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New Story: Three Oaks Plaza, FBI Headquarters, Offshore Power Systems

Posted on July 11, 2020 | Leave a comment

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Three Oaks Plaza is no plaza and these three squat buildings are no oaks. This is the site of Offshore Power Systems, supposed builders of floating nuclear power plants in the ocean, a company to which Jax offered, with national embarrassment, to sell its soul in the 1970s. This is the site of the former Jax FBI hq for 35 years, now the home of squatters, the setting of strange fires in abandoned structures.

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Tagged 1973 Oil Crisis, Arab-Israeli War, Arlington, Arlington Expressway, Barchlett family, Blount Island, Bnei Zipora, Bob Selton, Bold New City of the South, Chernobyl, Colliers International Northeast Florida, Comptroller General, Concorde Career Institute, Dames Point Bridge, David Wallace, Duval County Consolidation, FBI Building Jacksonville, FJC Downtown Campus, Florida Junior College, Florida Rock Industries, Fred Schultz, Goat Island, Goat Island Hermit, Goat Island Hermit Tim Gilmore, Gulf Life Insurance Company, Hans Tanzler, Hartford of the South, Hartley Lord, J. Henry Blount, Jack McWethy, Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce, Jacksonville Consolidation, Jacksonville Daily Record, Jacksonville Port Authority, Jacksonville Transportation Authority, James Crooks, jax psycho geo, Jim Crooks, Karen Brune Mathis, Kozman Realty, Lewis Winnard, McMillion$, Nate Monroe, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Oakwood Villa, Offshore Power Systems, Omega Oaks, OPS, Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries, Paxson Electric Company, Rollians Christopher, Roy Bertke, Seaboard Coast Line Railroad, Sin City, Sin City Arlington, Three Mile Island, Three Oaks Plaza, Tim Gilmore, U.S. News and World Report, Wanda Glennon Canaday, Westinghouse-Tenneco

New Story: Wandering the Ruins of the Thunderbird Motor Hotel

Posted on July 4, 2020 | Leave a comment

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The Thunderbird Motor Hotel lies in ruins on 19 acres. We wander through it. It was “one of the brightest jewels in the Florida Crown,” created to “give Jacksonville a Las Vegas, New York, big-city type of night club atmosphere.” It featured multiple lounges like The Zodiac Room and The Wonderfall, dinner theatre and convention space. The stars came. For a while. Few realized its full history of financial troubles. Now a hawk flies over the abandoned swimming pool. Click below for the story.

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Tagged Al Stein, Albert Stein, Ann Sothern, Arlington Jacksonville, Ben Stein, Bethel Baptist Church, Bethelite, Bold New City of the South, Bonnie Morrison, Burger King Jacksonville, Carmen Ann Roden, Danae Clift, David Stein, Fireman's Ball, Fisher & Malone, Florida Gothic, Frances Langford, Gator Bowl, Gerry Roden, Hans Tanzler, Howard Keel, Jackie Gleason Show, Jacksonville Coliseum, Jacksonville Florida, Jacksonville Gothic, Jacksonville University, Jason Wood, jax psycho geo, Jay Leno, Jill Starr, Joann Starr, John C. Christian, Jud Ammean Orchestra, KBJ Architects, Kettle Pub, King’s Inn Lounge, Man of La Mancha, Martin Denny, Mary Lynn Brown, Mayor Hans Tanzler said, Michael Ammiano, Peter Cummings, Philip Browning, Red Carpet Inns, Regency Square, Regency Square Mall, Ricky Takacs, Rolling Stones Jacksonville, Sammy Spear Orchestra, South Pacific Orientalism, Terrace Room, The Diamonds, Thunder Resort Hotel, Thunderbird Motor Hotel, Thunderreal, Tiki Bar, Tim Gilmore, Tim Gilmore writer, Tiny Tim, white flight, William Groff, William K. Jackson, Wonderfall, Wonderfall Bar, Wonderfall Lounge, Yvonne Moray, Zero Mostel, Zodiac Room

Revisiting Playtime Drive-In and Church

Posted on June 26, 2020 | Leave a comment

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Fire after fire after fire. Over the last seven decades, this place went from family theater to porno drive-in to church. One fire was an exorcism, the church burning old reels of pornographic films, the next fire, so said rumors, was a meth lab explosion. Frances the cat hung out above the projector before the burglary in which the theater owner was shot and lost a leg. But this was always holy ground.

