s 

CAROLE HAWKINS (THURSTON), WILL DICKEY (L’GHACHAM, RENAULT), JEFF DAVIS (OKUDA) 


Office tracked him through his Facebook 

posts. The artist told a news reporter his graffiti 

had been well-done and well-executed 

and he never expected to be arrested for it. 

He had reasoned the way to get something 

done in Jacksonville was to ask for forgiveness 

instead of permission. For his treacherous 

acts, he paid a fine and performed community 

service. 

Street artists in Jacksonville today are asking 

permission for their projects, and they 

are getting it. To paint a Downtown mural, 

one needs only a building owner’s permission, 

and to submit the design to the city’s 

Downtown Development Review Board. 

Artwork almost always makes the cut, Allegretti 

said. 

These days, the city is getting in on the 

street art movement too. 

City-owned graffiti 

Around the same time ArtRepublic was 

painting murals on privately owned buildings, 

the Cultural Council launched its 

own program to cover barren public structures 

with art. 

Ugly concrete Skyway support pillars 

became brightly colored cylindrical murals. 

Electrical boxes were wrapped in patterned 

vinyl resembling Christmas gift paper. 

Artsy benches sprouting playful metal 

flowers popped up on sidewalks. And bicycle 

racks that looked like they were straight 

out of a Dr. Seuss book replaced standard 

cage frames. 

The project was funded by Art in Public 

Places, a city program that’s been around 

since 1997. By ordinance Jacksonville sets 

aside 0.75 cents of every dollar it spends 

on capital projects for public art. The money 

has commissioned such artwork as the 

paintings that hang in our libraries. But the 

program seemed nearly forgotten in recent 

years. The Great Recession that quieted 

capital projects for a decade also silenced 

the art projects they funded. 

Now the money is flowing again. And 

the Downtown Investment Authority aims 

to use it to change the face of Downtown 

districts. The plan directs the funds into an 

urban art facade and streetscape program 

designed to make Downtown more pleasant 

and walkable. Phase one brought street 

art to Jacksonville’s civic core. Phases two 

and three will extend the artwork into The 

Elbow. 

REVITALIZATION: What’s 

art got to do with it? 

When Jacksonville business leaders talk 

about Downtown re-development, they 

usually mean a tower was sold to a bigname 

developer, an empty warehouse was 

re-purposed, or a global business was persuaded 

to open a corporate office. 

Art is nice to have. An investment in 

Downtown redevelopment? Not so much. 

Santiago disagrees. If a city wants to 

compete on a global stage, art is a necessity, 

she said. 

“If you think about New York City, it is 

amazing because of its art and culture. That 

is what makes it exciting,” she said. “It’s true 

for every city you look at that’s great.” 

It can be hard to put a value on the vibrancy 

that art brings to a downtown. 

Sometimes, the dollar value can’t be 

missed though. 

Street artists began painting murals in 

Miami’s gritty warehouse district five years 

ago. It transformed the Wynwood neighborhood 

into a trendy tourist hotspot, 

filled with craft breweries, art galleries, chic 

clothing boutiques, bistros and late-night 

bars. Two years ago the city re-zoned, and 

now 11 new construction projects — including 

apartments, condos, office and mixeduse 

complexes — have been proposed there. 

In Jacksonville, business leader and 

philanthropist Preston Haskell has backed 

ArtRepublic both years. He’s also the private 

donor behind a two-year-old Downtown 

Sculpture Initiative. 

There’s a business case for art, Haskell 

said. Put simply, it raises property values. 

Art helps catalyze the virtuous circle of live, 

work and play that makes downtown economies 

spiral upward. 

“Right now we have the ‘work’ and a little 

bit of the ‘play’ but very little ‘live,’” he said. 

If more people live Downtown, it creates a 

larger customer base for restaurants, retail 

Mural artist Adele Renault (left) works on her ArtRepublic piece as cans of empty spray paint (right) fill boxes after artist Okuda finished his Downtown mural. 


“A mural can transform a space to be a place people want to return again and again.” 

Kate Garcia-Rouh, RouxArt 

and entertainment. More amenities draw 

even more people to the urban core. But it’s 

not always easy to get the circle connected. 

Residents are the missing piece in Jacksonville’s 

Downtown, and art can help change 

that. 

Haskell remembers walking through 

Downtown districts in Denver, Johannesburg 

and other cities. 

“You see this wonderful three-dimensional 

large-scale, very colorful sculpture 

on darn near every corner,” he said. “It is so 

exciting and so stimulating and so exhilarating. 

I thought, ‘We need to do this in Jacksonville.’” 

The experience spurred Haskell to negotiate 

with property owners for square 

footage on which to place abstract metal 

sculptures. He’s already installed four, and 

over the next two years, he hopes to add six 

to eight more. 

The most recent sculpture, at the northwest 

corner of Hogan and Water streets, 

was completed in October. Its tangled 

curves of orange and silver rise 35 feet. 

When lit at night, they reflect in the mirrored 

walls of the One Enterprise Center 

building nearby. 

“It’s a wonderful combination of site and 

subject,” Haskell said. 

The mission 

for more art 

Kate and Kenny Rouh, the artist team 

behind RouxArt, have seen how art changes 

the pedestrian experience. The couple is 

best known for the “Mirrored River,” a tile 

mosaic of deep blue glass shards cemented 

to the wall underneath the Main Street 

Bridge. Every time they go back to the mural, 

they see other visitors stopping to take 

photos for weddings, prom nights and family 

vacations. 

“Murals create beautiful environments,” 

Kate Garcia-Rouh said. “A mural can transform 

a space to be a place that welcomes 

people. A place people want to return again 

and again.” 

So if art is good, is there a way for Jacksonville 

to produce more of it? The business 

model for art has always been a tough 

nut to crack, the Rouhs said. 

They give the Cultural Council credit 

for providing artists with seed money 

through public commissions. But they 

don’t expect the government alone to 

support them as artists. One of the hardest 

things is to get permission from a 

building owner, Kate Rouh said. Or even 

better, some financial support. 

“It’s not like people are offering their 

walls. You kind of have to go beg for it,” she 

said. 

Santiago praised the support she’s gotten 

from the business community so far. 

“They are the ones who are really stepping 

up,” she said. “Our events are mostly 

sponsored by corporations. But each wall is 

a contribution of either a local business or a 

local patron.” 

She’s been disappointed, though, by city 

leaders. Prior to this year’s mural expo, Santiago 

reached out to each City Council member 

numerous times. No one responded. 

“I get that we are new and we still have 

to prove ourselves, but if people did the research 

and saw who we had coming here 

and how important they are, they would realize 

that we need to jump on innovation,” 

she said. 

Perhaps it’s caught Jacksonville by surprise. 

But, not everything that transforms a 

city comes from the top down. Street artists 

and performers are also part of our city’s 

brand. 

Juxtapoz and Estee Lauder see what 

Jacksonville could become. Surely city leaders, 

if they look a little closer, will see it too. 

Carole Hawkins is a free-lance 

journalist who lives in Murray Hill. 

JEFF DAVIS 

The latest sculpture Preston Haskell installed Downtown (left) glimmers in front of the One Enterprise Center building. Concrete support pillars beneath the 

Downtown Jacksonville Skyway (right) are wrapped in colorful murals. 


During Downtown’s 

morning rush hour, oneway 

traffic backs up on 

Adams Street near the 

Duval County Courthouse. 


One 

Way, 

Wrong 

Way 

ORIGINALLY 

designed to 

quickly move 

traffic out of 

Downtown, 

is it PAST time 

to convert THE 

CORE’S one-way 

streets TO 

TWO-WAY? 

Driving Downtown is enough to 

give Google Maps a nervous 

breakdown. 

Let’s try driving over the 

Main Street Bridge, heading north. 

Water Street goes two ways. 

Bay Street goes to the left. 

Forsyth goes right. 

Adams goes left. 

Monroe goes right. 

Duval goes left. 

Church goes right. 

Can you memorize all of this? Do 

you want to? 

And the gargantuan Duval County 

Courthouse blocks several Downtown 

streets. 

Then, of course, there are the bridges 

that are sometimes closed, infinite 

roadwork on the interstates and 

blockaded Downtown streets under 

construction. 

There are the times you become 

trapped on a one-way street and have 

to cross the river or are forced onto the 

interstate. 

Even for those who are used to driving 

Downtown, it’s confusing. 

That’s one reason why people try 

to avoid coming Downtown. Also, the 

one-way streets make it more difficult 

BY MIKE CLARK // J MAGAZINE 

PHOTOGRAPH BY JEFF DAVIS // J MAGAZINE 


The CASE 

AGAINST 

One-Way 

Streets 

EconomY 

Many business owners believe 

one-way streets limit visibility 

to their stores. Two-way 

streets slow cars, giving 

drivers and passengers 

more time to notice 

businesses. 

VISITORS 

One-way streets are more 

confusing for downtown visitors 

than two-way streets. Visitors 

navigating a two-way grid 

network can easily approach 

their destination from 

any direction. 

Navigation 

One-way street networks 

are confusing for drivers, which 

leads to more vehicle-miles 

traveled. Bus riders often find 

it difficult to locate bus 

stops for return trips on 

one-way streets. 

JEFF DAVIS // J MAGAZINE 

SOURCE: CITYLAB & STRONGTOWNS 

to find good parking spaces. 

Noted urban planners like author Jeff 

Speck see walkability as the single most 

important characteristic of a healthy 

Downtown. 

And walkability simply won’t work 

with one-way streets that are designed for 

speeding cars, not people. 

That’s why a reversion to more two-way 

streets is part of the master plan for Downtown 

— but, at this point, apparently not an 

action plan. 

So, to call the question, we asked members 

of our Email Interactive Group about 

their opinions of one-way streets. The 

Safety 

Vehicle speeds tend to be 

higher on one-way streets. 

Some studies suggest drivers 

pay less attention on one-way 

streets because there’s 

no conflicting traffic 

flow. 

answers were easily 

summed up. 

If you want to get in and 

out of Downtown as fast as possible, you 

like one-way streets. Neighborhood is not 

an issue. And the one-way fans have the advantage 

of precedent, even if it’s a bad one. 

“We went to one-way streets a long time 

ago for a reason; that reason was to speed 

up Downtown auto traffic,” wrote Bob Glover 

of Jacksonville. “If anything, today we 

have more cars on the road than yesterday, 

and going back to two-way streets would reintroduce 

the same problems we had back 

then. And the problems would be worse.” 

Livability 

Vehicles stop less on 

one-way streets, which 

creates problems for 

pedestrians and 

bicyclists. 

“I lived on Post Street in Riverside when 

Post Street was one way heading Downtown” 

wrote Bill Dunford of Jacksonville. 

“It is now a two-way street, and I avoid it if 

at all possible especially if a bus is heading 

toward me. I would not be too quick to 

change Downtown’s traffic pattern. We may 

live to regret it!” 

If you see Downtown as a neighborhood, 

you want two-way streets that make 

it easy to walk, encourage street-level retail 

and improve safety for pedestrians and 

bicyclists. 

“Access to the Duval County Courthouse 

is bizarre,” Jeff Cooper said. It is surrounded 


y one-way streets, some of which deadend 

at the courthouse. Traffic lights are also 

a pain. 

“We need more two-way streets and fewer 

traffic lights. Close off some streets and 

let us use them for parking,” he said. 

James Johnson of Orange Park said that 

the one-way streets are confusing for people 

who aren’t familiar with Downtown. 

But unless you drive the same streets all 

the time, it’s easy to become confused. 

“I think two-way traffic is safer for pedestrians,” 

said Rob Richardson of Jacksonville 

Beach. 

There’s a good reason for that. Speeds 

must be reduced on two-ways, and speeding 

is a key factor in accidents, especially 

serious ones. 

“One-way traffic sets up a scene for 

aggressive behavior with drivers swerving 

into another lane to pass slower traffic, or 

someone parallel parking,” he said. 

And when bicyclists, motorcyclists or 

walkers are involved, the dangers escalate. 

Steve Plauche of Jacksonville suggested 

creating more walking opportunities. “What 

about doing what some European cities do? 

