Tag Archives: Manuel’s Tap Room

When Jax Liquors Ruled Florida

Posted on November 18, 2023 | Leave a comment

Click below for this week’s story, or navigate the city through the search bar or the direction buttons at the top of the page:

For half a century, Jax Liquors ruled Jacksonville, much of Florida as well. “I was afraid to stay small,” the kingpin said. Inversely proportional, his long rise spanned the decline of the Black neighborhood where he bought his first bars. The long arc of Jax Liquors’ success paralleled changes in American drinking habits, attitudes toward liquor and drunk driving laws. Even now, if you’ve lived long enough in Jacksonville, you might accidentally call ABC “Jax Liquors.”

Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged ABC Liquors Jacksonville, Dallas Thomas, Dan McCormack, Daughtry Towers, Deluxe Bar, Don Tredinick, Don Trednick, Donal Godfrey, Doty Apartment Building, Duval County Property Appraiser Robert Mallard, Eight Pearls Bar and Package Store, Enrique Liquor Shoppe, Farris Bryant, Frances Tredinick, General Trading and Drive In Liquors, George Wachendorf, Hans Tanzler, Humphreys Gold Mine, Isadore Singleton, Jack Dreher, Jax Liquors, Jax Liquors Jacksonville, Jean Penny, Lucina Lounge, Manuel's Tap Room, Mary Singleton, Mill Creek North, Mothers Against Drunk Driving Jacksonville, New Hofbrau, Red Cannon Jacksonville, Silver Dollar Tavern, Solomon Shad, St. Johns Trading Company, Ted Pappas, Thunderbird Motor Hotel, Tropicana Lounge and Drive In

LaVilla’s Progress Furniture Company

Posted on February 13, 2021 | Leave a comment

Click below for this week’s story, or navigate the city through the search bar or the direction buttons at the top of the page:

Climb the stairs and see there’s more missing than remains of 318 Broad Street. Bernie would tell you, at Progress Furniture Company, 80 years ago, “Buy or Sell…We Treat You Well.” His father was one of two Romanian Jewish immigrants in Jacksonville named Isador Moskovitz. This collapsing commercial building provides a microcosm of decimated and mostly vanished LaVilla. A thistle blooms in bricks near the roof.

Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged 318 Broad Street, 324 Broad Street, Bernie Moskovitz, Black Masonic Temple Jacksonville, Broad Street Jacksonville, Broad Street LaVilla, Brooklyn Jacksonville, DeLoach Furniture, Gladys Klausner, Goony Golf, Herman Klausner, Isador Moskovitz, Jacksonville Jewish Center, Jacksonville Train Terminal, Kenneth Klausner, LaVilla, LBee Furniture, Liberty Furniture Company, Manuel Rivera, Manuel's Tap Room, Mayor Ed Austin, Noli Novak, Noli Novak artist, Olga Moskovitz, Paula Klausner, Paula Moskovitz, Progress Furniture Company, psychogeography Florida, Richmond Hotel Jacksonville, Richmond Hotel LaVilla, River City Renaissance, Southern Gothic Jacksonville, Terminal Hotel, Terminal Liquors, Terry DeLoach, Tim Gilmore, United Optical Outlet

When Governor Claude Kirk Hopped the Fence and Took the Mic from “Black Power Agitator,” H. Rap Brown

Posted on April 28, 2018 | Leave a comment

Click below for the full story:

This ballpark has been the heart of Durkeeville for more than a century. It was Jacksonville’s municipal baseball stadium until 1954. The Negro Leagues played here. Hank Aaron “integrated” the Jacksonville Braves and won MVP, 1953.

White people had lots of guns and white cops all had guns, so black people! should get guns too. So said H. Rap Brown, who bridged the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee to the Black Panthers.

Claude Kirk, 36th governor of Florida, Jax insurance salesman, hopped the fence at Durkee Field, tromped toward the pitcher’s mound, and snatched the mic from H. Rap Brown.

Leave a comment

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged Art Hamilton, Ax Handle Saturday, Babe Ruth, Ben Geraghty, Black Panthers, Black Power, Bubbling Small, Buck O'Neil, Charlie Griffin, Claude Kirk, Dale Carson, Durkee Field, Durkeeville, Felix Mantilla, Fred Dickinson, H. Rap Brown, Hank Aaron, Hemming Park, honkies, Horace Garner, Indianapolis Clowns, J.P. Small, Jackie Robinson, Jacksonville Braves, Jacksonville Red Caps, Jacksonville Tars, James Baldwin, James Small, jaxpsychogeo, Joseph Durkee, LaVilla, Lorraine Motel, Manuel Rivera, Manuel's Tap Room, Martin Luther King, Negro Leagues, Negroes with Guns, Robert F. Williams, Sallye B. Mathis, SNCC, Stanton School, Stokely Carmichael, Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, Sugar Hill, The Fire Next Time, Tim Gilmore, Willie Weston

Pedrica Mendez’s House

Posted on September 26, 2017 | 1 comment

Click below for the full story:

When Padrica was a little girl in the 1940s, the Cuban community in Jacksonville surrounded her and her family with love and a yet larger sense of family.

One night as she left the opera in Rome, a photographer snapped her picture, wrote, “in omaggio alla sua bellezza,” or “in homage of your beauty,” on the back of the photograph, and gave it to her.

The fire that consumed the great two-story house next door jumped sparks at Padrica’s house.

Still what most struck Padrica were the cadences she heard in the Orthodox music of ancient Ethiopia that reminded her dearly, tearfully, of rhymes and end-lines from old “Negro spirituals.”

Posted in Uncategorized

Tagged Alvin Ailey, Bert Williams, Carmen Jones, Durkeeville, Ed Austin, Enrico Caruso, Frank Nero, Havana Night Club, Jacksonville, jaxpsychogeoTonyaa Weathersbee, Jennifer Chase, Joel McEachin, Josephine Baker, LaVilla, Manuel Rivera, Manuel's Tap Room, Mariano Stabile, MaVynee Betsch, Padrica Mendez, Pedro Mendez, Queen of Sheba, River City Renaissance, Solomon Shad, Sugar Hill, The Two Spot, Tim Gilmore, Victor Banjo, Virginia King