Tag Archives: Osky’s Alligator Store

The Life and Multiple Deaths of the Drew Building

Posted on November 25, 2019 | Leave a comment

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

The story of the building at 45 West Bay Street concerns a bear, Jacksonville’s first bookstore, Ottis Toole, the tragic deaths of construction workers, multiple demolition plans, the ghost of a third floor and the love of an architect who refused to let this building die. Now Urban Grind Coffee, Folio Weekly and other businesses call the Drew Building home. Click below for the story.

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Tagged Claire Goforth, Clements Rumpel, Columbus Drew, Deluxe Cleaners, Don Ingram, Doug Hutchins, Downtown Development Authority, Drew Building, Drew's Bookstore, F. Kyle Marshall, Fletcher Morgan, Florida Alligator Farm, Florida history, Florida Whig Party, Folio Weekly, George Sonnenberg, Great Fire of 1901, H. and W.B. Drew, H.J. Klutho, Henry John Klutho, Hodson Drew, Horace Drew, Independent Life Building, Jacksonville history, James Clements, Jaquelin Daniel, Julie Delegal, Lenny Curry, Loading Dock Restaurant, Lyman Fletcher, Madeleine Peck Wagner, McConihe Building, Morgan's Department Store, Osky’s Alligator Store, Ostrich Farm, Otis Perkins, Ottis Toole, Peter Rumpel, Pine Street Fire of 1891, Regina Hersey, Richard Martin, Robert Broward, Robert LeMoine, Rocco Morabito, Shelton Hull, Sohrab Fracis, Stalking Ottis Toole, The Architecture of Henry John Klutho: The Prairie School in Jacksonville, The City Makers, Tim Gilmore, Urban Grind Coffee, W.B. Camp, Wilbur Bacon Camp, William L'Engle

Two Writers Dead on Bay Street

Posted on January 10, 2019 | Leave a comment

Click below for the full story:

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