Make a few blocks of a street walking-bicycle 

only — no vehicles.” 

He suggests making a north-south street 

like Ocean Street as walking only, which 

would facilitate walking linked to the 

Northbank Riverwalk. 

For an east–west street, make Forsyth or 

Adams walking only, Plauche suggested. 

This also would invigorate street-level 

retail, farmer’s markets, food trucks — the 

possibilities are endless once the cars are 

gone. 

Events like Art Walk would have a regular 

home on the street. 

Frank Green of Jacksonville is frustrated. 

“Years ago, I frequently had business 

Downtown and had to find a different place 

to park every time,” Green said. “Finally, 

one day I confused where I parked and 

wandered around for about 20 minutes 

on a hot day. I had had heart attacks, so it 

was especially unpleasant, but the worst of 

it was that, just as I found my car, a meter 

maid pulled out her ticket book. I explained 

my travail, but she had no mercy in her 

heart.” 

Yes, that Downtown staple, meter maids. 

Suburban shopping areas have their own 

traffic complications, but at least you don’t 

get tickets. 

Charles Winton of Jacksonville says we 

need to be bolder than changing traffic patterns. 

Go all the way and ban cars on Laura 

Street, making it just a pedestrian corridor. 

“One-way traffic 

sets up a scene for 

aggressive behavior 

with drivers swerving 

into another lane to 

pass slower traffic, 

or someone parallel 

parking.” 

JAMES JOHNSON 

“I have been in a number of cities that 

have done something similar, and none 

had an attraction on par with the St. Johns 

River,” Winton wrote. “Moreover, with the 

Landing area as one terminus of the corridor, 

you have the Times-Union Center on 

one side and the old city hall and courthouse 

property on the other.” 

Linda Willson begs for two-way streets. 

“I have lived here for 17 years and I still 

get lost every time I go Downtown because 

of the one-way streets, which are confusing. 

I admit I do not have the best sense of 

direction in the world, but I would come 

Downtown so much more often if I could 

navigate more easily. 

“Give us shade, more seating, outdoor 

cafes, trendy boutiques, more great restaurants 

and two-way streets!” 

But the chicken-and-egg item is clear 

here — two-way streets come first. 

Making the change is not difficult. Jacksonville 

used to have two-way streets when 

Downtown was more pedestrian-friendly, 

when it was a retail center. 

It’s not a retail center now, but there are 

many business opportunities that don’t 

“I have lived here for 

17 years and I still get 

lost every time I go 

Downtown because of 

the one-way streets, 

which are confusing.” 

Linda Willson 

require chain department stores. They do 

require people, though. And nobody wants 

to come where they get lost, confused and 

take their lives in their hands when they 

cross the street. 

Oklahoma City, one of the few cities with 

a large area similar to Jacksonville’s, began 

a multi-year process of converting nearly all 

of its Downtown streets to two ways from 

2008 to 2013. 

When Oklahoma City was identified 

as having an obesity problem, the mayor 

reacted by making its Downtown more 

walkable, among other things. With Speck’s 

urban planning help, streets were narrowed, 

room was found for bike lanes and 

on-street parking was doubled. 

As Oklahoma City Mayor Mike Cornett 

wrote: “I concluded that we had built an 

incredible quality of life if you happen to be 

a car. But if you happen to be a person, you 

are combating the car seemingly at every 

turn.” 

There was a lot more to the Oklahoma 

City transformation, but two-way streets 

have been one key. It all started with the 

mayor. 

Jacksonville can do this, too. All it takes 

is leadership. That must come from Mayor 

Lenny Curry, who has no objections to twoway 

streets. Chief Administrative Officer 

Sam Mousa recalls when Downtown mostly 

had two-way streets. 

The 2014 Community Redevelopment 

Plan, which is being implemented by the 

Downtown Investment Authority, calls for 

Monroe, Adams, Forsyth, Pearl, Julia and 

Hogan streets to be converted from oneway 

to two-way. 

That sounds relatively easy, but it’s not 

cheap. The plan estimated the cost at $9.4 

million, of which $3 million would be just to 

modify traffic signal equipment. 

The reversion was supposed to be started 

last year and completed this year but visibly 

has not begun. A city spokeswoman said 

vaguely: “The administration has met 

with DIA and will continue its review and 

discussions to determine options that best 

meet downtown traffic and business development 

needs.” 

There will need to be some coordination 

on state roads Downtown, but mostly this 

is a city responsibility. 

So let’s get to work. 

It’s not rocket science. It’s quality of life. 

MIKE CLARK has been reporting and editing for The 

Florida Times-Union and Jacksonville Journal since 1973. 

He has been editorial page editor for the last 12 years 

following 15 years as reader advocate. 


What We 

Learned 

From Irma 

JACKSONVILLE ALMOST MISSED 

THE FORCE OF HURRICANE IRMA. ALMOST. 

IRMA’S POWERFUL STORM SURGE SENT 

THE ST. JOHNS RIVER CASCADING INTo 

DOWNTOWN AND THE SURROUNDING 

NEIGHBORHOODS. 

Hurricane Irma shocked Jacksonville. 

The massive flooding was viewed worldwide. 

Downtown areas were among the hardest hit by flooding 

that was more like a Category 3 hurricane than the 

Category 1 that went west of the city, given the “trifecta 

effect” of a powerful storm surge, 10-15 inches of rain and 

high tide. 

So what lessons did we learn from it? 

We learned that Jacksonville, especially the riverfront 

areas near Downtown, is particularly vulnerable to a new 

era of storm surges and flooding. And the city needs to 

do more to help prevent flooding impacts, require new 

development to be constructed with flooding impacts in 

mind and in some cases retreat from flood-prone areas. 

We also learned that JEA should be doing more to bury 

power lines to help prevent long outages in storms. 

More later about solutions and the need for strong 

political leadership, but first we asked members of the 

Times-Union’s Email Interactive Group for their insights. 

Dan Daniel lives in beautiful Mandarin with all of its 

trees. 

“Lessons learned from Irma center on the ongoing loss 

BY MIKE CLARK // J MAGAZINE 

of power during this type of storm,” he wrote. “I would 

like to see the JEA begin immediately to develop the grid 

in such a way as to prevent the power-line exposure to 

external forces. I realize this cannot be accomplished 

overnight, but get it started. In times of peace, prepare for 

war.” 

Since city-county consolidation about 50 years ago, 

new developments have been required to bury utility 

lines. Now about half of the county has underground 

lines. 

But what if electric customers had been paying a small 

supplement in their bills every month to help fund putting 

electric lines underground? Even if it were done 

slowly, after 50 years, at least some noticeable progress 

would have been made. But doing nothing leaves us with 

the current predicament. 

Historian Jim Crooks sees the impact from past, present 

and future. “Having experienced flooding from Hurricane 

Irma in my condo in Riverside and read about its 

extent in the Times-Union and the Tampa Bay Times, I 

say, ‘Hell, yes’ we need to spend more taxpayer dollars 

in flood control and other preparations for future hurri- 

JOHN BAZEMORE/AP 


People link arms on Sept. 11, 

2017, as they navigate flooded 

Downtown streets near 

The Jacksonville Landing in 

the wake of Hurricane Irma. 


A man stands in the intersection of Water Street and Independent Drive on Sept. 11, 2017, as floodwaters from Hurricane Irma inundated many Downtown streets. 

canes and tropical storms,” Crooks wrote. 

“Past city governments have acted irresponsibly 

in not preparing for a big storm. 

Admittedly other cities, state governments 

and the feds have also been remiss. Jacksonville 

has delayed action in part because 

few of us living here now remember Hurricane 

Dora 53 years ago. We also ignored 

periodic flooding along Northside creeks 

because poor residents, mostly African-Americans, 

lived there. 

“But prosperous San Marco, Riverside-Avondale 

and Ortega are not immune 

either. Not even Downtown. 

“Hurricane Irma calls for civic leadership 

to prepare our flood-prone Jacksonville 

for the next storm. It will come.” 

Longtime appraiser Jim Cooper says 

maybe Hurricane Irma did us a favor by 

awakening us to the dangers of more extreme 

weather fueled by a warming planet 

and sea level rise. 

“Raised footings or even stilts could be 

required in flood-prone areas for new construction,” 

he said. “Consumer awareness 

is also important. The history of Jacksonville’s 

floods should be required reading 

for anyone purchasing on the water.” 

Rob Richardson recalls flooding in San 

Marco in 1967. “One idea is to construct 

higher bulkheads along lower-lying areas 

in San Marco and Riverside that will act 

like a low-level flood wall so as to not entirely 

obstruct the view. 

“We need an alternative to storm drains 

emptying into the St. Johns and redirect 

that excess water to some flood plain, or 

massive retention reservoir that may need 

pumping into the river at some future 

point after flooding conditions are abated.” 

Richardson notes correctly that major 

developments Downtown like the District, 

the Landing and the Shipyards need to include 

flood mitigation in their plans. Michael 

Munz, one of the developers of the 

District on the Southbank, said engineering 

work is underway. 

“All of these efforts cost a lot, and may 

not be needed for another 100 years,” Richardson 

wrote. “But it is a lot like what is 

said about insurance: You always want to 

have it, and never want to use it.” 

George James, who has lived in Arlington 

and then in the Baymeadows area for 

44 years, doubts anything will be done 

about flooding. His advice? “Take the 

flood insurance and run. The government 

doesn’t care about you, and I don’t care 

whether you get flooded or not. It makes 

for good television, but that’s about all. If 

I sound like I won’t support any new taxes 

or anything else, I won’t. Move.” 

In contrast, Charles Winton doesn’t live 

in a flood-prone area but sees the need 

for flood control. ”While no one likes taxes 

and fees, there is no other way to put in 

infrastructure for preventing a repeat of recent 

events and still maintain community 

quality of life,” Winton wrote. “The mayor 

and City Council need to step up to the 

plate and see that it is done.” 

Joel Garrido says homeowners should 

BOB SELF 


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not bear the total burden of flood control 

taxes. He suggests a quarter-cent or halfcent 

increase in sales taxes for five years. 

Richard Birdsall writes that we’ll pay for 

sea level rise one way or another. We can 

wait for floods and pay later or pay early and 

mitigate the damage. 

Gil Mayers says Jacksonville can afford a 

21st century city. “Refocus on stricter, sensible 

building codes for developers, float 

an infrastructure bond bill that would help 

employ our unemployed and unleash the 

multiplier effect with infrastructure jobs in 

this city,” he wrote. “We have been starving 

our citizens by having companies export 

jobs to foreign countries to increase their 

bottom line.” He says we can pay for these 

changes with government stimulus rather 

than tax cuts for the wealthy that never 

work. 

Peter Baci has lived in Jacksonville since 

1981 and has seen flood control “kicked 

down the road.” 

Actually, the city imposed a stormwater 

fee during Mayor John Peyton’s administration. 

That fee is funding various stormwater 

improvement projects. 

The Mayor’s Office provided a list of 18 

specific stormwater improvement projects 

along with a $125 million overall drainage 

system project. 

But Jacksonville is a huge city in land 

area, rippled by rivers and streams with development 

in areas that were once swamps. 

The projects are not enough. More funding 

is needed. 

One positive addition is a proposal led by 

City Council Member Lori Boyer that offers 

federal buyouts of more than 70 homes in 

flood-prone areas. The area is called South 

Shores, which is located west of Bishop 

Kenny High School near the Southbank. 

This is a welcome start to making a difference 

in Jacksonville’s flood-prone areas. 

Aundra Wallace, CEO of the Downtown 

Investment Authority, told the board recently 

that he will be talking to representatives 

of major riverfront developments like 

the District and the Shipyards about dealing 

with flooding risks. For example, the Hyatt 

Regency Jacksonville Riverfront was closed 

to visitors for weeks following the flooding 

from Hurricane Irma. 

The sad fact is that many solutions to 

flooding risks have been staring us in the 

face, but Jacksonville has not tackled them. 

We know that many areas in Jacksonville 

are prone to flooding. 

We know that our wonderful tree canopy 

causes power blackouts during storms. 

