| 659 true stories from the Southern Gothic heart of one Florida town

When the City Dumped Sewage Sludge on the Regency Dunes

Posted on October 1, 2022 | Leave a comment

Click below for this week’s story, or navigate the city through the search bar or the direction buttons at the top of the page:

National headlines announced fecal matter raining across the city. Sewage lines collapsed without being replaced. Treatment facilities were overwhelmed. Tankers dumped sewage sludge on the sand dunes behind Regency Square Mall where kids had jumped their dune buggies and dads shot World War II rifles. The mayor jumped into the sludge wars.

Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged Anheuser-Busch, Arlyn Dockery, Bob Glenn, Buckman Street Sewage Treatment Plant, Cindy Mathieson, Cypress Gardens Tanzler, Davin and Co., Dee Dot Ranch, Dennis Gary Sneed, Don Ferguson, Don Gibbons, Duval Septic Company, Frank Ellis, Hans Tanzler, Humphreys Gold Mine, J.E. Davis, Jake Godbold, James Crooks, jax psycho geo, Jeanne Yates, Jim Crooks, Linda Flynn, Lone Star Jacksonville, Lone Star Road, Melvin Newman, Mike Tolbert, Mill Creek North, Norman Peterson, Nutri-Gro, Ray Huard, Regency Square Mall, sewage sludge Jacksonville, sewage sludge Regency, St. Regis Paper Company, Stockton, Tim Gilmore, Wayne Ellis, Whatley, Winn-Dixie

The Bizarre Misogynistic Acquittal of Gary Lynn Webster

Posted on September 24, 2022 | Leave a comment

Click below for this week’s story, or navigate the city through the search bar or the direction buttons at the top of the page:

Nobody questioned the fact that Gary Lynn Webster, a former gospel choir director and high school music teacher, had murdered and dismembered his teenage bride on Jacksonville’s Westside. The jury still found him innocent. One female juror regretted the verdict.

Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

The Rise and Fall of Regency Square Mall

Posted on September 17, 2022 | Leave a comment

Click below for this week’s story, or navigate the city through the search bar or the direction buttons at the top of the page:

“All roads lead to Regency Square,” they said, “the largest shopping center in the Southeast,” a “city within a city.” The shopping mall seemed to replace the heart of the city itself. All spectacles converged there — dancing bears, the Easter Bunny, art shows, wax figures of English monarchs. Then came the fall and the era of the “dead mall.”

Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged Albert Stein, Alpert Investment, Baker Shoes, Cary Corley, Diane Keniston, Flair Fabrics, Frosty Follies Jacksonville, Furchgott’s, Governor Haydon Burns, Haydon Burns, Ivey’s, J.C. Penney, Jacksonville Orchid Society, Jacksonville Tim Gilmore, Joan Stein, Joanie Stein, Joseph Crain, Kay Jewelry and Russell Stover Candies, LeDow the Magician, Lerner’s, Levy’s, Lillie-Rubin Dress Shop, Martin Stein, Maurice Alpert, May Cohen’s, Mayor Haydon Burns, Mayor Lou Ritter, Miller Norton, Regency Centers, Regency Mall, Regency Square Jacksonville, Regency Square Mall, Regency Square Mall Jacksonville, Regency Square Summer Art Show, Rosenblum’s, Thunderbird Motor Hotel, Tim Giml, Underwood Jewelers, Walgreen’s, Woolworth

The Fisherwoman, Poet and Preacher in the Lost Black Community Called Hogan

Posted on September 10, 2022 | Leave a comment

Click below for this week’s story, or navigate the city through the search bar or the direction buttons at the top of the page:

The 92 year old black preacher woman recalls Bishop Noah Nothing and on back to Sister Savannah, who ate nothing but the fish she caught, recited poetry, preached and carried her shotgun everywhere. She lived in the lost settlement called Hogan. Here’s what story still echoes in the landscape.

Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged Arise and Walk Ministries Jacksonville, Beach and Peach Urban Park, Beach Boulevard, Bishop Noah Nothing, Bronwood Georgia, Chaseville FLorida, Clara Murray, Cosmo Florida, D.V. Miller, Duval County Prison Farm, Florida East Coast Railway, Hogan Florida, Hopewell Baptist Church, jax psycho geo, john lorain jacksonville, La Dominicanita Bakery, Lone Star Florida, Old Parental Home for Girls, Parental Home Drive, Pine Forest Jacksonville, Pottsburg Creek, Ridgeland Gardens Jacksonville, S.A. Sparks, Savannah Anna Sparks, Sister Clara Murray, Sister Savannah Sparks, Spring Glen Jacksonville, Tim Gilmore, Tom's Asphalt Repairs

Updating the Mysteries of the Burdette / Clarke House

Posted on September 2, 2022 | Leave a comment

Click below for this week’s story, or navigate the city through the search bar or the direction buttons at the top of the page:

A significant part of the story is chasing dead ends and phantom leads, balancing contradictory evidence, demanding ghosts stand still and be more present. So here’s the story of the Burdette / Clarke House updated, with its frustrated artist, abandoned sanitarium and moonlight shrimping.

Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged Andrew Burdette, Arlington, Arlington Road, Burdette Road, Chamberlain Convalescent Hospital, Doris Clarke, Doris Parker Clarke, E.C. Burdette, Emma Burdette, Floral Bluff, Floral Bluff Road, Florida history, Gerald Clarke, Gilbert Shepard, Hungerford Convalescent Hospital, Jacksonville history, jax psycho geo, Jefferson Smurfitt, Julie Hardwick Bales, Kerr-McGee, Lurline Hungerford, Mattair House, McClain House, Reid House, SCM Glidco, Seminole Kraft, Shelby Doris Parker Green, Shelby Valeska Green, Shepard Road, Stephen Burdette, The Arlingtonian, Tim Gilmore, Union Camp, Wayne Wood, William Clarke, William F. Hawley, William Frost Hawley, Wilson and Toomer

Lost Smiles on Moving Day, 1973

Posted on August 26, 2022 | Leave a comment

Click below for this week’s story, or navigate the city through the search bar or the direction buttons at the top of the page:

The moment would have vanished entirely, but for these few photos Lon King took in 1973. The Housing Department was demolishing the house and the duplex where the five kids lived next door. Fifty years later, the land is still empty. He’d moved downtown for work, grown his hair, rode his bikes through the empty streets. He still wonders what happened to those kids.

Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged Centennial Towers, Confederate Street Jacksonville, Dorothy Kimbrell, Herschel Shepard and George Fisher, Hogans Creek Jacksonville, Jacksonville Housing Authority, James Kimbrell, Ju'Coby Pittman, Kimbrell Apartments Jacksonville, Kimbrell Real Estate, Lon King, Sareeda James, Scottish Rite Masonic Temple, Springfield Jacksonville, Terry Parker High School, Tim Gilmore

The Tortuous Tale of Tarzan and Darlyn on Trout River

Posted on August 18, 2022 | Leave a comment

Click below for this week’s story, or navigate the city through the search bar or the direction buttons at the top of the page:

When Darlyn Finch Kuhn was eight years old, her brother spotted the monkey on a fencepost by the side of the road. Bringing Tarzan into the family for two years was a wild experience. Where did he come from? (And where did he go?) How do we contextualize Tarzan amongst urban legends of the Riverside monkeys and Monkey Farm and Silver Springs escapees or the thousands of monkeys who’ve called Florida home?

Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged Aisling Millar, Anita Lundin, Bobby Collins, Bonnie King, Brad Kuhn, C. Jane Anderson, Cheetah the Chimpanzee, Colonel Spencer Tooey, Colonel Tooey, Darlyn Finch, Darlyn Finch Kuhn, Darlyn Lundin, Debbie Cobb, Exotic Pet Amnesty Program, Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Services, glass bottom boats, Jacksonville Zoo, jaxpsychogeo, Johnny Weismuller, Jordan Logue, Jungle Friends Primate Sanctuary, Kari Bagnall, Linda Wolfe, Linda Wolfe University of Florida, Maureen O'Sullivan, Mia Farrow, Monkey Farm, Monkey Farm Orange Park, Ocala National Forest, Rebecca Wragg Sykes, Red Wax Rose, Riverside monkeys Jacksonville, Robby Lundin, Robert Lundin, Sewing Holes, Sherwood Forest Elementary, Sherwood Forest Jacksonville, Sibbald Road, Silver River Florida, Silver Springs, Sky Lebron, St. Paul's Catholic Schools, Suncoast Primate Sanctuary, Tarzan Lundin, Tim Gilmore, Trout River, Trout River Boulevard, Yerkes Laboratory, Yerkes Laboratory of Primate Biology

Exploring the Mysteries of Cosmo and Gullah Geechee North Florida

Posted on August 12, 2022 | Leave a comment

Click below for this week’s story, or navigate the city through the search bar or the direction buttons at the top of the page:

Nobody knows how Cosmo got its name. White folks live here, they just don’t know they live in Cosmo. Forged from Emancipation, this historic community of former slaves spoke its own dialects more African than African American. Oh but the buckruh knew how to get their land. Now but vestiges of Cosmo remain.

Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged Alberta Bartley Anderson, Alexander Memorial United Methodist Church, Bishop Sophie M. Jewel, black history, buckruh, Chaseville, Church of the Living God, Cleve Powell, Cosmo Florida, Cosmo Gullah Geechee, Cosmo Jacksonville, Cosmo Jacksonville Florida, Cosmo Schoolhouse, Ella Brown, Ethel Deloris Demps, Ethel Montaque, Felix Early Lewis, Florida Act to Provide for and Encourage a Liberal System of Internal Improvements, Fort Caroline Club Estates, Fort Caroline Oaks, Fulton Cemetery, Fulton Jacksonville, Geechee Florida, Geechee Jacksonville, Gullah Florida, Gullah Geechee Cultural Herirtage Corridor Florida, Gullah Geechee Florida, Gullah Geechee Jacksonville, Gullah Jacksonville, Hunters Run, Jacksonville Duval County Consolidation, James Bartley, jaxpsychogeo, Lone Star, Lyn Corley, Marguerite Redding, Mary Neil Bartley, Mother Mary Magdalena Tate, Nathaniel Brown, Old Fulton Town, Palm Springs Cemetery, St. Johns Bluff, St. Johns Landing Estates, the Pillar and Ground of the Truth, Theodore Brown, Tim Gilmore, Willie Anderson, Windsong Loop, Wright Rowan

Remembering O.Z. Tyler, Epic Poet on Willow Branch Canal

Posted on August 7, 2022 | Leave a comment

Click below for this week’s story, or navigate the city through the search bar or the direction buttons at the top of the page:

A quarter century ago, the ancient epic poet, “the Colonel,” opened his Tudor style home on Willow Branch Canal to a poet in his 20s. Orville Zelotes Tyler, Jr. wanted to be to America, to the South, to Jacksonville what Homer was to Ancient Greece, and his subject was Osceola, the Seminole leader who’d resisted the U.S. Army and was only captured under truce.

Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged Bill Slaughter, Cumberland Campus, E.M. Souvielle, Eliza Wilbur, Florida Junior College, Florida State College at Jacksonville, FSCJ Kent Campus, Jacksonville Historical Society, jaxpsychogeo, Marabanong, O.Z. Tyler, Orville Zelotes Tyler, Osceola, Osceola Seminole Chief, Palmer Tyler, Riverside Avondale, Tim Gilmore, Ulyssiad, William Slaughter, Willow Branch Canal, Willow Branch Creek, Willow Branch Terrace

Hogans Creek, Barometer for the Health of the City

Posted on July 29, 2022 | Leave a comment

Click below for this week’s story, or navigate the city through the search bar or the direction buttons at the top of the page:

Hogans Creek, part of Jacksonville’s “Emerald Necklace,” reflects the level of care the city takes of itself. It always has. It’s been both garbage dump and pseudo-Venetian “Grand Canal.” It’s taken lives. It’s provided a getaway route for the city’s most famous alligator. Now it’s part of Groundwork Jacksonville’s plan for an Emerald Trail. Hogans Creek is a barometer of the health of the city.

Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged Charles Imeson, Confederate Park, Daniel Hogans, Dignan Park, Duval County Armory, Elaine Brown Jacksonville, Emerald Necklace Jacksonville, Emerald Trail Jacksonville, Groundwork Jacksonville, Henry John Klutho, Hogan's Creek Tower, Hogans Creek, Hogans Creek Improvement Project, Klutho Park, McCoys Creek, Red Cannon Jacksonville, Springfield Park, Sub-Tropical Exposition

When the City Dumped Sewage Sludge on the Regency Dunes

The Bizarre Misogynistic Acquittal of Gary Lynn Webster

The Rise and Fall of Regency Square Mall

The Fisherwoman, Poet and Preacher in the Lost Black Community Called Hogan

Updating the Mysteries of the Burdette / Clarke House

Lost Smiles on Moving Day, 1973

The Tortuous Tale of Tarzan and Darlyn on Trout River

Exploring the Mysteries of Cosmo and Gullah Geechee North Florida

Remembering O.Z. Tyler, Epic Poet on Willow Branch Canal

Hogans Creek, Barometer for the Health of the City

Support JaxPsychoGeo

Subscribe via Email

Click below to order your copy of Box Broken Open: The Architecture of Ted Pappas

Click below to order your copy of Murder Capital

Click below to order your copy of Channeling Anna Fletcher

Click below to order your copy of Repossessions: Mass Shooting in Baymeadows

Click below to order your copy of Goat Island Hermit

Click below to order your copy of The Book of Isaiah

Click below to order your copy of Devil in the Baptist Church: Bob Gray’s Unholy Trinity

Click below to order your copy of Central Georgia Schizophrenia

Click below to order your copy of The Mad Atlas of Virginia King

Click below to order your copy of In Search of Eartha White

Click below to order your copy of The Ocean Highway at Night

Click below to order your copy of Stalking Ottis Toole

Click below to order your copy of Ghost Compost

Click below to order your copy of Pink Motel: A Christmas Tale

Author