Tag Archives: Florida Theatre

Two Writers Dead on Bay Street

Posted on January 10, 2019 | Leave a comment

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When “Poor Sam Russ, one of the best, most brilliant and widely known newspapermen in Florida” drank himself to death “in a cheap lodging house” on Bay Street, newspapers said, “Dying alone, unwept and unsung,

[he] reminds us also of the death of Hamilton Jay, who, like Sam Russ, occupied a position on the Times-Union, was a brilliant writer of prose and poetry.” Hamilton Jay, the poet laureate of Florida, drank cyanide, leaving a note that said the voices would not stop calling; “I can hold back no longer.”

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Tagged Alfred Koch, Bay Street, Bay Street Bay and Grill, Bettelini's, Bettelini's Hotel, Billy Hankins, Bold City Brewery Downtown, carpetbaggers, Cowford Chophouse, Crystal Saloon, Crystal Saloon and Roof Garden, Everett Hotel, Financial News and Daily Record, Florida Theatre, Florida Times-Union, Frederick Bettelini, Hamilton Jay, Harrison Reed, Jacksonville poetry, Jacksonville poets, Jacksonville writers, jaxpsychogeo, Justice Pub, KKK, Ku Klux Klan, Melrose Hotel, Old Tramp's Sermon, Osky’s Alligator Store, poet laureate of Florida, Reconstruction, Riley Groover and Company, Sam B. Russ, Sam Russ, Seminole Wars, Telaunee, Terminal Hotel, Tim Gilmore, William Hankins, Zora Neale Hurston

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