But we thought that one direct hit by a 

hurricane in over 100 years — Hurricane 

Dora in 1964 — made Jacksonville hurricane-proof. 

It starts with leadership. In a strong mayor 

form of government, that is based in the 

Mayor’s Office. 

The mayor needs to lead a discussion 

of the problems of flooding and overhead 

power lines, set priorities and test the community’s 

will to spend money to resolve 

them. 

It can’t be done all at once. But it 

shouldn’t be ignored, either. 

With a small revenue increase, paired 

with grants or federal aid, we can make 

progress. 

Imagine if this had been started with 

consolidation about 50 years ago. 

To do nothing would be the greatest sin 

to Jacksonville’s residents — present and 

future. 

MIKE CLARK has been reporting and editing for The 

Florida Times-Union and Jacksonville Journal since 1973. 

He has been editorial page editor for the last 12 years 

following 15 years as reader advocate. 

Happy Holidays 

to our home town 

Moving people, businesses and products 

in Jacksonville for nearly 100 years 

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EYESORE 

By Ron Littlepage 

NORTH OF CITY HALL 

The unsightly facade of the old Ambassador 

Hotel on Church Street is topped with 

razor wire and marked with graffiti. 

Urban core walking tour unveils 

disparity in Downtown upkeep 

visitor taking a walking tour of 

A Downtown on one of the beautiful 

fall days that preceded the Georgia-Florida 

football game this year would 

have been impressed and depressed. 

It’s a tale of two Downtowns. 

In the area between Union Street and 

City Hall, the sidewalks are dirty and often 

littered with broken palm fronds, trash and 

cigarette butts. 

The concertina wire found in spots 

doesn’t exactly shout this is a friendly place 

to be. 

Along Church Street, a large sheet of deteriorated 

plywood torn from a condemned 

building lies beside the curb. From the look 

of it, it has been there for months. 

Along Ashley Street, the city-owned 

rights-of-way are ragged, a mixture of uncut 

grass and weeds, and piles of trash are left 

for long periods. 

The landscaping in the planter boxes 

lining many of the streets is pathetic if it 

exists at all. 

The appearance of a downtown says a lot 

about a city’s core values. 

This part of our Downtown flunks. 

However, from City Hall to the St. Johns 

River, Downtown begins to shine. 

Hemming Park has been transformed 

from its former plaza of shame into an enjoyable 

place to be. 

The sidewalks along Laura Street are wide 

BOB MACK 


BOB MACK (2) 

and inviting and, for the most part, clean. 

The landscaping is much improved, especially 

around major buildings, such as the 

Bank of America and Wells Fargo. 

Private businesses get it. They understand 

that an attractive appearance attracts 

customers. 

That should be the city’s philosophy for 

the entire Downtown. 

It is on the section of Hogan Street where 

the food trucks hold court. That space is 

inviting, clean and brightly colored. 

Lunchtime crowds there are common, 

unlike not that long ago when Downtown 

workers had little to lure them out of their 

workplaces. 

But even this part of our revitalizing 

Downtown is not without problems. 

On the day of the walking tour, our visitor 

would have seen a homeless person sleeping 

on the steps of Snyder Memorial Church, 

which the increased police presence Downtown 

is supposed to prevent. 

And the visitor couldn’t miss what is the 

bane of all of Downtown — thousands of 

those aforementioned cigarette butts that 

are tossed onto sidewalks, into planter boxes 

and into gutters. 

In many ways the appearance of Downtown 

is improving, but more can be done. 

The requirements for making all of Downtown 

an inviting place to be are straightforward: 

effort, commitment and planning. 

Mike Field, one of the young pioneering 

advocates who are making a difference 

Downtown, helped to set up the Court Urban 

Food Park on Hogan Street. 

Asked about the area’s sparkling appearance, 

Fields answer was simple: “We really 

work hard at it. It’s all about caring.” 

It’s also about thinking ahead and persistence. 

Field had always seen that block as important 

for revitalizing Downtown because 

of its location near The Jacksonville Landing 

and the Times-Union Center for the Performing 

Arts. 

As plans were made for the SunTrust 

Tower’s parking garage, advocates lobbied 

for leaving a wide space for retail instead 

of having the garage consume most of the 

block. 

That forward thinking allowed for the 

creation of the food park. 

Downtown Vision Inc. is also making a 

difference in cleaning up Downtown. 

Funded by a special tax paid by 

Downtown property owners, including an 

increased contribution this year from city 

government, Downtown Vision is committing 

more resources to beautification 

SOUTH OF CITY HALL 

A lunchtime crowd (top) gathers at The Court urban food park along Hogan Street while colorful 

flowers (above) bloom near the Bank of America Tower along Laura Street. 

and landscaping projects. 

Its ambassadors, those friendly folks in the 

bright orange shirts, are also pitching in to 

keep Downtown clean. 

In the 2016-17 fiscal year, they picked up 

30,000 tons of litter and removed 370 graffiti 

tags. 

A new state-of-the-art vacuum truck will 

improve street-cleaning. 

And the Friends of Hemming Park and the 

city’s parks department have been behind 

the turnaround at Hemming. 

Jacksonville’s history has not been good 

when it comes to maintaining the infrastructure 

that’s important to its citizens, from 

parks to drainage and, yes, Downtown. 

The city has often fallen short of providing 

the money and the effort needed for proper 

maintenance. 

That’s changing for a large part of Downtown. 

It needs to change for all of it. 

Regular pressure washing, street cleaning, 

trash pickup and the installation of depositories 

for cigarette butts, like those found on the 

Northbank Riverwalk, or fines handed out for 

littering, would be good places to start. 

It will help that money was included in this 

year’s city budget to help spruce up Downtown. 

Our visitor to Downtown on that October 

day would have left conflicted. 

Is Downtown Jacksonville an inviting 

place or is it trashy and uncared for? 

Right now it’s both, but positive progress is 

being made. 

Ron Littlepage has been with The Florida Times- 

Union since 1978. He started writing an opinion 

column in 1989. He lives in Avondale. 


SHOWCASING OUR 


TREASURES 

CAN THE 

CULTURAL 

INTEREST THAT 

COMES WITH 

FASCINATING 

MUSEUMS BE 

VITAL IN MAKING 


DOWNTOWN 

A WORLD-CLASS 

DESTINATION? 

BY FRANK DENTON 

J MAGAZINE 

ARTWORK BY 

Christopher Flagg, FASLA 

An watercolor rendering 

of the USS Adams Museum 

to be located near The 

Shipyards development 

Downtown. 

What would it take 

to lure you away 

from the TV or the 

mall or the beach 

for a few hours 

Downtown? 

The obvious choices are the 

sports and entertainment venues 

that are concentrated in the heart 

of the city. 

But life in Jacksonville is a lot 

richer and more interesting and 

stimulating than that. And a proper 

Downtown should offer you 

a range of attractions and activities 

to make living in the big city 

worthwhile. 

This won’t be a standard guide 

to amusement and merriment; 

you can get that at downtownjacksonville.org. 

A 21st century Downtown also 

offers enlightenment, fascination 

and inspiration. 


Karpeles Manuscript Library Museum 

101 W. 1st St. 

Ritz Theatre & Museum 

829 N. Davis St. 

Let us suggest a range of museums 

that Jacksonville has or soon will have 

— or should have. We have some cool 

experiences, but not nearly enough. 

We won’t divert you with some of 

our splendid regional assets, like Jacksonville 

Zoo and Gardens, Kingsley 

Plantation, Tree Hill Nature Center, 

Timucuan Ecological and Historic 

Preserve, White Oak Plantation or the 

World Golf Hall of Fame. 

We want you Downtown. 

And we won’t invest more ink on 

our two important and complementary 

art museums — the Cummer 

Museum of Art & Gardens and the 

Museum of Contemporary Art — or 

on the bountiful Museum of Science 

and History. Surely you already know 

about them. 

The museums below likely will surprise 

you, possibly charm or intrigue 

you and, in a case or two, educate you 

about the true essence of Jacksonville. 

And then there are our needs. 

OUR EXISTING TREASURES 

Karpeles Manuscript 

Library Museum 

Just to be sure you’re paying attention, 

let’s start with the quirkiest. Don’t be misled 

by the dry-sounding name; it greatly understates 

what you’ll find inside the 1921 Greek 

revival building that once housed the First 

Church of Christ, Scientist, at Laura and 

West First Street. 

David Karpeles is a math professor who 

got rich in California real estate. When his 

hobby of collecting original historic manuscripts 

grew into the world’s largest collection, 

he began buying historic buildings in 

10 medium-size cities and rotating parts of 

his collection among them. 

He had tried big cities first, and when 

he exhibited an original draft of the Bill of 

Rights in New York, he told The Times, he 

expected lines around Central Park. Instead, 

he said, “69 lousy people” showed up over 

a weekend. “So we took it to Jacksonville 

the next weekend, and we had 5,000 people 

showing up.” 

A few examples of what you might find 

sometime at Karpeles: Handel’s Messiah, 

copied in the hand of Beethoven; 

Einstein’s Theory of Relativity; the first 

printing of the Ten Commandments from 

the Gutenberg Bible in 1455; the Confederate 

Constitution; Lincoln’s Emancipation 

Proclamation and Amelia Earhart’s 

Certificate of Landing for her solo flight 

across the Atlantic. 

In keeping with the quirkiness, the outof-date 

Karpeles Jacksonville website says 

the current exhibit is “Robert Fulton and the 

United States Navy,” but that’s long shipped 

out, and through December, it’s actually 

“The Stamp Act and The Intolerable Acts,” 

documents of the “taxation without representation” 

protests that led to the American 

Revolution. 

Oh, and tucked off in a corner is a page 

of the original score of The Wedding March 

from Felix Mendelssohn’s “A Midsummer 

Night’s Dream.” 

FLORIDA TIMES-UNION ARCHIVES 


Clara White Museum 

613 W. Ashley St. 

Merrill House Museum 

319 A. Philip Randolph Blvd. 

RITZ THEATRE AND MUSEUM 

The documents are in glass cabinets, 

so to occupy the walls of the grand former 

sanctuary, the Karpeles displays local art. 

That made my visit surreal: Juxtaposing the 

somber colonial documents were paintings 

of “10 Years of Monsters and Mayhem” by 

local “horror artist” Jerrod Brown. 

When you go to the Karpeles, you may be 

the only visitor. Don’t look for a ticket desk; 

admission is free. If you have questions, 

search out the staff member in an office 

behind the former altar. 

Ritz Theatre and Museum 

To a lot of people, Florida history started 

with the invention of air conditioning, 

so local historians have been on a lonely 

mission. Now, the Times-Union Editorial 

Board, together with the University of North 

Florida, is taking up the cause of recognizing 

that Jacksonville’s 450 years of recorded 

history includes a century as a majority-African-American 

city called “the Harlem of 

the South” because of rich arts and culture. 

Jacksonville was a major stop on the “Chitlin’ 

Circuit” for black entertainers. (Please 

read Ennis Davis’ story on page 80.) 

You’ve heard of the Ritz Theatre and 

Museum, you helped pay for it (with $4.2 

million of the River City Renaissance 

project), and now you can spend a stimulating 

hour or two there, at 829 North Davis 

St., to see some of the African-American 

history of Jacksonville. 

Whatever your race, your visit will 

be bittersweet, as the exhibits depict 

not only a thriving LaVilla culture, with 

reconstructions of everyday life, but 

also the long struggle for civil rights. A 

particularly painful exhibit of photos and 

newspaper clippings recounts the brutal 

Ax Handle Saturday in 1960. Take your 

children. 

The highlight of the museum is the 

animatronic conversation between 

the brothers James Weldon and John 

Rosamond Johnson, who wrote Lift Ev’ry 

Voice and Sing, still known as the “Negro 

national hymn.” James Weldon Johnson 

was a renaissance man: one of the first 

black lawyers to pass the Florida Bar and 

the first principal of Stanton High School, 

as well as an author, diplomat and civil 

rights activist. 

