| 688 true stories from the Southern Gothic heart of one Florida town

When Jax Banned Mickey Spillane

Posted on March 24, 2023 | Leave a comment

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Ron DeSantis didn’t invent Florida book banning. When Jax banned Mickey Spillane, the tough-talking crime novelist and his “blonde bombshell” wife Sherri came to town. Activist Warren Folks wanted all funding for the Jacksonville Public Library system halted until every book was screened. Spillane said if Folks thought this book was bad, “Wait until he sees the next one!”

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Tagged A.J. Reddick, Arnett Girardeau, book banning Florida, Conservative Citizens Council Jacksonville, Florida Culture Wars, Harry Brinton, Haydon Burns Library, Jacksonville Public Libraries, Jake Godbold, jax psycho geo, Main Library Jacksonville, Mickey Spillane, Mickey Spillane Jacksonville, Morton Kesler, Ron DeSantis, Roy Lord, Sherri Spillane, Sidney Lefkowitz, The Erection Set, The Last Cop Out, Tim Gilmore, Warren Folks

The Urban Legend(s) of “Barefoot Bill”

Posted on March 9, 2023 | Leave a comment

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“Barefoot Bill” seemed to be everywhere in Jacksonville at once, a phantom menace, a “burglar bugaboo,” pilfering bedrooms of prominent citizens as they ate dinner downstairs. Whether or not he ever existed, Bill made headlines from the 19-aughts to the 1930s and as far away as South Carolina. Maybe he’s out there still.

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Tagged "high murder rate in the South, A.J. Hedrick, Barefoot Bill, blackface, Calvin Oak, Daddy Mention, Daddy Mention Polk County, G.T. Gato, John Henry, John N.C. Stockton, Jose Huau, Judge W.H. Baker, murder rate Jacksonville, Old Folks at Home, Stagga Lee, Stagger Lee, Stagolee, Stephen Foster, Stetson Kennedy, T. Frederick Davis, Vaudeville, W.H. Baker, Way Down Upon the Swanee River, Zora Neale Hurston

Robert Broward’s Favorite Design: The Unitarian Universalist Church of Jacksonville

Posted on March 3, 2023 | Leave a comment

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Recuperating from a nearly fatal car crash, architect Robert Broward drew the first sketches of his design for the Unitarian Universalist Church of Jacksonville in his hospital bed. Near the end of his life, he said it was his favorite design.

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Tagged Anna Fletcher, Bob Broward, Craig Creek, D.U. Fletcher, David Lafitte, Duncan Fletcher, jax psycho geo, Kalliope: A Journal of Women's Art, Kathleen McKenzie, Landon High School, Memphis Wood, Ocala Stone, Oriental Gardens, Peggy Friedmann, Pottsburg Creek, Prudential Insurance Building, River Oaks Park, Robert Broward, Robert Broward architect, Sidney Catts, Strawberry Creek, Tim Gilmore, Unitarian Universalist Church of Jacksonville

Banned Book Displays at Chamblin’s!

Posted on February 24, 2023 | Leave a comment

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As books are banned in schools across Florida, as teachers and students feel increasingly threatened by the State, as Florida politicians seek to make education “ideological,” saying, “Education is our sword,” banned book displays at Jacksonville’s Chamblin Bookmine and Chamblin’s Uptown encourage reading banned books and parents use banned book lists as shopping lists.

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Tagged Abby Bell, banned books DeSantis, banned books Duval County, banned books Florida, banned books Jacksonville, Bob Gray, Bob Gray Trinity Christian Academy, Cari Hamoui, Chamblin Bookmine, Chamblin's Uptown, DEI Florida, Dennis Cassell, DeSantis banned books, DeSantis banning, DeSantis bans, DeSantis bans books, DeSantis book bans, Diversity Equity and Inclusion Florida, Don Falls, Don Falls Manatee County, Florida banning, Florida bans, Florida bans books, Florida book bans, Florida State College at Jacksonville, FSCJ, Johnny Masiulewicz, Mark Bauerlein, PEN America Duval County, PEN America Jacksonville, Richard Corcoran, Richard Corcoran Education Sword, Roberto Clemente banned Jacksonville, Ron DeSantis, Trinity Baptist Church, Trinity Christian Academy

Remembering My Father on His Birthday

Posted on February 21, 2023 | Leave a comment

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Today my father would be 99 years old. It’s been almost four years since he died of Congestive Heart Failure. The Georgia he came from seems both nearby and like another planet. I couldn’t be more different from my father, and I couldn’t be more similar. Here’s a story I wrote on my mother’s birthday, my older daughter’s birthday, two days after my father passed away.

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Hunter’s Mill and the Cursed Waterfront

Posted on February 17, 2023 | Leave a comment

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The East Jacksonville waterfront lies vacant where Shad Kahn talks of building a Four Seasons Hotel. Long ago, before workers built 82 ships here in World War II, Hunter’s Mill and the waterfront sawmills were violent places, full of arson, murder and suicide.

