Tag Archives: Jacksonville history

Updating the Mysteries of the Burdette / Clarke House

Posted on September 2, 2022 | Leave a comment

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A significant part of the story is chasing dead ends and phantom leads, balancing contradictory evidence, demanding ghosts stand still and be more present. So here’s the story of the Burdette / Clarke House updated, with its frustrated artist, abandoned sanitarium and moonlight shrimping.

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Tagged Andrew Burdette, Arlington, Arlington Road, Burdette Road, Chamberlain Convalescent Hospital, Doris Clarke, Doris Parker Clarke, E.C. Burdette, Emma Burdette, Floral Bluff, Floral Bluff Road, Florida history, Gerald Clarke, Gilbert Shepard, Hungerford Convalescent Hospital, Jacksonville history, jax psycho geo, Jefferson Smurfitt, Julie Hardwick Bales, Kerr-McGee, Lurline Hungerford, Mattair House, McClain House, Reid House, SCM Glidco, Seminole Kraft, Shelby Doris Parker Green, Shelby Valeska Green, Shepard Road, Stephen Burdette, The Arlingtonian, Tim Gilmore, Union Camp, Wayne Wood, William Clarke, William F. Hawley, William Frost Hawley, Wilson and Toomer

The Forgotten History of Snyder Memorial Methodist Church

Posted on November 12, 2021 | Leave a comment

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Last year would have been the church’s 150th anniversary. There was no one to celebrate its incredible history. Founded by Northern abolitionists, Snyder Memorial Methodist Church played an important role in Jacksonville’s Civil Rights struggle a century later. Whether Reverend Hinkle committed suicide nobody said. And whether police shipping the homeless man one-way to L.A. was really a good deed is doubtful. Now the church waits, abandoned, for its next chapter.

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Tagged Alton Yates, Aragon Hotel, Ax Handle Saturday, Bethune-Cookman University, Bi-Racial Committee, Bob Standifer, Brown Theological Institute, C.E. Williams and J.S. Hardy, C.O. Livingston, C.O. Livingston Furniture, Charles Ondus Livingston, Cookman Institute, Dale Carson, Diamond Methodist Church, Edmund B. Snyder, Edward Waters College, Florida history, Florida Star, Gordon F. Hinkle, Gordon Hinkle, HabiJax, Habitat for Humanity for Jacksonville, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Haydon Burns, Hemming Park, J.H.W. Hawkins, Jacksonville Bi-Racial Committee, Jacksonville history, Jacksonville Minister Alliance, Jacksonville Ministerial Alliance, Jacksonville Youth Council NAACP, James Riggs, James Riggs Jacksonville, James Riggs Los Angeles Men's Place, James Weldon Johnson Park, Japhus Baker, John Sanford Swaim, John Swaim, Linda Standifer, M.D. Potts, Marjorie Meeks, Mary McLeod Bethune, Mayor Haydon Burns, Monroeville Methodist Church, Robert John Gisler, Rodney Hurst, Rodney Hurst Snyder Memorial, Sheriff Dale Carson, Snyder Memorial Methodist Church, St. Johns River City Band, St. Johns River City Band Snyder Memorial, Tim Gilmore, Trinity Methodist Episcopal Church, Uncle Tom's Cabin, W.H. Harkness, William J. Purman

Remembering Roseland House and Kalem Film Studios

Posted on September 17, 2021 | Leave a comment

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Miriam Cooper came to Jax for stardom, starring in weekly movies for the Kalem Company. She stayed at the tall boarding house, the Roseland, on Clarkson Street between Tallyrand and the river, and played heroic roles dynamiting bridges. The Moving Picture World of 1912 said she had “large dreamy eyes” and was “expert in the use of boxing gloves.”

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Tagged Battle of Pottsburg Bridge, Clarkson Street, D.W. Griffith, Fairfield Jacksonville, Fairfield Jacksonville Kalem, Ford Motor Company assembling plant Jacksonville, Hal Clements, Jacksonville history, jax psycho geo, Kalem Company, Kalem Film Company, Kenean Buel, Miriam Cooper, Miriam Cooper Jacksonville, Roseland Hotel, Roseland House, Stars of the Photoplay, Tallyrand Avenue, Tim Gilmore, Wambolt Street

New Story: Round Marsh (by the Willie Browne Trail)

Posted on March 4, 2021 | Leave a comment

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People have theorized Round Marsh the result of a meteor, others that it’s the remains of a British rice paddy and a 4,000 year old cypress pond. Willie Browne led friends on hikes around the pond and archaeologists have combed its shores. The World War II airplane and its pilot, meanwhile, are still in the marshes to the north. Willie Browne often said he could hear “the thunder of horsemen racing by in the distance,” when no one was there.

