Tag Archives: Panama Park

Easter After Easter in the Garden / Motor Court

Posted on April 10, 2023 | Leave a comment

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I’m just barely too late. It’s after midnight. But I’ll still post my Easter story. It’s the story of an old motor court on Main Street, patterned in crime, dated Easter after Easter, Thanksgiving and then Thanksgiving. It’s the story of the Relax Inn, once the Garden Court, and before that the Main Street Motor Court. Its echoes are uncanny.

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Tagged Carey Brown, Ebony Freeman, Garden Court Main Street Jacksonville, Garden Court Motor Hotel, Kareen Griffin, Main Street Motor Court, North Main Street, Northside Jacksonville, Panama Park, Park View Inn, Patrina Faye Cox, Relax Inn Jacksonville, Rex Sweat, Shirley Smith, Walton Family Motels, We’re for Jesus House of Prayer

Walking the Vanished Old Panama Road

Posted on April 12, 2020 | Leave a comment

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The Old Panama Road disappeared beneath the Northside of the city 120 years ago. This story tracks it. It heads north from the murder of Marie Gato, past Club Steppin’ Out, through the diary of a black Civil War soldier reading Lord Byron, a Spanish American War camp teeming with Typhoid Fever and the burning of a sawmill the size of a small town.

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Tagged Alexander St. Clair-Abrams, Andrew Robinson Elementary School, Austin Mann, Austin S. Mann, Bloxham Avenue, Buffalo Avenue, Buffalo Food Store, Camp Bloxham, Charles F. Sibbald, Childe Harold, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Club Steppin' Out, Confederacy, Confederate States of America, Covid-19, Cyrus Brown, E.L. Smith Candy, Eddie Pitzer, Edward Pitzer, El Modelo, Everett Hotel, Evergreen Cemetery, Fairfield, First Coast Automotive, G.W. Wetmore, Gabriel Hidalgo Gato, George W. Clark, Henry John Klutho, Jacksonville Historic Preservation Commission, Jacksonville's Architectural Heritage, James Berry, jax psycho geo, Jim Crow, Joel McEachin, John Bigger, José Alejandro Huau, Jose Marti, Lord Byron, Lycurgis Bigger, manatee, Marie Louise Gato, North Springfield, Old Panama Road, Panama Florida, Panama Mills, Panama Park, Panama Park School, Panama Park Track, Pitzer and Bigger, Relaxx Inn, Sanborn Fire Insurance, Sebald Lane, Silver Street, Spanish moss, Springfield, Tim Gilmore, Trout River, Typhoid Fever, United States Colored Troops, USCT, We’re for Jesus House of Prayer, William Dunnington Bloxham

This Week’s Story: Tip Top Tavern / Randall’s Ranch House Restaurant

Posted on November 8, 2019 | Leave a comment

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Before that night the Ku Klux Klan wore their hoods in for dinner, before somebody assaulted Randall Fleiss and stole his ivory, before Ron Pate initiated his “If you want to fight, you have to fight me” policy, Darryl Swearingen asked his mother if he could take a job washing dishes. The story of the Tip Top Tavern / Randall’s Ranch House Restaurant dates back almost a century.

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Tagged Darryl Swearingen, Donal Godfrey, DuPont School, Ed Canady, Folsom Haven, Helen Fleiss, Helen Wooten, Hines Restaurant, J&L Friendly Tavern, jax psycho geo, John Haven, KKK, Ku Klux Klan, Lackawanna Elementary, North Shore, Panama Park, Patrick Foley, Randall Fleiss, Randall's Ranch House Restaurant, Richard Atkinson, Robert Zortea, Ron Pate, Rose Pate, Tallulah, Tally's Lounge, Tim Gilmore, Tip Top Tavern, Urban Meyer, Woody's Place, Your Tavern, Zorty's Ranch House Restaurant

Craig Creek: From River Oaks to Oriental Gardens to Jax Ghats

Posted on June 8, 2018 | Leave a comment

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Craig Creek floods herons and frogs and oak roots. William Craig prepared to lead his army for the Republic of East Florida against the Spanish Empire. “Oriental Gardens” overflowed from George W. Clark’s Riverside residence across the St. Johns River to just south of San Marco.

The cypress trees along Craig Creek rise yet, love letters still molder in a particular attic, and the gardens still descend stone steps, Jax ghats, into the ancient river.

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Tagged " Mirror Lake, "Hell Screen, Craig Creek, George W. Clark, ghats, Great Blue Heron, Jax Ghats, jaxpsychogeo, Klutho, Oriental Gardens, Panama Park, Republic of East Florida, River Oaks Park, Riverside, Robert Broward, Rosa Parks, Ryunosuke Akutagawa, San Marco, singing gardens, Springfield Realty Company, Tim Gilmore