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Tagged Alexander and Hardie, Commodore Point, Dexter Hunter, Elder Eugene Lindsley, Eppinger and Russell, Four Seasons Jacksonville, Green Cove Springs and Melrose Railroad, H.D. Holland, Henry Clark, Hogans Creek, Hunter's Mill, Hunter's Saw Mill, John O’Neill (or O’Neil), Richard Montgomery, Seminole Club Jacksonville, Shad Kahn, Sheriff H.D. Holland, Springfield Advent Christian Church, St. Johns River Shipbuilding Company, T. Frederick Davis, T.V. Cashen, The Pond Jacksonville, Western Railway Company of Florida, Yellow Fever, Yellow Fever Epidemic of 1888

Recalling the Childhood Terrors of Mr. Peanut

Posted on February 9, 2023 | 2 comments

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Something wasn’t right about him, the 54-foot-tall man-legume who looked down at children in their parents’ cars. Some kids just remember the joys of popping roasted peanuts into their fizzing Cokes at the Planter’s Peanut Store. The giant Mr. Peanut on Arlington Expressway didn’t last long, but oh how he left his mark!

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Tagged Alan Nelson, Arlington Expressway, Eliot Ray, Mr. Peanut Daytona, Mr. Peanut Jacksonville, Nanci Guest, Peanut Store Jacksonville, Planter's Peanut Store, Terry Parker High School, Tim Gilmore, Valerie Kennedy-Grisham

The Evolution of Broward’s Butterfly House

Posted on February 3, 2023 | 1 comment

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When Robert Broward designed his famous Mid-Century Modern “Butterfly House” in 1957, he used rainwater and sunlight as materials. In the early ’60s, Fred Nachman added pecky cypress and clad the house in Gothic iron. When Kathryn Stater purchased it in 2016, it was on the verge of demolition. Now it’s more itself than it’s ever been.

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Tagged Alderman Park, Alison Watson, Ann Nachman, brise soleil Jacksonville, Butterfly House, Fred Nachman, Gates Men's Shop, Harry's Men's Shop Jacksonville, Henry John Klutho, Jeff Simpson, Kathryn Stater, Mathews Bridge, Memphis Wood, Mid-Century Modern Arlington Jacksonville, pecky cypress Jacksonville, Penni Nachman Wexler, Richard Mead, Robert Broward, Robert Broward Butterfly House, Robert Broward Taliesin, Superstock Jacksonville, Tim Gilmore, Wayne Wood

A Poet’s Circle: Francis Poole’s 55 Years & Thousands of Miles

Posted on January 28, 2023 | Leave a comment

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In 1968, Francis Poole had been chasing Soviet submarines up and down the East Coast when he started college on a campus made of former military barracks and published his first poems in a new student-led magazine named The Experience. When he returns in early February, his circle will have come through Morocco and Portugal and 55 years of writing and publishing poetry.

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Tagged Ben Edmonson, Berry Oakley, BLADES, Cumberland Campus, Dickey Betts, Duane Allman, Five Points Diner, FJC, FJC Cumberland Campus, FJC Southside Campus, Florida Junior College, Florida State College at Jacksonville, Francis Poole, Hotel Roosevelt, J. Bruce Wilson, Jennifer Chase, Little James Brown, Marilyn DeSimone, Marilyn Gooding, Marion Gooding, Mike Callahan, Morrison's Cafeteria, NAS Jacksonville, Naval Air Station Jacksonville, Roosevelt Hotel, South Jacksonville Grammar School, The Allman Brothers Band, The Experience, The Experience FJC, The Experience FSCJ, The Experience magazine, The Lemon Twisters, The Second Coming, Tropical Teen Club

Florida State College at Jacksonville’s Original Shero: Professor Mildred Barnert

Posted on January 27, 2023 | Leave a comment

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At first, Professor Barnert’s protest was tame. Florida Junior College had fired her, but wouldn’t say why. Faculty had no tenure, no union. After Barnert’s “sleep-in” made the front page of The Jacksonville Journal, male administrators rated her looks and belittled her. Though she loved her students, she didn’t need the job. She protested “on principle” and won rights for those who followed.

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Tagged Ben Edmonson, FJC, FJC Southside Campus, Florida Junior College, Florida Junior College Southside Campus, Florida State College at Jacksonville, Florida State College at Jacksonville Kent Campus, Francis Poole, Fred H. Kent, Fred Kent, FSCJ, J. Bruce Wilson, Leeroy Sheftall, Marilyn DeSimone, Marilyn Gooding, Mark and Sheftall, Mildred Barnert, Milli Barnert, Robert Gentry, South Jacksonville Grammar School, Victor Earl Mark

When Jax Banned Mickey Spillane

The Urban Legend(s) of “Barefoot Bill”

Robert Broward’s Favorite Design: The Unitarian Universalist Church of Jacksonville

Banned Book Displays at Chamblin’s!

Remembering My Father on His Birthday

Hunter’s Mill and the Cursed Waterfront

Recalling the Childhood Terrors of Mr. Peanut

The Evolution of Broward’s Butterfly House

A Poet’s Circle: Francis Poole’s 55 Years & Thousands of Miles

Florida State College at Jacksonville’s Original Shero: Professor Mildred Barnert

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