Tag Archives: downtown Jacksonville

The Bodies Left Behind in Billy Goat Hill

Posted on January 8, 2021 | Leave a comment

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A hundred years after the bodies were moved, workers digging immediately north of St. John’s Episcopal Cathedral found skeletons. Four decades later, other workers found skulls. Is anybody still down there? These are the kinds of things that can happen when you work in older parts of a city, he said.

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Tagged A.M. Reed, Billy Goat Hill, Cathedral District Jacksonville, Charles Willey, downtown Jacksonville, Florida history, History of Jacksonville, Jacksonville history, Old City Cemetery, Parks at the Cathedral, Paul Krutco, St. John's Episcopal, T. Frederick Davis, Tim Gilmore

New Story: Bexley House / Plaza Hotel

Posted on July 18, 2019 | Leave a comment

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For trial attorney Glenn Allen, it was love at first sight. He called the old house, the old hotel, his “castle.” It’s because of Glenn it still exists at all.

The Plaza Hotel had stayed in the Bexley family for a century. Though Glenn’s bid wasn’t the highest, Dr. Bexley’s granddaughter Sara accepted it because other bidders wanted to tear down her childhood home and lifelong abode and replace it with a parking lot. Sara was dying and she wanted the house brought back to life.

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Tagged Augusta Bexley, Bexley House, Clyde New England, Clyde Steamship Line, Dixieland Park, downtown Jacksonville, Eva Bexley, Eva Connery, Evergreen Cemetery, Gene Icard, Gene Ichard, Glenn Allen, Jacksonville history, jaxpsychogeo, Pearl Bexley, Plaza Hotel, Sara Bexley, Sara Ellis, Sharyn Allen, Southbank Jacksonville, Tim Gilmore

The Barnett National Bank Building, Its Deep Roots and Tendrils through Time

Posted on March 8, 2019 | 1 comment

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It was “the Year of the Skyscraper.” The 10 story building next door began to tilt. Alfred duPont raised Florida from the Great Depression, merely from infusions of his personal wealth. When Barnett began the Bank of Jacksonville in 1877, he couldn’t have known it would grow into one of the largest banks in the South. After Herbert Hoover, Alfred’s wife, Jessie Ball duPont, changed direction. Her hair was graying, but her eyes still sparkled.

Barnett’s personification of its first Automatic Teller Machine frightened Southern working class families. Charles Rice said he’d never sell “Bion Barnett’s bank.” Then he checked into rehab. Then he sold. Then he drowned in his own swimming pool. Now UNF is making the Barnett “the front door to the startup community in Jacksonville.”

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Tagged Adrian Pillars, Aetna Insurance Building, Alfred duPont, Atlantic National Bank Building, Atlantic National Bank Building Annex, bank holiday, Bank of Jacksonville, Barnett Action, Barnett Bank, Barnett Center, Barnett Mansion, Barnett National Bank Building, Bion Barnett, Bisbee Building, Carling Hotel, Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Charles Adrian Pillars, Charles E. Rice, Chicago School, Cutler Mailing System, downtown Jacksonville, drive-through bank teller, Edward Ball, Epping Forest, FDR, First Union, Florida Life Building, Florida National Bank, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Great Depression, Greenleaf and Crosby, Helmut Jahn, Henry John Klutho, Herbert Hoover, Hoovervilles, Hotel Roosevelt, Jack in the Box, Jacksonville Historic Preservation Commission, Jacksonville history, Jacksonville tunnels, Jacksonville's Big Three, Jacksonville's first skyscraper, jax psycho geo, jaxpsychogeo, Jessie Ball duPont, Jessie duPont, Judy Davis, Justin Maximo Uffinger, Karen Bowling, Lippincott's magazine, Louis Montayne Mowbray, Louis Sullivan, McCoys Creek, Memorial Park, Mowbray and Uffinger, Nationsbank, New Deal, Park Lane Apartments, Prudential Insurance Building, Robert E. Fisher, Sam the SuperTeller, Sarah Barnett, Savannah, Seth Thomas clock, skyscraper, Springfield, startup generator, Super Automatic Machine, tallest building in Jacksonville, The Carling, Tim Gilmore, UNF, University of North Florida, Wachovia, Wayne Wood, William Barnett, William Bion Barnett, William Boring, Winged Victory, Year of the Skyscraper

Remembering When Lightning Knocked Out CSX’s Rail Service

Posted on January 5, 2019 | Leave a comment

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One strike from the sky touches 200 trains across the Southeast and Midwest, reaching into Ontario and Quebec.

Callie remembers Y2K, how often lightning struck, and how the river below seemed hers from her vantage point at 3 a.m.

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Tagged Atlantic Coast Line, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Brutalism, Brutalist architecture, CSX, downtown Jacksonville, Ford World Headquarters, Gordon Bunshaft, jaxpsychogeo, KBJ, Kemp Bunch Jackson, Lever House, Maryland Area Rail Commuter, Seaboard Coast Line, Skidmore Owings and Merrill, Tim Gilmore, Virginia Railway Express, Y2K

From the JaxPsychoGeo Archives: LaRose’s Shoes

Posted on October 5, 2018 | Leave a comment

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Big stained glass piano in the middle of the store. Some said Joseph John LaRose designed half a million pairs of shoes. What they found inside, after he died: the appraiser from Sotheby’s called it King Tut’s tomb. Jackie Kennedy had come. And Betty Grable. And Joan Crawford. And Brooke Shields. Jayne Mansfield was wearing his shoes when she died. He chastised me. I wanted to tell him how wrong he was. He wanted me to do the same.

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Tagged "Stock and Tulip", Abigail Van Buren, Betty Grable, Brooke Shields, Dear Abby, downtown Jacksonville, Emily Gilmore, Hemming Park, Jackie Kennedy, Jane Mansfield, jaxpsychogeo, Joan Crawford, Joseph John LaRose, LaRose Shoes, LaRose's Shoes, LaRoses's, MOCA Jacksonville, MOCA Jax, Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville, Sotheby's, stock flower, Tim Gilmore