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Tagged Christ Church Anglican, Fuhrman Burchfield, Hugh Hefner Jacksonville, Mark Eldredge, Marty Hamrick, Playboy Drive-In Theater, Playtime Drive-In, Twin Hills Drive-In

Springfield’s Florence Court Apartments

Posted on June 26, 2020 | Leave a comment

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Cyara likes to imagine herself “Queen Florence.” More than a century before, the builder of the Florence Court named these apartments for his wife. On the sidewalk, you’d buy linen spats and a ham and beef tongue sandwich. So why was the architect’s name an open secret for 50 years? Mushrooms grow downward from ceilings. This building’s declined almost all its life. Who’s ready to step forward and save it?

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Tagged 1748 Bakehouse, Anthony Scott, Benjamin Tucker, Bernard Mitchell, Capitol Theatre, Crispy's Springfield, Cyara Williams, Florence Court, Florence Court Apartments, Florida Hotel, Florida Life Building, Frank Lloyd Wright, Frank M. Richardson, Harry Atlas Shoe Repair, Henry John Klutho, Hyperion Brewing, Ken Amaro, Kingsbury Norton, Klutho Apartments, Klutho House, Louis C. McCormick, Morocco Temple, Newell's Bakery, Paul's Luncheonette, Prairie Style Cross, Robert Broward, Slide Kelly Slide, Social Grounds Coffee, Springfield Court, Springfield Jacksonville, Syrup of Figs, The Architecture of Henry John Klutho: The Prairie School in Jacksonville, The Mad Atlas of Virginia King, The Yankee Clipper, Tim Gilmore, Tree of Life, Virginia King, W.H. Newell, William Hoff

New Story: Resurrecting Hill Top, Black History on Forman Circle

Posted on June 18, 2020 | Leave a comment

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Cooking for Martin Luther King, Jr., Maude Burroughs Jackson says, was one of the greatest honors of her life. Two decades prior, her father built this house by hand. Maude entered first grade in 1947 in the one room schoolhouse she ended up saving from destruction in 1995. Because of repeated vandalism, she no longer ventures to the community cemetery by herself. It’s because of her love for those who loved her those early years that we know now of this community at all.

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Tagged Across the Creek, Alice E. Hunter, Alice E. Hunter Hall, Alice Hunter, Black Creek, Brewster Hospital, Buddington's Quarters, Cush Jenkins, Edd Burroughs, Eddie James Burroughs Sr., Embedded in Clay, Emma Berrings, Etta Douglas, Fowler Cemetery, Frosard Buddington, Grant Forman, Grant Forman Cemetery, Grant S. Forman, Green Cove Springs, Hill Top Black Heritage Education Center, Hill Top Clay County, Hill Top Middleburg, Hilltop Clay County, Hilltop Middleburg, Hiram Prescott, Howard's Quarters, Hunter-Douglas Park, jax psycho geo, jaxpsychogeo, Jonathan Knight, KKK, Ku Klux Klan, LaVilla, Life on Hill Top, Makayla Paige Merriweather, Martin Luther King Clay County Florida, Maude Burroughs, Maude Burroughs Jackson, Maude Jackson, Maureen Jung, Middleburg Colored School, Middleburg High School, MLK, MLK Clay County, Moses Prescott, Paul Laurence Dunbar High School, Reggie Bridges, St. Mark Missionary Baptist Church, Susannah Prescott, Tim Gilmore, Walter Whetstone, Wanda Glennon Canaday, Whetstonian

New Story: Tim Armstrong at Armstrong Farm Has a Message: “Eat Your Yard, Jax!”

Posted on June 12, 2020 | Leave a comment

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Tim Armstrong’s both Old Florida and new. He’s in the business of springing life from compost and earth, constant renewal, though his family’s been in Florida “since the last Indian war.” Three generations ran a steamboat on the Apalachicola River. He walked to his elementary school and high school in Jacksonville’s Woodstock Park neighborhood, but he’s no provincial. His farm, which works with special needs kids across the city, grows and sells native plants and plants from every continent but Antarctica.

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Tagged Apalachicola River, Armstong Farm, Berry Good Farms, Commonwealth Avenue, Eat Your Yard Jax, I Eat Weeds, jax psycho geo, McGirts Creek, Mill Creek, Prissy Bowers, St. Johns River Water Management, Third Seminole War, Tim Armstrong, Tim Gilmore, Timucuan Indians, Trout River, Woodstock Park, yaupon holly

New Story: Confederate Memorial Removed from Hemming Park

Posted on June 9, 2020 | Leave a comment

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The Confederate monument is gone. Former City Council President Anna Lopez Brosche bravely began this process three years ago. She offers an official statement. Before the park was renamed for Charles Hemming, who donated the statue in 1898, it was called St. James Park. St. James is the patron saint of pilgrims. Let’s make our pilgrimages to the center.