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Tagged Bill Goodyear, Colorinda Creek, conservation history, Craig Morris, Ellis and McClure, Florida history, Fort Caroline, Frances Brewster Smith, Jacksonville history, Jay Huebner, John Nathan Spearing, Keith Ashley, Lorraine "Rainy" Clarke, National Park Service, Nature Conservancy, Round Marsh, Saxon Browne, Shell Mount, St Johns Town, Sub-Tropical Exposition, Theodore Roosevelt Area, Tim Gilmore, Timucuan Ecological and Historical Preserve, William Jones, Willie Browne, Willie Browne Trail

The Strange Story of Slappey’s Town of Ghent Motel

Posted on February 19, 2021 | Leave a comment

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Here’s the strange story of Slappey’s Town of Ghent Motel. The sailor claimed to have built it for his “war bride” to remind her of her hometown. He had the wrong town. A naked man, fleeing Slappey’s, once disrupted church services next door. Police activity at Slappey’s ranged from gambling raids to murder.

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Tagged Anchor Bar, Beaches Drive-In Movie Theater, Cedar Bay Baptist Church, Clyde Slappey, Clyde Woodruff Slappey, Florida history, Gary's Ice Cream, Ghent Gate, Ghent Gate Bruges, Grady Allen Belger, Jacksonville history, John Margolies, Margaret Snowden, Oceanway Oaks Mobile Home Park, Red Cross Lookout Tower, Renee Slappey, Renee van Ceulebroeck, San Mateo Jacksonville, Slappey's, Slappey's Chili Parlor, Slappey's Town of Ghent Motel, Tim Gilmore, Tracy Rigdon

The Armory

Posted on January 22, 2021 | Leave a comment

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Truly this story has it all. The old Armory has stories enough for a hundred cities. There’s no way to tease it adequately. Urban exploration. Thousands of concerts, from opera to Janis Joplin and the Allman Brothers. Political debates and politicians’ funerals and boxing bouts. Stories of integration (James Weldon Johnson, Duke Ellington, Marian Anderson) defiant against Jim Crow. And a call for a future.

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Tagged Abe Livert’s Records, Allman Brothers Band, Along This Way, Angie Rodeillat Smith, Armory Jacksonville, Bryant Bowles, Charley Johns, Clarence Darrow, Colonel Edward Henry, Confederate Ball, Dave Franklin Duke Ellington, Dennis Riggs, Doyle Carlton, Duncan Fletcher, Duncan U. Fletcher, Duval County Armory, Edge City, First Baptist Church Jacksonville, Florida Civil Rights, Florida history, Florida National Guard, Florida Times-Union, Floripatra, Garage Boutique, Gator Bowl, Great Fire of 1901, Haydon Burns, Hixon’s Surfboard Revolution, Hoyt’s High Fidelity, J.C. Coppedge, Jacksonville Armory, Jacksonville Coliseum, Jacksonville history, Jacksonville Sheriff's Office, James Weldon Johnson, Janis Joplin Jacksonville, jax psycho geo, John T. Alsop, Johnny Brewer, Johns Committee, KKK Jacksonville, Ku Klux Klan Jacksonville, Leo Kitchen Orchestra, Marian Anderson, Marian Anderson Jacksonville, Marvin Strickland, McCoys Creek, NAAWP, Nake Pear, National Association for the Advancement of White People, Paulus Music, Pickaninny Chorus, Prohibition Jacksonville, Riggs Promotion, Roosevelt Mall, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor Song of Hiawatha, Senator Duncan Fletcher, Sidney Catts, Sidney Drachin, Tim Gilmore, Tim Gilmore Jax Psycho Geo, Tommy Torino, United Confederate Veterans, W.A. Hobbs, W.F. Bunch, Ye Mystic Krewe of Gasparilla, Ye Mystic Revelers

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: St. Elmo “Chic” Acosta House

Posted on December 28, 2020 | Leave a comment

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When the old man fired his gun over the boy’s head for stealing oranges, the future city commissioner said one day Armstrong’s house would be his. He bought it in 1911. St. Elmo “Chic” Acosta was arrested in 1924 on “false charges” of keeping a “disorderly house” and indicted in 1933 for giving away the city’s “sack of potatoes” and a mule. He made enemies easily, but always fought for urban “beautification.” After the Acostas donated the house in 1966, it became the artistic heart of Episcopal School of Jacksonville.