Frankly, the museum needs considerable 

enrichment and updating. An interesting 

timeline starts in 1801 but ends in 

1967 with the election to the Civil Service 

Board of the first African-American city 

official since Reconstruction. Since then, 

there have been many more landmarks, 

including the first black sheriff, mayor 

and member of Congress. 

The exhibits tell their story largely 

through old photos and newspaper 

clippings, but many are not identified or 

dated. One article calling for a boycott 

of the white press, apparently after the 

shameful coverage of Ax Handle Saturday, 

ends in midsentence. 

Given that Jacksonville was largely an 

African-American city until Jim Crow 

chased away tens of thousands of blacks 

in the early 20th century and white snowbirds 

began moving in, the Ritz needs a 

much bigger and richer collection. Imagine 

if the Ritz could obtain or borrow 

some of the African-American artifacts 

now simply in storage elsewhere. 

For example, ask the Jacksonville 

Historical Society to share some of its artifacts 

— including a set of slave shackles 

and a complete and authentic Ku Klux 


Klan outfit. It also has a Joseph E. Lee 

collection. Never heard of him? Lee was 

one of the most influential black men in 

Florida around the turn of the last century 

— a lawyer, state legislator, educator, 

elected municipal judge and Edward 

Waters College dean and trustee. 

Create an exhibit around the fascinating 

newspaper coverage of the seven 

lynchings reported in Jacksonville, 

including one that culminated in front of 

the old Windsor Hotel on Hogan Street 

near Hemming Park. The Main Library 

has actual slave manifests and old African-American 

newspapers. 

The more one learns about this disregarded 

history of Jacksonville, the more 

he or she values the rich diversity of the 

city today. The story needs to be told. 

Still, even as the Ritz stands now, 

you’ll come away from your visit with 

a much more robust and meaningful 

understanding of your city. 

Antique maps and photos 

What’s an hour or two of visual and 

historical stimulation worth to you? 

How about free? Is that a good price for 

you? Well, you probably will have to part 

with two or three quarters for one of the 

43,500 public parking spaces in Downtown. 

But then look beyond the bureaucrats 

and the books in City Hall and the Main 

Library, and you’ll find yourself gawking 

at some real Jacksonville treasures. 

(Trust me: Newspaper editors know that 

people like to look at old photos, the 

older the better.) 

Start at City Hall. As you walk into the 

atrium, turn right toward Laura Street or 

left toward Hogan, and lining the halls 

you’ll find an exhibit of wonderful oversized 

historical photos of Jacksonville in 

the late 19th and early 20th centuries. 

You may know that Jacksonville was 

occupied by Union troops during the 

Civil War, and you can see some of those 

Yankees loafing in front of the “Florida 

Union” newspaper office. (Yes, that was 

one of the Times-Union’s predecessors.) 

One of the most recent photos shows 

what the shipyards along Bay Street 

looked like as real working shipyards in 

1950. Compare that to Shad Khan’s contemporary 

vision for The Shipyards. 

On the side toward Hogan, turn right 

into a smaller hall lined with a series of 

photos of the Henry Klutho-designed 

1912 St. James Building evolving into 

City Hall. 

Go back out the front door of City Hall, 

walk diagonally across Hemming Park, 

with MOCA to your left, and enter the 

grand Main Library. Find the elevators 

and ascend to the fourth floor Special 

Collections Department. 

You’ll walk into a huge, soaring room 

with all 14 walls filled with antique maps 

of Northeast Florida, the rest of the 

state, the Americas and the world. How 

antique? The oldest, of South America 

with illustrations of local fauna, is from 

1522, and the newest is a U.S. Geological 

Survey map of the Mayport area in 1932. 

Most are from the 17th through the 19th 

centuries. 

It’s the Lewis Ansbacher Map Collection, 

assembled by the prominent 

attorney over 20 years then donated to 

the museum by his family after he died 

in 2004. 

You can see how British cartographers 

saw “The Theatre of War in North 

America” in 1776 and an astoundingly 

inaccurate map of the Americas by Italian 

geographer and theologian Giovanni 

Lorenzo d’Anania about 1582. And you’ll 

be amazed and amused at the distorted 

depictions of Florida from times before 

modern surveying equipment and 

airplanes. 

Look on the South wall for an 1835 

map of Florida around the Second 

Seminole War. It shows no towns below 

the trading post of Volusia, and most of 

South Florida is labeled simply “Mosquito” 

county. 

I’d tell you how to find an online virtual 

tour of the maps, but experiencing the 

Ansbacher collection in person is well 

worth a visit Downtown. 

While you’re in the Special Collections 

Department, walk around the large diorama 

showing what Jacksonville looked 

like after the great fire of 1901. 

Merrill House 

Then drop over to A. Philip Randolph 

Boulevard, across from Veterans Memorial 

Arena and next to the Baseball 

Grounds, and you’ll see the only major 

church that survived the fire, the beautifully 

restored Old St. Andrews, tallest in 

the city when it was built in 1887. Now 

deconsecrated, it is managed by the 

Jacksonville Historical Society and used 

for special events. 

Peek in and enjoy the stained-glass 

windows, but you’re here mainly for the 

Merrill Museum House next door, the 

centerpiece of the work of the society, 

which is responsible for much of the 

knowledge and artifacts of Jacksonville’s 

history. The house doesn’t keep regular 

hours, but call the society (904-665- 

0064), and they’ll probably open it just 

for you. 

James E. Merrill started an iron works 

on East Bay Street in about 1875 and built 

it into one of the South’s largest shipbuilding 

companies — along the area 

now planned to be Shad Khan’s modern-day 

Shipyards development. By1886, 

he was prosperous enough to build this 

Queen Anne house a couple of blocks 

away on Lafayette Street, so he could 

walk to work. A century later, the badly 

deteriorated house was saved by the 

society and the City, moved to A. Philip 

Randolph and fully restored. 

The society says the house is the largest 

and most architecturally interesting 

19th century house left in east Jacksonville. 

The restoration recreated the house 

as an upper-middle class house would 

have been in 1903. 

The rooms are furnished as they 

would have been then, with an authentic 

kitchen and formally set dining-room 

table. Kids are agape when told how the 

chamber pots were used. 

ALVORD, KELLOG & CAMPBELL (MAP). FLORIDA TIMES-UNION ARCHIVE 


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Clara White Mission, FLORIDA TIMES-UNION ARCHIVES 

A curiosity hung in the house is a 

plaque with the bell from the yacht 

Magic, which won the America’s Cup in 

1870. Apparently it came off the Magic 

later when it was serviced in the Merrill 

shipyard. 

But the best single treasure in the 

house is a painting of a girls’ school 

in Aiken, S.C., that dates to 1845. It is 

attributed to miniaturist Henry Bounetheau 

or his wife, Julia Du Pré. The society 

says it was owned by their son, Henry 

Jr., who lived in Jacksonville and, during 

the Great Fire of 1901, was determined 

to save what he called his “mother’s 

painting.” The story is that he died in the 

rescue, but the painting survived — albeit 

with burn holes you can see today as it 

hangs in the Merrill House parlor. 

Clara White Museum 

The most personal, and perhaps 

touching, museum experience in 

Jacksonville may be a set of rooms on 

the second floor of the venerable Clara 

White Mission in LaVilla. The mission 

has its roots in the 1880s, when former 

slave Clara English White started helping 

feed her neighbors from her two-room 

house on Clay Street. 

She adopted Eartha, the secret child 

of a young wealthy white man and his 

family’s servant, and the remarkable 

mother-daughter team developed into 

what has been called the oldest humanitarian 

organization in Jacksonville and 

probably Florida. 

Author Tim Gilmore has written: 

“If the goodness, kindness, and mercy 

enacted in a particular building, on a 

certain quadrant of earth, can accrue 

across the years, then the Clara White 

Mission should be a pilgrimage site and 

613 Ashley Street in LaVilla is sacred 

ground.” 

Eartha White, who trained and toured 

as an opera singer in her youth, returned 

to Jacksonville in 1896 and became active 

in education, activism and business. 

But her lasting contribution was working 

with her mother, then alone, through 

the Clara White Mission and many other 

social-service projects and agencies, 

including founding what was then called 

the “Colored Old Folks Home,” now a 

nursing home. 

The work escalated greatly during the 

Great Depression, requiring more space, 

so Eartha White obtained the old Globe 

Theatre Building on Ashley and dedicated 

it to the memory of her mother. She 

never married and lived frugally in the 

second-floor rooms from 1932 until she 

died in 1974 at age 97. She lived in the 

middle of the swirling work providing 

food, housing and social services to the 

poor and homeless. 

Now those rooms are the Clara White 

Museum, which adds another poignant 

dimension to Jacksonville history. 

Eartha White’s bedroom barely holds 

her bed, dresser and a table. She saved 

the larger guest room for visiting friends, 

which the museum says included the 

Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Booker T. 

Washington, Mary McLeod Bethune, 

James Weldon Johnson and his brother 

John Rosamond Johnson, and Eleanor 

Roosevelt. 

The museum includes a parlor, a 

dining room and the kitchen, which prepared 

meals for the poor for more than 

40 years until a more modern one was 

added downstairs, now serving about 

400 meals a day in the mission, which 

includes 28 day beds. 

You might think the museum’s most 

treasured artifact is the organ donated by 

a member of Duke Ellington’s band. But 

CEO/President Ju’Coby Pittman says it’s 

Eartha White’s Bible because, before she 

would do business with visitors, she sat 

down and read the Bible with them. 

The building itself is historic. It began 

in 1907 as a hotel, then became a store 

and a gambling house before being 

turned into the Globe Theatre. The museum 

says Jacksonville’s premier architect 

Henry Klutho came from retirement 

to oversee the renovation of the building 

as a personal favor to Eartha White. 

If you want to be inspired through a 

visit, call the museum weekdays at (904) 

354-4162 and ask for Rosa Nicholas. 

You’ll have a chance to donate $5 for 

museum upkeep. 

TREASURES ON THE WAY 

Jacksonville Fire Museum 

Jacksonville has a very personal relationship 

with fire given that the Great Fire of 

1901 destroyed the heart of the city, burning 

146 city blocks across two miles, destroying 

more than 2,368 buildings and leaving 

almost 10,000 people homeless. 

Built largely with bricks salvaged from 

buildings razed by the fire, the Catherine 

Street Fire Station opened 10 months after 

the fire destroyed the original 1886 structure. 

It was the first all-black fire station, with an 

engine wagon and two horses on the first 

floor and the firefighters’ quarters on the 

second, connected by a traditional brass 

pole. 

The horses were retired as obsolete in 

1921, and the firefighting company left seven 

years later. The building was used as a repair 

shop and storage until it became the Jacksonville 

Fire Museum in 1982. It was moved 

from Catherine Street to Metropolitan Park 

on the riverfront in 1993. The museum was 

listed on the National Register of Historic 

Places in 1972 and included on the Florida 

Black Heritage Trail in 1992. 

But it’s not a museum right now. It quietly 

shut down in March 2016 after structural 

and water damage and lead paint were 

discovered. Officials say approximately 

$750,000 worth of repairs and restoration 

should be finished by April and the museum 

reopened by late next summer. 

What you’ll see, says the Jacksonville Fire 

and Rescue Department, is “an incredible 

variety of exhibits and artifacts that depict 

the evolution of our city’s fire service from its 

beginnings in the 1850s to the introduction 

of motorized vehicles in the 1920s, to the creation 

of our Rescue Division in the 1960s and 

CONTINUED ON PAGE 90 


Scores of travelers 

await their trains 

in the concourse of 

Jacksonville’s Union 

Terminal around 1921. 


The Rich 

History 

of Jacksonville 

O 

BY ENNIS DAVIS, AICP // FOR J MAGAZINE 

State Archives of Florida 

{The one you probably didn’t know about} 

ne of the greatest resources a 

city can possess is the historic fabric of its community. 

Culture, heritage and sense of place 

have always served as major ingredients in the 

appeal of popular destinations throughout the 

world. 

For communities with significant cultural 

resources, heritage tourism is a real contributor 

to the economy and so, arguably, should 

be viewed as critical infrastructure, says Adrienne 

Burke, a trustee with the Florida Trust for 

Historic Preservation and executive director of 

Riverside Avondale Preservation. 