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2020 Protests Continue (Confessions, Consciousness, Change)

Posted on June 8, 2020 | Leave a comment

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For more than a week, the protests have flooded the streets, demanding police release body cam footage. This crowd does me good. In my depths, stories from decades before I was born churn a historical conscience. The Confederate monument has again been vandalized. I ask Donal Godfrey, whose house the KKK bombed when he was six years old, if this time really is different.

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Tagged Alexander Stephens, Black Lives Matter, Brittany Chrishawn, Donal Godfrey, George Floyd, In Memory of our Women of the Southland, J.B. Stoner, Jacksonville Community Action Committee, Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, Jamee Johnson, James Robinson, Jimbo Robinson, Josue Garriga, Ku Klux Klan, Kwame Jones, Lackawanna Elementary School, Lenny Curry, Mayor Lenny Curry, Michael Sampson, Mike Williams, Nicholas Lawson, Phil Gilmore, Reginald Boston

Protests in the Summer of 2020, the spring of 1964

Posted on June 2, 2020 | Leave a comment

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This story compares the protests of 1964 to those of 2020. It demonstrates how current protests call out the murder of George Floyd, but also the long pattern of Jacksonville police abuses of authority. It shows how 1964 Jax protests were met with official racism and racist vigilantism and how 2020 protests were met with public bullying against organizers. It suggests how police, if they care, might start the process to make a systemic (not a “bad apples”) restructuring, and asks what we might do about the disintegration of America.

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Tagged Ahmaud Arbery, Ax Handle Saturday, B.D. McEwan, Breonna Taylor, Brittany Chrishawn, Chris Swanson, Christina Kittle, Coalition for Consent, Connell Crooms, Dale Carson, Delaine Smith, Derek Chauvin, Elmer Kato, Eugene Davis, Fraternal Order of Police, George Floyd, Gregory McMichael, Haydon Burns, J.C. Patrick, J.W. Rich, Jacksonville Community Action Committee, James Patrick, Jax 5, Jessica Pounds, Johnnie Mae Chappell, Keisha Lance Bottoms, KKK, Ku Klux Klan, Lenny Curry, Mayor Lenny Curry, Mike Durham, Mike Williams, Ministerial Alliance, NAACP, New Stanton School, Police Administration Building, Rex Sweat, Rutledge Pearson, Steve Zona, Travis McMichael, Walter Headly, Wayne Chessman, Willie Chappell

The Lynching of Johnnie Mae Chappell

Posted on May 31, 2020 | Leave a comment

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We would never have known of the racist murder of Johnnie Mae Chappell if Duval County Chief Homicide Investigator J.C. Patrick had gotten his way. Justice was never served. For standing up to Patrick, good men lost their careers and sons later launched their own. Shelton Chappell, who was four years old when his mother was murdered, has seen the bullet. He spent decades putting the story together. With the killing of Ahmaud Arbery in Brunswick, Georgia in the news, Shelton wants to know what we’ve learned.

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Tagged Ahmaud Arbery, Albert Smith, Allison Orr, Anti-lynching bill, Ax Handle Saturday, Banner Food Store, Bill Loos, Bobby Rush, bumper joint, Chuck's Place, Dale Carson, Dateline NBC, David Jackson, Donald Coleman, Elmer Kato, Emmett Till, Essie Mae Dawkins-Sargent, Eugene Davis, Flicker Avenue, Folio Weekly, Freezette, Freezette Drive-In, Greater New Hope Missionary Baptist Church, Gregory McMichael, Haydon Burns, J.C. Patrick, J.W. Rich, Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, James Boddie, James Patrick, jaxpsychogeo, Jet Magazine, Johnnie Mae Chappell, KKK, Ku Klux Klan, Lee Cody, lynching, Ministerial Alliance, New Kings Road, Oprah Winfrey, Oscar Sosa, Ray Coleman, Rex Sweat, Shelton Chappell, Sheriff Dale Carson, Sheriff Rex Sweat, Souls of Black Folk, Susan Clark Armstrong, Susan Cooper Eastman, Tallahatchie, Tildia Sanders, Tim Gilmore, Travis McMichael, tush hog, W.E.B. DuBois, Wayne Chessman, Willie Chappell

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New Story: Three Oaks Plaza, FBI Headquarters, Offshore Power Systems

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New Story: Wandering the Ruins of the Thunderbird Motor Hotel

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Revisiting Playtime Drive-In and Church

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New Story: Resurrecting Hill Top, Black History on Forman Circle

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New Story: Tim Armstrong at Armstrong Farm Has a Message: “Eat Your Yard, Jax!”

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New Story: Confederate Memorial Removed from Hemming Park

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2020 Protests Continue (Confessions, Consciousness, Change)

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The Lynching of Johnnie Mae Chappell

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Support JaxPsychoGeo

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