J Magazine Winter 2017

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.
Owner: The City of Jacksonville
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.
88 J MAGAZINE | WINTER 2017-18