LaVilla was a bustling hub for black-owned businesses as seen in this early 20th century photo of the intersection of West Bay Street and today’s Broad Street. 

The challenge for Jacksonville, which has 

long ignored its history, is to celebrate it and 

make it part of the city’s image and brand. 

Utilizing its antebellum beauty and 

charm to its advantage, Savannah attracted 

13.9 million visitors in 2016, spending $2.8 

billion in its economy. In Charleston, the 

numbers were more staggering with $27 

billion in annual total gross sales and 41,000 

jobs supported annually due to the preservation 

of its architectural heritage as the 

Southeast’s largest city during the colonial 

era. 

In the years after the Great Fire of 1901, 

Zora Neale Hurston lived in Jacksonville at 

1477 Evergreen Ave. with her brother John 

and his family. A novelist, short story writer, 

folklorist and anthropologist known for her 

contributions to African-American literature, 

Hurston eventually became a leading 

figure in the New Negro Movement and 

Harlem Renaissance. 

Next door, the family operated a flower 

shop in a period when the city was characterized 

as a dense walkable network of 

neighborhoods tied together with a 61-mile 

streetcar system carrying 13.8 million passengers 

in 1912. 

In 2013, the century-old Hurston family 

business was quietly demolished with little 

discussion, which continues to be a common 

occurrence in working-class neighborhoods 

adjacent to Downtown. The Hurston 

flower shop’s relation to a nationally recognized 

historical figure and its untimely 

demise is the result of a city that has a rich, 

fascinating history not viewed as critical 

infrastructure because most of its citizens 

don’t know about it. 

The Hurston site also represents a historical 

period of significance that remains unmatched 

in Florida and much of the South’s 

Lowcountry. As the region’s first urban center 

to surpass 100,000 residents, Jacksonville 

is the home of the largest collection of urban 

structures built between the Great Fire of 

1901 and the 1960s. Jacksonville attracted 

well respected citizens and villains like 

Charles Ponzi and bootleggers like William 

“Bill” McCoy. However, this significant history 

has been lost with time. 

In Downtown Tampa, the Henry B. 

Plant Museum is a U.S. National Historic 

Landmark housed in a lavish hotel completed 

by the railroad tycoon in 1891. Recalling 

the country’s Gilded Age and the extraordinary 

life of the railroad tycoon largely responsible 

for the Bay Area’s growth, the museum 

was established by the City of Tampa 

in 1941. 

Unknown to most, it was Plant who also 

laid the foundation for Jacksonville’s modern 

development with the opening of the 

city’s streetcar system in 1879. It was also 

Plant who extended his railroad to the city 

in 1881, making direct travel from the North 

possible and Jacksonville a Gilded Era tourist 

destination. His lasting local legacies include 

CSX Transportation, Riverside’s Five 

Points and several other mixed-use districts 

throughout the urban core that were built 

around Plant’s streetcar lines. 

In South Florida, Whitehall is another 

National Historic Landmark dedicated 

to a 19th century railroad magnate, Henry 

Flagler. However, it was Flagler’s investments 

that made Jacksonville Florida’s Gateway 

City. Seeing a need for a grand railroad 

station, the Standard Oil partner of John D. 

Rockefeller established the Jacksonville Terminal 

Company in 1893. The railroad terminal 

eventually grew to become the largest 

passenger railroad station south of Washington, 

DC, serving as many as 40,000 trains 

and 10 million passengers annually. 

Plant and Flagler’s late 19th century 

railroads laid the foundation for modern 

Jacksonville, rapidly pushing the city past 

Savannah and Charleston and into national 

prominence. 

Today, many wonder if removing Confederate 

monuments will erase the city’s 

history without realizing that Jacksonville’s 

significant history as a progressive turnof-the-century 

African-American cultural 

center is still being overlooked, ignored and 

erased. 

By 1900, Jacksonville emerged as Florida’s 

largest city with 57 percent of its population 

African-Americans working in the 

city’s booming hotel, lumber, port, con- 

State Archives of Florida 


struction and railroad industries. 

In the decade following the Great Fire of 1901, Jacksonville’s population 

increased 103 percent, leading to the local African-American 

community emerging as a cultural exchange partner with New Orleans 

prior to the implementation of Florida’s most restrictive segregation 

laws. 

During this era, nationally significant and historically recognized 

individuals such as James Weldon Johnson, John Rosamond Johnson, 

Hurston, Ma Rainey, Robichaux and Jelly Roll Morton spent time 

living in Jacksonville and fostering a culture of black entertainment 

and enlightenment, culminating in 1910 with the first published account 

of blues singing on a public stage occurring at LaVilla’s Colored 

Airdome. 

By the time New York City’s Harlem Renaissance came around 

during the 1920s, Ma Rainey was known as the “Mother of Blues,” and 

Jelly Roll Morton was known as the “Father of Jazz.” Since much of the 

city’s rich and fascinating history is forgotten, LaVilla has been called 

the Harlem of the South, when it’s Harlem that should be called the 

LaVilla of the North. 

Now, by focusing on its culture, heritage and sense of place, Beale 

Street is Memphis’ most popular tourist attraction, drawing five million 

visitors annually. 

On the other hand, Ashley Street, Jacksonville’s version of Beale 

Street, is a shell of its former self after being largely razed as a part 

of a River City Renaissance plan intended to rid downtown of the 

blight where the likes of Ray Charles and Blind Blake once lived, A. 

Philip Randolph, Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington once played, 

and Booker T. Washington and Martin Luther King, Jr. visited, further 

cementing that we have a rich, fascinating history that most people 

don’t know about. 

While “tiny houses” have recently emerged as one of the 

nation’s most trendy housing styles, the “shotgun” is an original tiny 

house that is also a lasting legacy of early Jacksonville’s forgotten 

cultural connection with New Orleans. Exemplifying a type of working-class 

housing that was common in African-American urban centers 

between 1870 and 1910, many scholars believe this Folk Victorian 

style of architecture is a reflection of African building traditions that 

entered the country through the transatlantic slave trade, starting in 

New Orleans and brought to Jacksonville by migrating black freedmen. 

Also known as the “Southern Rowhouse”, the Shotgun emerged 

as the city’s dominant housing type prior to World War II. Once seen 

as a solution to urban overcrowding, in the second half of the 20th 

century, the shotgun had become a symbol of blight, and neighborhoods 

dominated with this housing style like LaVilla, Brooklyn, 

Hansontown and Campbell Hill became prime targets for urban renewal 

initiatives. 

Rarely showing up on annual “most endangered historic places to 

save” lists, examples of these working-class row house rows still line 

streets in the Eastside and may be the economic answer to housing affordability 

for those seeking smaller spaces in walkable settings, while 

serving as a cultural link to the city’s forgotten heritage and past. 

While LaVilla buzzed with African-American enlightenment, a 

red light district and pockets of Chinese, Syrian, Greek and Cuban 

immigrants, and architects like Henry J. Klutho pushed the city’s architectural 

sectors to new levels. The decade following the Great Fire 

also resulted in Jacksonville emerging as an epicenter for the silent 

film industry. 

Opening this fall in Riverside 

Opening 

Opening 

this 

this 

fall 

fall 

in 

in 

Riverside 

Riverside 

LOCAL SEAFOOD 

CRAFT 

LOCAL 

COCKTAILS 

SEAFOOD 

BRUNCH LOCAL 

CRAFT 

• LUNCH SEAFOOD 

COCKTAILS 

• DINNER 

CRAFT COCKTAILS 

BRUNCH • LUNCH • DINNER 

BRUNCH riverandpostjax.com 

• LUNCH • DINNER 

riverandpostjax.com 

riverandpostjax.com 

CONTINUED ON PAGE 92 


DOWN & 

ALMOST 

OUT 


Built in 1903, a row of shotgun houses were originally located on Lee Street, before the city moved them to Jefferson Street next to Genovar’s Hall (below). 

URBAN BLIGHT: Something needs to be done 

about these10 decaying Downtown buildings 

BY PAULA HORVATH + RON LITTLEPAGE // PHOTOGRAPHS BY WILL DICKEY // J MAGAZINE 

For the longest time, a standard joke 

about Downtown went like this: 

The favored window treatment 

Downtown is plywood. 

That always drew a chuckle, but 

the sad reality was it was painfully 

close to being true. 

The most startling examples 

were the Laura Street Trio and the 

Barnett Bank Building. 

They occupy a critical piece of 

real estate on Laura Street, and 

their deteriorating conditions, 

especially the bombed-out look 

of the Trio, shouted to passersby that Downtown 

was in decline. 

After years of effort, those buildings are now 

being restored as Downtown surges forward. 

But other vacant, decaying buildings still dot 

Downtown and cry out for attention if Downtown 

is to truly become what we know it can 

be. We’ve focused on 10 of those. 

They are historic buildings, and for historians 

they conjure up the sights and sounds of 

our city’s fascinating past and instill the fervent 

belief that they should be saved and restored so 

those memories don’t disappear. 

For developers who might consider such 

work, the challenges are so daunting and the 

cost so high that most often the decision is 

whether it’s worth the investment required. 

Restoration or demolition: That’s the difficult 

choice. 

But as Downtown continues to improve, 

there should be no argument over this: These 

buildings can’t be allowed to remain as they 

have for the past two decades — mostly unused 

and a blight on Downtown. 

Genovar’s Hall and 

the Shotgun Houses 

One of Downtown’s main roadways — Jefferson 

Street — takes a visitor past four buildings 

surrounded by a chain link fence topped 

by three strands of barbed-wire, not exactly a 

welcoming sight. 


One of them is Genovar’s Hall. Built in 1895, it was at the heart of 

a thriving African-American community in LaVilla. 

Jazz greats Louis Armstrong and Billie Holiday played there. 

The building has been vacant since the mid-1980s. It’s now just a 

graffiti-stained, empty shell. 

In 1998, an African-American fraternity tried to restore the building. 

After years of effort and almost $1 million in state and city money, 

the city took ownership of the property in 2009. 

And there it sits today — an eyesore. 

On the same city-owned lot, there are three shotgun houses that 

were built in 1903. 

They were originally located on Lee Street, but after being barely 

saved from demolition as most of LaVilla was razed during the River 

City Renaissance, the city moved them to Jefferson Street. 

They have been there since 1999, slowly falling apart — another 

eyesore. 

The idea had been a good one. The restored Genovar’s Hall and 

shotgun houses would anchor a block that would serve as an active 

museum recreating the vibrant life that LaVilla had enjoyed before it 

was destroyed for modern development. 

It was a good intention that has gone unrealized for two decades. 

Mayor Lenny Curry correctly pressured the private owners of the 

Berkman Plaza tower that has sat unfinished for years on the riverfront 

into taking action to move that project forward. 

That’s a little bit like telling someone to take a speck out of their 

eye when you have a log in your own. 

Owner: The City of Jacksonville 

Barriers: Many. But historians say what remains 

of the buildings is structurally sound. 

Florida Baptist Convention Building 

Just down the street from the marvelously restored Seminole 

Club — now Sweet Pete’s — is the last building in downtown Jacksonville 

designed by famed architect Henry Klutho. 

Once the structure at 218 Church St. bustled with activity as the 

tan brick building served as the denominational offices of the Florida 

Baptist Convention. Today, it’s sadly decaying. 

Behind the plywood that covers its front entrance, rooms are 

gutted, plaster is falling from the ceiling and decades of debris litter 

the floor 

A possible savior had appeared in 2014 when Marcus Lemonis, 

the billionaire reality-show “shark” who footed much of the bill for 

Sweet Pete’s, bought the building. 

But plans to create first a park then a college dormitory within its 

five stories stuttered and died. 

It’s sold several times since then. Atrium Properties bought it in 

early 2017 and has no plans yet to redevelop it. 

Owner: Atrium Properties LLC 

Old Federal Reserve building 

This building completes the “forgotten” block of structures 

bounded by Hogan, Church and Julia streets. It is the only building 

on the list that’s not vacant. 

