Tag Archives: Brooklyn

Gravely Hill Plantation and Graveyard

Posted on December 7, 2018 | 1 comment

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Why is the world’s oldest man buried here? Or wasn’t he 133 years old? Where are Jim Domingo, Cyrus and Francisco? And who burnt down the old house on the hill? The kids playing hide-and-seek? Or that ageless wanderer who’d lost count of his wars, trying to keep warm on a winter night?

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Tagged Alligator Road, Brooklyn, Cedar Creek, Confederacy, Confederate Veterans' Reunion, Dell's Bluff, Dirt Road to the South, Gravelly Hill, Gravely Hill, Jacksonville history, James Edward Monroe, James McInarnay, jaxpysychogeo, Jim Dimingo, John Bellamy, John Braun, Lenox Avenue, Miles Price, Old Gainesville Road, Riverside Memorial Park, slavery, Steven Eubanks, Stonewall Jackson, Tim Gilmore, United States Colored Troops, William M. Jones, Wills Branch Creek

When Jax Declared Its Center a “Slum Heart,” ‘Evil,” and Demanded Exorcism

Posted on May 5, 2018 | 1 comment

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The deep baritone drips with condescension, festers with open sarcasm.

“This very plumbing, if you can dignify it with the name of plumbing, can bring disease and death into your home through the medium of your servants.”

“Come to think of it,” Slum Heart recalls, opportunistically, “that servant girl who comes to your house each morning […] Do you know where she goes at night?”

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Tagged Alexander Crosby, Bender Cawthon, Black Bottom, Blodgett, Brentwood, Brooklyn, Durkeeville, Eartha White, Federal Housing Authority, Florida Theatre, Hansontown, Jack Spottswood, Jacksonville Housing Authority, jaxpsychogeo, LaVilla, Mollie Chapman, Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church, Nasrallah Building, Negro Advisory Council, One Bad Apple, Slum Heart of Jacksonville, slumlords, Springfield, State Board of Health Building, Tim Gilmore

New Story: Brooklyn: Avon Apartments / Sam’s Grocery (After the Fire)

Posted on July 4, 2017 | Leave a comment

I’d just written the 111 year old Avon Apartment Building’s story two weeks ago.

Headlines about a Brooklyn, New York fire on the porch of an old house that just burned in Brooklyn in Jacksonville, Florida?

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Tagged Avon Apartments, Brooklyn, fire, Jacksonville, jaxpsychogeo, Sam's Grocery

New Story: Avon Apartments and Sam’s Grocery

Posted on June 24, 2017 | Leave a comment

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Amal recalls her grandfather fondly and considers the 111 year old boarding house an embodiment of Sam Al Hasan. “There’s so much happiness in that house,” she says. “There’s so much laughter and family togetherness and joy.”

Said the Times, “There are subs. There are heroes. There are hoagies, po’ boys and grinders. And in this port city, which has the country’s 10th largest Arab population, there are Camel Riders.”

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Tagged Amal Al Hasan, Avon Apartments, Brooklyn, Camel Rider, Homelike Apartments, Jacksonville, jaxpsychogeo, Riverside, Sam Al Hasan, Sam and Sons, Sam's Grocery, Tim Gilmore

New Story: Brooklyn: The Last Buffalo Soldier’s House

Posted on December 26, 2016 | Leave a comment

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Twice during the Civil War, black Union soldiers occupied Confederate Jacksonville.

Confederate veteran Miles Price platted this former plantation into lots and sold them to former slaves and Buffalo Soldiers.

“A house can be boarded up for years,” Paul says, “and it seems uninhabitable. But all you have to do is live in the house and it returns to its human-shaped life.”

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Tagged Brooklyn, Brooklyn Jacksonville, Buffalo Soldier, Camp Foster, Chelsea Street, Civil War, Civil War Jacksonville, dogtrot house, hall and parlor, Hurley Winkler, Les Paul Garner, Olustee, shotgun house, Tim Gilmore, Wayne Wood

New Story: Christmas Eve, Buffalo Soldier’s House and Pseudo-Brooklyn Apartments

Posted on December 24, 2016 | 1 comment

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Some of Les Paul Garner’s earliest memories are of running through a line of his friends with the ball, shirtless and exhilarated and sweating in the summer heat, and learning to ride his bike around the corner on Oak Street.

New condo dwellers walk their AKC-registered dogs past the last Buffalo Soldier’s house in Brooklyn.

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Tagged 220 Riverside, Abboud's, Blind Blake, Brooklyn, Brooklyn Florida, Buffalo Soldiers, dog-trot, hall and parlor, Hurley Winkler, Jacksonville, jaxpsychogeo, Les Paul Garner, Riverside Avondale, shotgun house, shotgun shack, Tad's Restaurant, The Brooklyn Riverside, The Florida Star, Tim Gilmore