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Tagged Acosta Bridge, Acosta House, Anna Van Valkenburgh, Barbara Stevenson, Charles Cummings, Chic Acosta, Cohen Brothers, El Modelo, El Modelo Cigar Factory, Elmo Acosta, Elmo Chic Acosta, Elmo W. Acosta, Episcopal Boys Home, Episcopal High School, Episcopal School of Jacksonville, Ernest Anders, Ernest E. Anders, Federal Writers Project, Florida history, J.E.T. Bowden, Jacksonville history, jax psycho geo, Jean Ribault, John Alsop, John T. Alsop, John W. Martin, Keystone Bluff, L.H. Armstrong, Mark Zimmerman, Munnerlyn Campus, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, Pedro Menendez, Robert Bruce Van Valkenburgh, Rose Shepherd, Satsumas, Sean Bean, Second Seminole Indian War, St. Elmo Acosta, Tim Gilmore, Unshu Mikan, Van Valkenburgh, Van Valkenburgh House

The Strange Twisting Histories of Marabanong

Posted on December 12, 2020 | Leave a comment

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The history of the vast Victorian house called Marabanong includes women astronomers and suffragists, poets and painters, fictional pirates and peacocks, widow’s walks and underground passages. The 144 year old house has five levels, a corner tower, 121 windows and more stories than anyone can count.

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Tagged Antoinette Cooper, Antoinette Trout, Beldena Wilbur Sackett, Bertha Foster, Chicago Political Equality League, Chicago Women’s Club, Diantha Ripley, Diantha York-Ripley, Edward Dunne, Eliza Souvielle, Eliza Wilbur, Eliza Wilbur Souvielle, Empire Point, Eve Norton, Florida history, George Wilbur Sackett, George William Trout, Grace Wilbur Belden Trout, Grace Wilbur Trout, Jacksonville Conservatory of Musical Arts, Jacksonville Garden Club, Jacksonville history, Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra Designers' Showcase, jaxpsychogeo, Joan Trout, Joe Ripley, Marabanong, Maribyrnong, Mathieu Souvielle, Perley Place, Souvielle spirometer, Swisher Mansion San Marco, Thomas Basnett, Thomas Trout, Tim Gilmore, Timucuans, Tom Trout, Ulyssiad, University of Miami

Wesley Plott’s Downtown Bottlescape

Posted on August 15, 2020 | Leave a comment

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He knew all the best places to dig downtown, in Springfield and in Riverside for hundred year old bottles. He found Indian pottery, toys, newspapers, parts of skulls and Civil War munitions. His 40 year old 50 page book, Antique Bottles Found in Northeast Florida, contains chapters called “Locating Dumps,” “Known Bottle Dumps” and “Hidden Treasures Just for You!” He also claims to have unearthed an ancient body, then reburied it, downtown on Adams Street. Click below for the story.

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Tagged A Century of Medicine in Jacksonville and Duval County, A.S. Baldwin, Antique Bottle Club of Jacksonville, bottle collecting Northeast Florida, Dr. A.S. Baldwin, Duval County Board of Health, Florida history, Henry John Klutho Park, Independent Life Building, Jacksonville Free Public Library, Jacksonville history, jaxpsychogeo, McCoys Creek, Old St. Luke's Hospital, Purple Petunia, Springfield Jacksonville, Tim Gilmore, Timucua, Timucuan Indians, Tudor Revival, Webster Merritt, Wesley B. Plott, Windsor Hotel

Tag Archives: Jacksonville history

Updating the Mysteries of the Burdette / Clarke House

The Forgotten History of Snyder Memorial Methodist Church

Remembering Roseland House and Kalem Film Studios

New Story: Round Marsh (by the Willie Browne Trail)

The Strange Story of Slappey’s Town of Ghent Motel

The Armory

The Bodies Left Behind in Billy Goat Hill

New Story: St. Elmo “Chic” Acosta House

The Strange Twisting Histories of Marabanong

Wesley Plott’s Downtown Bottlescape

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