Tag Archives: Hansontown

The Oldest House at Atlantic Beach: The Christopher / Bull / Hionides House

Posted on September 7, 2020 | Leave a comment

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It’s the oldest house at Atlantic Beach, its original owner’s “party house,” home to the family of the town’s first mayor for seven decades, to the Hionides family for three. Here the fate of black Manhattan Beach played out and the mysterious Jax blues musician Sugar Underwood played at dances. Inside, bright sunlight coruscates across golden heartwood pine. Outside, grandchildren run up from the ocean.

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Tagged Alfred du Pont, Atlantic Beach, Atlantic Beach Corporation, Atlantic Beach Hotel, Avondale, Blind Blake, Chris Hionides, Christopher Aguilar, Davis Street Blues, Deerwood Country Club, Dew Drop Alley, Dew Drop Alley Stomp, Don Mabry, Doyle Carlton, Edward Ball, Florida Land Boom, Foundation Academy, FSCJ Downtown Campus, Gamal Abdel Nasser, George Bull, Hansontown, Harcourt Bull, Henry Flagler, Jacksonville Blues, Jacksonville Science Fair, Jacksonville's Architectural Heritage, jax psycho geo, jaxpsychogeo, Jesse Ball du Pont, John G. Ch, John G. Christopher, Joseph Davin, Jr., Landon Junior and Senior High School, Manhattan Beach, Mary Bull, Mary Lou Bull, Mat(t)hew Emanuel “Sugar” Underwood, Mayport Naval Station, Murray Hall, Murray Hall Hotel, Mutamassirun, Nadia Hionides, Pablo Beach, Ponte Vedra Beach, Queen of the St. Johns, RCBS Corporation, Richard Bull, Ruby Florida, San Marco, Seminole Cyprus Lumber Company, Sr., Stockton Whatley Davin, Subjinski House, Subjinski House Jacksonville Beach, Telfair Stockton Company, The Row Riverside Avenue, Tim Gilmore, William Morgan, William Morgan architect

New Story: Chaseville “Colored Settlement” / Fort Caroline Club Estates

Posted on February 14, 2020 | Leave a comment

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Little remains of the old “Chaseville Colored Settlement,” where the 1920 census placed America’s first black presidential candidate. Fortunately for his bones, George Edwin Taylor was buried elsewhere, because developers dug up the skeletons of the old black cemetery. Where former slaves of the region’s most prominent plantation families once came to live their lives free, real estate developers built “midcentury modern” Arlington. Poultry farms gave way to Geodesica. Click below for the full story.

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Tagged Albert Sammis, Bruce Mouser, Brutus and Cain Bolton, Cary Wintz, Charles McNeill, Chaseville, Chaseville Colored Settlement, Clarence B. Moore, Daniel Dustin Hanson, Eartha White, Edidin Drive, Elizabeth Coffee, Fort Carolina Club Estates, Fort Caroline Elementary School, Fort Caroline Road, Geodesica, George Edwin Taylor, Gilbert Spindel, Hansontown, Heidi Road, Horseshoe Landing, Jacksonville Florida, Joel McEachin, John C. Christian, Kaden Drive, Kingsley Plantation, LaVilla, Lonnie Wurn, Marian Tillinghast Taylor, Marlene Sokol, Matt Soergel, Mill Cove Complex, Mount Olive Cemetery Green Cove Springs, National Liberty Party, New Castle Creek, Oakland Jacksonville, Old Chaseville Road, Reddie Point, Rogero Road, Roundhouse, Samuel Chase, Ted Edidin, Tim Gilmore, Timucuan Indians, United States Colored Troops, University Boulevard, William Marple, William Reddy

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

Hansontown Lies Beneath FSCJ’s Downtown Campus

Posted on October 7, 2017 | Leave a comment

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Hansontown lies beneath Florida State College at Jacksonville’s Downtown Campus, figuratively and, in part, literally.

When Florida Junior College consolidated its downtown locations into the new Downtown Campus in the late 1970s, it eliminated the last of Hansontown, a century-old neighborhood built for freed slaves and former U.S. Colored Troops.

Some FSCJ leaders now espouse views on urbanism much like those the college abandoned by building Downtown Campus.

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Tagged Bethel Baptist Church, Camilla Thompson, Central Grammar and High School, Clara White, Clara White Mission, Cynthia Bioteau, Daniel Dustin Hanson, Douglas Anderson, Downtown Campus, Durkeeville, Eartha White, Ed Napier, FCCJ, FJC, Florida Community College at Jacksonville, Florida Junior College, Florida StarSt. Joseph Missionary Baptist Church, Florida State College at Jacksonville, FSCJ, FSCJ Archive, Hansontown, Henry John Klutho, Jennifer Grey, Joseph Augustus Baldwin, LaVilla, Orange Street, Springfield, Sugar Hill, Sugar Underwood, U.S. Colored Troops

The Clara White Mission Remains the Humanitarian Heart of Jax

Posted on February 26, 2017 | 1 comment

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If the goodness, kindness, and mercy enacted in a particular building, on a certain quadrant of earth, can accrue across the years, then the Clara White Mission should be a pilgrimage site and 613 Ashley Street in LaVilla is sacred ground.

At the turn of 1974, Eartha was the tiny, bird-like, Old-Testament-but-New-Testament saint at the center of town. She died in January. I was born in June. I so wish I could have met her.

When I saw Eartha White look out at me from the open doors of Roosevelt Watson III’s major artwork, I saw her as I’d never seen her but also as she’d visited me, angelically and ghostly, when I’d most needed to find her before.

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Tagged "Storehouse for the People", Adam English, anti-lynching, Ashley Street, Bethel Baptist, Bijou Theater, Black Bottom Dance, Bojangles, Charles H. Loeb, Clara White, Clara White Mission, Colored Airdome, Eartha Mary Magdalene White, Eartha White, Father Henry Harrison, Frank Crowd, Franklin Baby Seals, Globe Theater, Guy Stockton, Hansontown, Henry John Klutho, Hollywood Music Store, In Search of Eartha White, Jacksonville Rounders Dance, jaxpsychogeo, Jim Crow, Ju'Coby Pittman, Lafayette White, LaVilla, Ma Rainey, Merry Hearts' Club, Michelle Calloway, Mollie Chapman, Nipsey Russell, Perversion magazine, Pittsburgh Courier, Richard McKissick, Roosevelt Watson III, Shawana Brooks, Squire English, Stockton family Jacksonville, Tim Gilmore