Now known as the Physician and Surgeon Building, the bank 

at 424 N. Hogan St. was opened in 1924 in the heart of the city’s 

central business district. 

It was where the bankers banked. 

It was designed by the city’s first female architect Henrietta Dozier, 

who was born in Fernandina Beach and graduated from the 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1899. She was the first 

Southern woman to be accepted by the American Institute of Ar- 


Vacant for many years, the six-story Ambassador Hotel at 310 Church St. is in a decaying state, with graffiti (below) marking many of the building’s interior walls. 

chitects and lived in Jacksonville until her death in 1947. 

Its stately columns outside have remained nearly unchanged 

since the building opened. 

The interior, however, has deteriorated, although its second floor 

still contains ornamentation. The building’s basement housed the 

vault and offices. 

An insurance company, USF&G, occupied the building in the 

1960s. Dr. Paek Naykoon purchased the building in 1982 as his primary 

care clinic. 

Owner: Dr. Paek Naykoon. The building is currently for sale. 

Barriers: The interior needs extensive rehabilitation. 

Ambassador Hotel 

Just down the street from the old Florida Baptist Convention 

building sit the decaying remains of what — at the time of its 

construction — was Downtown’s most posh apartment building. 

Then known only as the 310 West Church Street Apartments, 

the six-story building opened in 1924 advertised as one of Jacksonville’s 

best; each apartment guaranteed window views due to 

the unique H-shaped configuration of the edifice. 

The apartments had all been rented before it even opened its 

doors. 

Reconfigured as a hotel two decades 

after it opened, the building 

went through several name changes 

before it assumed the moniker of the 

Ambassador Hotel in 1955. 

It’s been all downhill from then. 

Today its windows are boarded with 

Downtown’s ubiquitous plywood 

and its exterior entrances are topped 

with razor wire. 

Although it was added to the National 

Register of Historic Buildings 

in 1983, that did nothing to slow its 

downward spiral. It became a haven 

for drugs, and in 1998 the building 

was condemned. 

But its skeleton remains strong. 

In fact, in the early 2000s, plans 

were made to remodel the old hotel, 


and in 2009 a proposal was revealed to remodel the building as The 

Ambassador Lofts. 

That never came to pass. 

Owner: Sam Easton. The hotel is currently up for sale. 

Barriers: The building is structurally sound but would need extensive 

interior renovation. 

Richmond Hotel 

During an era when “old” translated to “worthless,” the city razed 

much of the African-American neighborhood of LaVilla in the 1990s. 

Once a thriving cultural and musical community unparalleled 

across the country, LaVilla became a sad commentary on the perils 

of “revitalization” efforts in Jacksonville. 

One of the buildings that survived the wrecking ball is one of the 

area’s most significant — the old Richmond Hotel at the corner of 

Broad and Church streets. 

In its prime the Richmond Hotel was Downtown’s premier lodging 

for African-American visitors to the city. 

Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday 

might be glimpsed leaning from the balconies that overlooked 

Broad Street. 

More recently, it became the DeLoach Furniture building, and 

now the first floor of the building contains DeLo Studios. The old 

hotel’s upper floors, where the visitors’ rooms were located, however, 

are boarded up and dark. 

Owner: DeLoach family. Currently for sale. 

Barriers: The upstairs floors are boarded, and it 

has no central heat and air. It needs considerable 

renovation and remediation of animal droppings. 

Jones Furniture Company building 

Heading north on Hogan Street, it’s easy to see the “Jones Bros. 

Furniture” on the side of a tan seven-story building that looms over 

others in the 500 block. 

It stands as a testament to the potential hazards of relatives trying 

to compete in the same business. 

Here, R.L. Jones started a furniture company as a rival to his 

brothers’ Jones Brothers Furniture Company that had opened a 

six-floor building on Main Street. R.L. Jones, determined to best 

his own brothers, built the building for his company Standard Furniture 

on Hogan one story higher. 

The name on the side of the building actually came much later 

after R.L. Jones’ sons purchased both companies and kept the 

name to form one of the city’s largest family-owned businesses. 

At one time, there were plans to turn the building into an office 

complex, but as so many ideas for aging buildings, this one fell 

through. 

The building has been vacant for years. 

Owner: OUR Properties. 

Snyder Memorial 

If there’s a single building most central to the revitalization of 

Downtown, it may be Snyder Memorial, sitting as it does at one of 

Hemming Park’s corners. 

A former Methodist church built shortly after the Great Fire of 

1901, the building is magnificent inside and out. 

Visitors to the Gothic Revival church are first impressed by its 

gray granite and limestone exterior, the point nearest the intersection 

crowned with a crenellated bell tower. The interior is just 

as stunning, with beams and arches of yellow pine forming its 

ceiling. 

In its more than 100 years of life, Snyder Memorial has stood 

witness to Jacksonville history. 

From its birth during the city’s great Renaissance following the 

fire, to the civil rights actions of the 1960s, to the coming revitalization 

of Downtown, Snyder Memorial has been there. 

But it always hasn’t been an active participant. 

After the congregation disbanded in 1992, the building was 

purchased by the St. Johns River City Band, which began holding 

regular performances there. 

But the operation was shaky from the start, and the band convinced 

the city to take over the mortgage. The building was vacated 

by the band in 2004. 

The city has since requested proposals to use the space on several 

occasions, but nothing ever seemed to click. 

Mayor Lenny Curry’s proposed Capital Improvement Plan, 

which was approved by the City Council, does contain $600,000 

for interior renovations of the old church during this fiscal year. 


Barriers: The city is the main impediment. 

Let’s get this building back up and running! 

The Chili Bordello Trio 

Jacksonville residents who’ve lived here a while might remember 

JoAnn’s Chili Bordello at 521 W. Forsyth St., now practically in 

the shadow of the new Duval County Courthouse. 

Here, a host dressed as a madam oversaw waitresses dressed as 

… well you get it. In its day, the Chili Bordello was a unique watering 

hole with 15 kinds of chili, although today it would border on 

the inappropriate. 

However, the one-story building the Bordello occupied wasn’t 

always a “restaurant of ill repute.” It opened in 1906 and served 

briefly as both a real estate office and bicycle shop. 

The now-vacant building sits next to a pair of other buildings, 

three of the only structures to remain in what was once a thriving 

community. 

A narrow four-story building directly behind the old Chili Bordello 

was built in 1910 of brick and reinforced concrete, construction 

that made it fire-proof in the cautious years of building following 

the 1901 fire. 

It once contained a slaughterhouse, the Voodoo Lounge and, interestingly 

considering its proximity to the Chili Bordello, a house 

of prostitution. 

Right next door to the Bordello building, at 523 W. Forsyth St., is a 

two-story structure once called Bailey’s Camera Corner. It was moved 

here from its original site near the Atlantic National Bank, a testament 

to how buildings were once recycled. 

Owner (Bordello/Slaughterhouse): RIM Properties. The building is 

not for sale. 

Owner (Camera Corner): LGS of North Florida LLC. 

Barriers: All these buildings need interior renovation. 

Claude Nolan Cadillac Building 

When it opened in 1910, this building was as luxurious as the 

luxury cars parked in its showroom. 

The stunning building, designed in Prairie Style by Henry Klutho, 

was like a glittery jewel box. It featured floor-to-ceiling glass 

windows, inlaid stairwells and a mosaic of the Cadillac crest built 

into the showroom floor. 

It served as an opulent entrance to the Springfield area, situated 

as it was on the Downtown side of Hogans Creek, overlooking 

Confederate Park. 


Built in 1915, the old Armory building at Market and State Streets features an auditorium (below) that hosted Eleanor Roosevelt in 1936. and Janis Joplin in 1970, 

Claude Nolan himself died in 1943, and he must have turned 

over in his grave when his fabulous dealership was “remodeled” 

in 1945. The inept architect responsible ripped out the building’s 

windows and stuccoed the delicately appointed exterior. 

The dealership moved in 1985, and the building served for a period 

of time as a warehouse for a food company. 

It’s remained largely vacant since then, its intact Klutho-designed 

facade hidden behind beige stucco. 

Owner: 937 Main Street LLC. The building is not for sale. 

Barriers: The city’s failure to move forward with the 

needed remediation on the contamination in Hogans Creek. 

Old Armory building 

The final building on our list is a grand castle-like structure that 

once hosted an array of luminaries ranging from then-First Lady 

Eleanor Roosevelt to Janis Joplin, who 

visited just months before she died. 

The old Armory at Market and State 

streets was a focus for Downtown activity, 

both in the military and social 

spheres. 

Certainly it served the military, but 

its large auditorium and stage also was 

a focal point for any number of public 

events, from the speech delivered by 

Roosevelt in 1936 to Joplin’s appearance 

in 1970. 

Here were also mounted teen dances, 

wrestling and boxing matches, high 

school graduations, basketball games 

and various other private functions. 

Jacksonville’s Parks and Recreation 

Department was housed here for 35 

years, but it’s now been vacant since 

2010, despite an unfulfilled plan by the Sons of the Confederate 

Veterans to turn it into a military museum. 

What a shame! This is a phenomenal building with loads of potential. 


Barriers: This is another property whose restoration 

has been stymied by the failure of the city to clean up the 

toxic waste in Hogans Creek. In addition, the creek has 

caused significant flood damage in some portions of the building. 

Paula Horvath is an editorial writer and editorial board member at The Florida 

Times-Union and teaches multimedia journalism at the University of North Florida. 

Ron Littlepage has been with The Florida Times-Union since 1978. He started 

writing an opinion column in 1989. He lives in Avondale.

SHOWCASING OUR TREASURES 

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 79 

to the establishment of JFRD’s Hazardous 

Materials team in the 1970s and beyond.” 

That’ll include a 1902 horse-drawn steamer 

fire engine and a 1924 ladder truck, as well 

as a collection of old nozzles and hydrants. 

Director/Fire Chief Kurtis Wilson said he 

was intrigued to skim through large leather 

budget ledgers from the early 1900s and 

see the expenditures for things like horse 

feed. As a “huge supporter, big cheerleader” 

for the Fire Museum, Wilson said he has 

required every new uniformed employee to 

visit the museum to get an appreciation of 

Jacksonville firefighter history and culture. 

A huge uncertainty is the site of the 

museum, which now is smack in the middle 

of what is planned to be the Shipyards 

development along the St. Johns. Will the 

museum be integrated into the Shipyards, or 

will it be relocated again? Officials said they 

didn’t know and referred the question to the 

Mayor’s Office, which wouldn’t say or maybe 

doesn’t know. 

But given that the museum is fronted by a 

memorial to the 22 Jacksonville firefighters 

who have died in the line of duty, surely it 

will have a home. 

the relocated Veterans Memorial. 

Meanwhile, it will be developed into a 

museum ship to draw tourists, host educational 

and civic activities, educate people 

about the Cold War and, as its planners say, 

just be “a really fun thing to do in Downtown 

Jacksonville due to the many interesting 

historical aspects of the ship, ship tours and 

ship experience,” like the “battle scenario” in 

the Combat Information Center. 

The Adams, which served in 1960-1990, 

was the first guided-missile destroyer built 

from the keel up for that purpose and is 

credited with revolutionizing anti-air and 

anti-submarine naval warfare as it protected 

carrier task groups during the Cold War. 

Homeported mostly at Mayport, the ship 

played a leading role in the Cuban Missile 

Crisis blockade, surveilled Soviet submarines 

in the North Atlantic, patrolled in the 

Mideast and helped recover the Mercury 

manned space capsules. 

The Jacksonville Historic Naval Ship 

Association, a group of Navy veterans and 

other volunteers, has been working for seven 

years to acquire the Adams from the Navy, 

get all the necessary approvals and raise $2.8 

million for repairs and restoration, towing 

and berthing. More work will be required to 

take full advantage of the entire ship. 

But then, said Daniel Bean, president of 

the executive board and a retired Navy captain, 

the Adams will offer interpretive tours, 

overnight berthing for youth groups, human 

activated models in command centers, 

rooms for parties and meetings. 

In maybe four years, Bean said the group’s 

“wildest dreams” include a restaurant and 

a bed-and-breakfast. “We want to keep 

dreaming, keep changing.” 

