J Magazine Winter 2017

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,
WINTER 2017-18 | J MAGAZINE 87