Tag Archives: Mayport

The Mystery House at Atlantic/Neptune Beach

Posted on January 17, 2021 | 1 comment

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Supposedly the hurricane tossed the house back up on the beach that way and rather than tearing it down, some smalltime Barnum charged admission. At the beginnings of a town called Neptune, the “Mysterious House” stood out beyond the dunes. Inside, gravity went askew. You felt like you were walking up the wall.

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Tagged Al Mosher, Atlantic Beach, Dan G. Wheeler, Dan Wheeler, Dixie before Disney, Donald Mabry, Florida history, Jacksonville Beach, jaxpsychogeo, Lemon Bar, Lemon Street, Mayport, Mysterious House, Mystery House, Neptune, Neptune Beach, Ocean Boulevard, Pablo Beach, Sanborn Fire Insurance, Sanborn map, Southern Gothic, St. Augustine, Tim Gilmore, Tim Hollis

The Independent Life Building / Wells Fargo Center

Posted on May 8, 2020 | Leave a comment

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From lightning strikes to the locomotive buried in its foundation, from loyalty to President Nixon to overtures to the National Football League, from the architectural sketches of Wah Yo Eng to the immigrant family of Bulgarians, Haitians and Jamaicans, the Independent Life Building (now the Wells Fargo Center) has reflected Jacksonville back to itself since 1974.

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Tagged Accustaff, Accustaff Building, Bay Street, Beth Dunlop, Bill Ectric, Bill Ectric King, Bill Foley, Bill Kinh, Bob Irsay, Bud Adams, C.J. Holmes, Colt Fever, Consolidation, David Eisenhower, Doug Eng, Drew Company, Florida Central and Peninsular Railroad, Florida Gothic, Great Fire of 1901, H. and W.B. Drew, Henry Flagler, Independent Life Building, Independent Life Insurance Company, J.H.W. Hawkins, J.M.W. Hawkins, Jacksonville Bulls, Jacksonville Businessmen’s Club, Jacksonville Colts, Jacksonville Oilers, Jacob Bryant III, jaxpsychogeo, JMW Hawkins, John C. Christian, Julie Nixon Eisenhower, KBJ, KBJ Architects, Kemp Bunch Jackson, Lyubomira Lazarova, Mayport, Mayport Naval Station, Mayport Navy Base, McConihe Building, Modis, Modis Building, Richard Nixon, River Club, Southern Gothic, Tim Gilmore, United States Football League, USFL, Veliko Tarnovo, Way Yo Eng, Wayne Wood, Wells Fargo Center

New Story: Old St. Johns River Lighthouse

Posted on February 28, 2019 | Leave a comment

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When I climbed the lighthouse in the year 2000, we found, in place of the light, the nest of a great night bird of prey. The Old St. Johns Lighthouse should stand for hundreds of years, perhaps a thousand, says Herschel Shepard, the architect who restored it. The door’s long buried in the risen ground. Wanton S. Webb called it a “pretty romance,” the story of a retired maritime sergeant who locked his daughter in the lighthouse a century and a half ago.

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Tagged "The Story of Mayport", Audubon Society, bar pilots, barred owl, BEAKS, Bird Emergency Aid and Kare Sanctuary, Bluebeard, convolvulus, Elizabeth Stark, Fanny Brandt, Fresnel, George A. Smathers, Glenn Bartley, Hazard Light, Hazard Lighthouse, Herschel Shepard, Jack Spottwood, Jacksonville Beaches, jax psycho geo, jaxpsychogeo, Jean Ribault, John Kunkel Small, Ken Smith, Mayport, Mayport lighthouse, Mayport Navy Base, Morning Glory, Old St. Johns Lighthouse, Rapunzel, Ribault Monument, Tim Gilmore, Wanton S. Webb

Someone Save the Heston House

Posted on November 23, 2018 | 4 comments

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The bachelors were born in this house and died in this house, at either end of a century. The old boathouse fell into the creek. Linden’s boat, the Rapid Rabbit, became an artificial reef.

Charlie fished the whole world, but Sam Skinner drowned off the dinghy. Paul won tennis championships. Their mother watched St. Paul’s Episcopal Church float away on the creek. The beds are made, typewriter fossilized, and the house still waits.

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Tagged Alice Gibson, artificial reef, Atlantic and University Boulevards, Atlantic Boulevard, Campbell Avenue, Charlie Heston, Emily Dickinson, Fletcher Park, Florida linden, Harbor Point House, Heston House, Heston Road, Jacksonville, Jacksonville history, Jacksonville Museum of Arts and Sciences, jaxpsychogeo, Jetties, Lillian Heston, Lillian Holden Heston, Linden Heston, Little Pottsburg Creek, Long Range Navigation, LORAN, Mayport, Museum of Science and History, Oakhaven, Paul Heston, Paul Llewellyn Heston, Rabit's Lair, Rapid Rabbit, Sam Skinner, Samuel Skinner Jr., San Marco Preservation Hall, Skinner's Dairy, South Jacksonville School, St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Thyra Dickson, Tilia floridana, Tim Gilmore, Wakefield wicker

New Story: Invisible Pirates Just off the Sandollar Restaurant and Marina

Posted on August 21, 2016 | Leave a comment

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Whether the Sandollar Restaurant and Marina was built in 1988 or 1954, both of which the restaurant gives as the year it opened, the invisible Somalian pirates who operate container barges just off shore still make Jacksonville writer Hurley Winkler smile.

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Tagged Heckscher Drive, Hurley Winkler, Jay McKenzie, Mayport, Mayport Ferry, Mayport shrimp, Perversion magazine, Sandollar, Sandollar Restaurant and Marina, Tim Gilmore