Hogans Creek is because the logical site 

is right between Intuition Aleworks and 

Manifest Distillery in the Doro building 

and the olfactory factory of Maxwell 

House on the other side of the creek. 

After sampling the former and smelling 

the latter, who wouldn’t need a cup of 

coffee? 

Furthermore, there is some history 

and uniqueness: The brew was introduced 

in 1892, named in honor of the 

Maxwell House Hotel in Nashville, and 

for many years was the largest-selling 

coffee in the U.S., touted as “good to 

the last drop.” The Maxwell House plant 

in Jacksonville opened in 1910 as the 

Cheek-Neal Coffee Co. on Bay Street, 

across from the existing plant that was 

built in 1924. All Maxwell House coffee is 

now produced in the Jacksonville plant. 

Well, a museum or even a coffee shop 

is not going to happen. Maxwell House, 

now a cog in the Kraft Heinz conglomerate, 

is famously reclusive, and a spokesperson 

politely declined to even talk 

about it. 

USS Adams 

You know what this town needs? More 

Navy! 

Well, maybe not Navy bases given that 

we already have two or even sailors since 

we have a plethora but more Navy history, 

knowledge and culture. And it’s coming. 

Probably in January, you’ll be able to 

go Downtown to Bay Street and watch the 

mighty USS Charles F. Adams, a retired U. S. 

Navy guided-missile destroyer, steam (well, 

be towed) up the St. Johns River to its temporary 

dock at the pier closest to the Berkman 

II skeleton. When the Shipyards project 

comes to life, the plan is for the Adams to be 

anchored at the foot of Hogans Creek next to 

TREASURES WE NEED 

Coffee Museum 

The only reason this is needed on 

Hospital Museum 

Jacksonville is not only a beach town 

and a Navy town, it is also a regional 

health-care center, given our major 

medical centers — St. Vincent’s and 

Baptist, of course, but also the academic 

UF Health Jacksonville and, for heaven’s 

sake, the top-ranked Mayo Clinic. 

Since the founding here of the first 

non-military hospital in Florida in 1870, 

health care in Jacksonville has an engaging 

and important history, and there 

are still scattered artifacts, including two 

remarkable hospital buildings. 

St. Luke’s Hospital, on Palmetto Street 

behind the Veterans Memorial Arena, 

was built in 1878, replacing a two-room 

structure built five years earlier for charity 

cases. The Historical Society says St. 

FLORIDA TIMES-UNION ARCHIVE 


FLORIDA TIMES-UNION ARCHIVE 

Luke’s cared for Jacksonvilleans stricken 

by the yellow fever epidemic in 1888, the 

typhoid outbreak in 1898 related to the 

Spanish-American War and the great fire 

of 1901. It has been called “Florida’s first 

modern hospital.” 

Eventually, St. Luke’s operationally 

folded into Mayo then St. Vincent’s, but 

the Historical Society owns the original 

1878 building and uses it for its offices. 

The society also has antique hospital 

furnishings and equipment and rotates 

some of them for exhibit on the building’s 

first floor. 

Brewster Hospital and School of Nurse 

Training was founded in 1901 as Jacksonville’s 

hospital for African-Americans, 

since they were unwelcome elsewhere. 

The hospital eventually moved and 

became part of Methodist Hospital and 

ultimately merged into what is known 

today as UF Health Jacksonville. 

But the first home still stands, now at 

Monroe and Davis streets, beautifully restored 

by the city 10 years ago at a cost of 

$2.3 million. “The institution operated in 

a former residence for a meat dealer,” the 

society says. “Built in 1885, the dwelling 

features one of Jacksonville’s oldest and 

most remarkable Victorian ‘gingerbread’ 

porches. The two-story veranda contains 

intricate scroll work cut by a jigsaw.” 

The city, which owns the Brewster, is 

now negotiating to lease it to the North 

Florida Land Trust, which will use it for 

offices. 

Wouldn’t it be better if it — or St. Luke’s 

— were recreated into a hospital museum, 

pulling in medical artifacts from the society 

and other sources — and supported 

by a neighborly collaboration of our major 

medical centers? 

Music Museum 

When Jacksonvilleans become more 

aware of the city’s fascinating history, 

they will appreciate its musical heritage. 

As the Times-Union pointed out in an 

editorial, the first authenticated blues 

song was sung in 1920 at Jacksonville’s 

Colored Airdome Theatre, and Ma 

Rainey, known as “Mother of the Blues,” 

lived here for some time, as did Jelly Roll 

Morton, who is credited with writing the 

first jazz song. 

LaVilla was a cultural center, featuring 

Cab Calloway, Ray Charles, Duke Ellington, 

Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday. 

The heritage extends into modern 

times. 

On page 80, Ennis Davis writes: “Robert 

Nix, a founding member of 1970s 

Southern Rock band Atlanta Rhythm 

Section, once referred to Jacksonville 

as the mother of Southern Rock. It’s a 

statement that’s easy to support, with 

the bands such as Lynyrd Skynyrd, Molly 

Hatchet, Blackfoot, Grinderswith, .38 

Special and the Allman Brothers emerging 

from the city during the 1960s and 

1970.” 

Before they even had a name, the 

Allman Brothers, with varying casts of 

musicians, performed free shows in 

Willow Branch Park in Riverside. 

“It is unbelievable,” Davis writes, “that 

there isn’t at least a Southern Rock Hall 

of Fame or museum locally.” 

Navyseum 

More Navy? Did you say we need even 

more Navy? 

While the USS Adams will be a museum, 

the Navyseum would be what 

founder and president Ronald Lanz 

calls “an active exploration center, about 

imagination and physical activity for kids, 

teens and older family members.” 

Lanz, a city planner who was economic 

development director for the City of 

North Chicago, came up with the idea 

when he was executive director for the 

National Museum of the American Sailor 

at Naval Station Great Lakes, the site of 

the Navy’s only boot camp. 

The Navyseum will be across the street 

from that museum, repurposing part 

of an old steel plant and, “as much as 

possible,” pieces of ships and technology 

that have been decommissioned for kids 

to explore. 

“It dawned on me that, when I was a 

kid, I wanted to explore things that were 

off-limits to me,” Lanz said. “All these 

things the Navy is going to scrap, let’s repurpose 

it to create a tourist destination.” 

He said he has spent the last 2 1/2 

years doing feasibility studies and designs 

and successfully raising the $43 million 

for the Chicago Navyseum. He hopes to 

break ground in the spring and open the 

attraction in 2019. 

Jacksonville will be next, he insists, 

because of the “overall size of the market 

and the strength of location with its extensive 

Navy history.” He projects 400,000- 

500,000 annual visitors. 

Lanz said he has made visits to 

Jacksonville and met with city and JAX 

Chamber officials, as well as Jaguar/Iguana 

Investments representatives. 

“The Shipyards location is obvious, but 

if it’s not there, it will wind up somewhere 

else in the general area,” he said. 

“It’s coming to Jacksonville one way or 

another.” 

With the optimism of a developer, 

Lanz said it “probably will be more than 

a year before we have the site selected 

and locked down, then the construction 

phase is 18-22 months. “It will have a 

very large 50,000-square-feet-per-floor 

footprint and at least two floors, with the 

ability to add a third. It will probably be 

very similar to the Chicago design, with a 

ship/bow/deck kind of feel to it.” 

The Navyseum’s website says: “Visiting 

‘Day Sailors,’ ages 2 to 92, can explore 

more than 130,000 square feet of indoor 

and outdoor port and ship facilities 

encompassing a combination of imaginative, 

interactive and interconnected 

themed experience zones. Interconnecting 

bridges, tubes, slides, overlook decks, 

and openings allow multiple activity 

areas to be experienced simultaneously; 

always encouraging the Day Sailor 

to actively explore what is just over the 

horizon. 

“Inspired by real people, events and 

actions, the Navyseum encourages 

guests to think like sailors, act like sailors 

by demonstrating honor, courage, and 

commitment, and challenge themselves 

like sailors.” 

At this point, a Jacksonville Navyseum 

is just a vision, but the new Downtown 

needs big, ambitious visions. 

FRANK DENTON was editor of The Florida 

Times-Union in 2008-16 and now is editor at large 

and editor of J. He lives in Avondale. 


THE RICH HISTORY OF JACKSONVILLE 

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 83 

In 1908, the first permanent studio to film 

year-round opened in Fairfield, making the 

first adaptation of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. 

By 1916, more than 30 movie studios called 

Jacksonville home, including the “Metro” in 

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), which began 

where Metropolitan Park now stands. 

By 1920, an increasing conservative political 

and segregationist leadership successfully 

pushed the movie industry west to a new 

place of business called Hollywood, and the 

rest is history. 

Robert Nix, a founding member of 1970s 

southern rock band Atlanta Rhythm Section, 

once referred to Jacksonville as the mother 

of Southern Rock. It’s a statement that’s easy 

to support, with the bands such as Lynyrd 

Skynyrd, Molly Hatchet, Blackfoot, Grinderswith, 

.38 Special and the Allman Brothers 

emerging from the city during the 1960s and 

1970s. 

While something magical occurred in the 

‘60s in this city, recent history suggests more 

time and effort were devoted to subsidizing 

unsustainable sprawl-style development 

Despite the negative impact and lost opportunities 

due to phenomenal ignorance of local history, 

it’s not too late for Jacksonville 

to realize what makes it special. 

than to preservation of the storied and historically 

fascinating urban core. 

Nevertheless, with billions being funneled 

into the idea of revitalization dating 

back to the Haydon Burns administration, 

it is unbelievable that there isn’t at least a 

Southern Rock Hall of Fame or museum locally. 

If inspiration to turn things around is 

needed, look no further than our peer city 

of Nashville. While the Market Street armory 

that hosted the Allman Brothers Band debut 

concert in 1969 and one of the final performances 

by Janis Joplin sits abandoned and 

empty, Nashville has successfully built upon 

its musical heritage and history. 

Since the opening of the Grand Old Opry 

in 1925, Nashville has marketed and promoted 

its musical heritage 

into an economic powerhouse, 

recognized 

as “Music City USA.” 

The music and entertainment 

industry has 

a $10 billion annual 

economic impact on 

the Nashville region, 

creating and sustaining 

more than 56,000 jobs. 

In downtown Nashville, the impact is 

largely noticeable in the Lower Broadway 

District. A National Register Historic District, 

Broadway’s combination of historic preservation, 

adaptive reuse and promotion of the 

city’s musical heritage has morphed into a 

major attraction filled with restaurants, entertainment 

venues, retail and hotels. 

This form of heritage tourism has stimu- 

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lated the type of vibrant downtown environment 

that Jacksonville seeks and one necessary 

if a new convention center becomes 

fiscally viable. 

Despite the negative impact and lost opportunities 

due to phenomenal ignorance of 

local history, it’s not too late for Jacksonville 

to realize what makes it special. 

According to the National Trust for Historic 

Preservation and its research arm, Preservation 

Green Lab, Jacksonville has more 

buildings built before 1967 than any other 

Florida city. Much of the heritage and environment 

the city developed during its early 

20th century historic period of significance 

still remains quietly waiting for an opportunity 

for a new lease on life. 

Although the JEA intends to abandon the 

Universal-Marion Building in favor of a new 

headquarters complex, the move presents 

a community passionate about its culture, 

heritage and history with an opportunity to 

adaptively reuse a structure that was part of a 

trend of vertical mixed-use sites anchored by 

department stores in the heart of America’s 

urban centers. 

A block from Hemming Park, another 

fascinating part of the Mid-Century Modern 

building’s history is that it was original home 

to the largest 360-degree rotating rooftop 

restaurant in the world, a six-story urban department 

store and one of downtown’s few 

underground parking garages. 

While much of LaVilla is gone, a collection 

of buildings associated with historically 

significant events and individuals, dating 

back to the blues and jazz era remain at the 

intersection of Ashley and Broad Streets, including 

a bar instrumental in the launch of 

the career of Ray Charles. 

Although the shotgun rows of Hansontown 

were largely destroyed by urban renewal, 

the Eastside, a place known for the 1969 

riots and where Asa Philip Randolph, Abraham 

Lincoln Lewis and Zora Neale Hurston 

once roamed, remains largely intact within 

walking distance of EverBank Field. 

Even though Mandarin forever lost its 

status as a separate incorporated city with 

the consolidation of Jacksonville and Duval 

County, Old Mandarin retains the character 

and beauty that attracted noted author Harriet 

Beecher Stowe to the area in the late 1860s. 

Even in defiance of being destroyed by 

the construction of Interstate 95, a small section 

of the prestigious Sugar Hill community 

remains secluded and filled with elegant 

century-old residences, despite being within 

a stone’s throw of UF Health Jacksonville, 

Springfield and Stanton High School. 

To capitalize in bringing local history to 

the fore, educating the public and making 

it an asset to downtown, officials, advocates 

and institutions should consider the story 

behind the development of New Orleans’ Urban 

Conservancy as an applicable example 

for Jacksonville’s renaissance. 

A nonprofit organization dedicated to the 

wise stewardship of and equitable access to 

New Orleans’ rich economic, environmental, 

and cultural assets, the Urban Conservancy 

was established to preserve a unique urban 

setting for a strong and resilient local economy, 

reversing decades of outward migration 

by attracting talented individuals to the city 

through the nurturing of local culture, traditions 

and customs. 

In 2013, a MetroJacksonville.com article 

said that we treat our history too casually, 

and in it, we discard our identity. 

We have much to be proud of and to celebrate. 

From our contributions to the blues, 

jazz and Southern rock to architecture, real 

estate development, the production of movies, 

transportation investments and more, 

our forgotten history and heritage serves as a 

significant example of Jacksonville’s ability to 

change the world. 

Finally accepting, embracing, preserving 

and promoting it may be the rock solid answer 

taking Jacksonville and its core to the 

next level. 

ENNIS DAVIS is a certified urban planner, a graduate 

of Florida A&M University and a previous citizen 

member of the Times-Union Editorial Board. 

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QUESTIONS & ANSWERS 

By Roger Brown 

Preston Haskell, with his Rafe Affleck water sculpture, founded the Haskell Company in 1965. 

Downtown landscape dotted 

with work from Haskell Co. 

alk around Downtown Jacksonville, and there is an 

W 

enormous footprint within its boundaries that you may 

never even notice. 

But it’s there. 

It’s the footprint of the Haskell Company, the Jacksonville-based 

giant that is not only one of the world’s top integrated 

design, engineering and construction firms, it’s also arguably the 

company that has shaped Downtown’s horizon and landscape 

more than any other over the past five decades: 

EverBank Field 

The breathtaking Winston Family YMCA 

The corporate headquarters of the St. Joe Co. 

The Baptist MD Anderson Cancer Center 

The Baptist Heart Hospital 

Wolfson Children’s Hospital. 

The headquarters of Fidelity National Financial. 

The Southbank Riverwalk. 

The JEA South Shores Force Main River Crossing. 

All these Downtown facilities — and many, many more — were 

constructed or designed or just plain made better and more 

eye-catching than before by the hand of the Haskell Co. 

But just as much as its immense physical investment, the Has- 

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Steve Halverson was recently named chairman and CEO of the Haskell Company. 

kell Co. has made a massive civic impact 

in shaping the Downtown Jacksonville 

we now have — and are dreaming and 

forging a path to come. 

And that civic, spiritual influence has 

been defined by Haskell’s two driving 

forces over the past 20 years: Preston 

Haskell, the iconic Jacksonville figure 

who founded the company in 1965, and 

Steve Halverson, who recently became 

Haskell’s chairman and CEO after 18 

years as president. 

Preston Haskell, long hailed as one 

of Jacksonville’s leading visionaries, 

has made an indelible contribution to 

Downtown’s growth. 

He’s done so through both his involvement 

in civic affairs (as chair of the Jacksonville 

Civic Council’s Northbank Redevelopment 

Task Force and JEA’s board of 

directors, among many other positions) 

and philanthropy (a renowned art lover, 

he donated $5 million to the Museum 

of Contemporary Art in 2015, effectively 

preserving MOCA’s place as one of 

Downtown’s anchors). 

Halverson has made his own civic 

mark as he succeeded Haskell. Among 

other leadership roles and honors, he 

has chaired the Jacksonville Civic Council 

and the Jacksonville Symphony, both 

crucial to Downtown. 

In separate interviews, Haskell and 

Halverson provided their insights on 

how far Downtown Jacksonville has 

come — and what still needs to be done 

for it to reach its potential. 

On a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being poor 

and 10 being excellent), how would you 

rate Downtown Jacksonville right now? 

Haskell: I would give it a 6. 

When it comes to a Downtown, I 

measure it by its ability to achieve the 

virtuous circle of “live, work and play.” 

The more people you have working in 

a thriving Downtown, the more likely 

you will find people also wanting to live in 

that Downtown. And the more people are 

living and working in that Downtown, the 

more the appeal and demand grows for 

places to play — entertainment, cultural 

offers, etc. — which more and more 

restaurants and entertainment venues 

and culture organizations will surface and 

develop in Downtown to meet. 

A great Downtown — a 9 or a 10 — has 

all three elements: live, work and play. 

We’re strong on the “work” element. 

We’re getting better on the “play” 

element. 

But we’re still lagging overall on the 

residential — the “live” part. 

Halverson: I wouldn’t assign a number 

to it. 

I would say Downtown Jacksonville is 

still a work in progress, with significant 

work that’s already been done — but with 

a lot of work still left to be done. 

Every great city has a great Downtown. 

And to me, a great Downtown has high 

levels of residency, activity and safety. 

We still, in general, have an insufficient 

amount of residency Downtown. 

We’re starting to make some movement 

in getting a higher level of activity 

Downtown. 

And the reality is that as far as safety, 

Downtown Jacksonville is pretty safe 

place to be. That’s a fact that’s not always 

well understood by some people in how 

WILL DICKEY 


they view our Downtown, but it really is the reality. 

So we need to keep maintaining what we’re doing with safety, 

keep adding to our level of activity — we have a lot, but we need 

more — and make significant improvement on residency. 

What makes you especially proud when you walk around 

Downtown Jacksonville these days? 

Haskell: I’m proud about a lot of what I see. If I had to pick 

one, MOCA is the thing I’m most proud about. Being able to play 

a role in the growth and security of such an important and wonderful 

symbol of the fine arts — and keeping it in a Downtown 

location inside a classic, restored building — is very gratifying. 

Halverson: I’m always proud when I think about the sweeping 

impact that the Better Jacksonville Plan has had (Downtown). 

The Main Library, the new Courthouse and the other improvements 

that the BJP brought about are still having immeasurable 

positive effects on Downtown. 

If you were the czar of Jacksonville and could instantly 

make one thing happen in Downtown Jacksonville, what 

would it be? 

Haskell: I would instantly have the residential infrastructure 

in place for 10,000 to 15,000 people to be living in Downtown 

Jacksonville. There are a lot of projects going on now that will 

keep pushing us closer to that goal. But we’ve got to get there as 

quickly as we can for Downtown to fully reach its potential. Right 

now, as a city, the number of Downtown housing units we have 

is similar to what you would have in a much smaller American 

city. 

We are starting to get there, so I’m optimistic. 

Halverson: If you look at every great American city, you see 

that it has something in its Downtown that’s larger than life 

and transformative in nature, something that has an enduring 

“wow” factor to it. We don’t have that big, muscular, larger-thanlife 

symbol in Downtown Jacksonville — not yet, anyway. So if 

I could make one thing happen, it would be for our city to put 

every bit of energy and investment it can behind (Jaguars owner) 

Shad Khan’s vision for the Shipyards — and to make sure that it 

comes to full fruition. 

What Shad Khan is envisioning is more than just a plan. 

It’s big-vision, imaginative and bold thinking. It’s going to be 

global in its aspiration. A city could wait decades, generations, 

to have the alignment that we have right now in Jacksonville: We 

have someone in our city with an imaginative, innovative vision 

who also has the willingness to devote significant resources and 

investment to bring those bold ideas to life. 

In fact, we may never see that kind of alignment again. 

So we as city need to support that with every bit of energy and 

commitment we can. 

And I would also add a piece of advice for our city to follow. 

What would that be? 

Halverson: (with a chuckle) I would listen to and follow every 

bit of advice that Preston Haskell offers. What he knows about 

our Downtown — and the insights that he has about what it can 

be — would take the rest of us two lifetimes to come close to 

learning. He’s truly an amazing man. 

ROGER BROWN has been a Times-Union editorial writer 

since 2013. He lives in Downtown Jacksonville. 

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CGC1521832 


THE FINAL WORD 

A revitalized core 

brings complex and 

challenging issues 

MIKE 

WILLIAMS 

PHONE 

(904) 630-2120 

EMAIL 

joanne.seach 

@jaxsheriff.org 

ore than 3 million people 

M chose to come to Downtown 

Jacksonville last year to attend 

special events. Both the Jazz Festival and 

Florida-Georgia game were once again 

successfully held over multiple days each 

and without major incident. They are 

part of what makes Jacksonville a “destination” 

city. 

Hundreds of concerts and sporting events draw 

people to our beautiful facilities, and all require 

dedicated law enforcement planning and staffing. I 

applaud the mayor and City Council for recognizing 

that dedicated resources are required, especially for 

the large events. 

Depleting police resources from our neighborhoods 

to staff special events — while that once may 

have been a strategy to economize — is not an option 

in today’s world. And we don’t do that here. 

Our revitalizing Downtown means more activity 

of all kinds, including political activism and protests, 

and our job is to protect that, too. 

The incident in Hemming Plaza last April illustrates 

the point that a commitment to continuous improvement 

defines us. Without debating the conduct 

of some of the participants, I said publicly that the 

police response could have been better. As a result, 

we now reach out before special events to those who 

communicate their intent to protest. We educate 

them about our commitment to protect everyone’s 

rights and also what constitutes illegal activity. 

Today, we don’t refrain from separating factions 

known to be contentious or those who have articulated 

or shown a potential to threaten or endanger 

others. This is the result of lessons learned that day, 

and we do this every time there is a special event. 

As I often say, the partnerships are what make the 

difference. We have excellent working relationships 

with the city, Visit Jacksonville, the SMG management 

group, our sports teams and the nonprofits 

that produce literally hundreds of events Downtown 

every year. 

Downtown Vision Inc. is another valued partner, 

and they work to make sure we put our best foot 

forward when out-of-town visitors and locals are 

moving around the core city day or night, working 

and playing. The Jacksonville Landing’s policy of no 

unchaperoned juveniles during major events has 

made a difference in the number of incidents. The 

Landing also houses our police bike unit, helping us 

deploy from a central location and creating a consistent 

presence in the core city. 

There is another group of stakeholders that we are 

always ready to work with: the organizations raising 

the community’s consciousness about homelessness. 

You see, Jacksonville, like many major cities, has 

a homeless population that congregates primarily 

in areas where shelter and food can be found. It’s 

important to remember that some need help — they 

may be off their medication or addicted — and others 

have chosen that life. Homelessness is not a crime. 

Providing a warm bed and meal without “wrap 

around services” is not a true solution. 

Through our “Homeward Bound” program, we 

have offered many homeless people the opportunity 

to return to another city where a loved one awaits 

them and is ready to help, often unaware that their 

family member had taken to a life on the streets. 

The issue is complex and is not going to be fixed 

overnight. I had a meeting recently with representatives 

from Changing Homelessness, and I am 

optimistic that all the providers and stakeholders 

can come together to address, in a unified manner, 

the very complicated and interwoven factors that 

contribute to this issue. 

We are a great city with many neighborhoods. 

I am committed to providing police services and 

solutions to issues in the places where people live, 

work and play. Our Downtown is as important as 

any other part of Jacksonville, and my staff and all 

our men and women are committed to serving and 

protecting in partnership with our citizens in every 

neighborhood. 

MIKE WILLIAMS, a Jacksonville native who has been 

a police officer since 1991, was elected sheriff in 2015. 

98

J Magazine Winter 2017

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