Tag Archives: Riverside Avondale

Remembering O.Z. Tyler, Epic Poet on Willow Branch Canal

Posted on August 7, 2022 | Leave a comment

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A quarter century ago, the ancient epic poet, “the Colonel,” opened his Tudor style home on Willow Branch Canal to a poet in his 20s. Orville Zelotes Tyler, Jr. wanted to be to America, to the South, to Jacksonville what Homer was to Ancient Greece, and his subject was Osceola, the Seminole leader who’d resisted the U.S. Army and was only captured under truce.

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Tagged Bill Slaughter, Cumberland Campus, E.M. Souvielle, Eliza Wilbur, Florida Junior College, Florida State College at Jacksonville, FSCJ Kent Campus, Jacksonville Historical Society, jaxpsychogeo, Marabanong, O.Z. Tyler, Orville Zelotes Tyler, Osceola, Osceola Seminole Chief, Palmer Tyler, Riverside Avondale, Tim Gilmore, Ulyssiad, William Slaughter, Willow Branch Canal, Willow Branch Creek, Willow Branch Terrace

The Ernest & Catherine Ricker House & All Its Many Lives

Posted on January 22, 2022 | Leave a comment

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The Queen Anne-style Ricker House, with its third-story tower and draped gingerbread, looks like something from a fairy tale. After the Rickers raised their eight children, the house moved from Oak Street to Post Street and back again. Having housed deaths and births, fire and termites, restaurants and school principals, the Ricker House has collected at least 1,001 stories.

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Tagged Andrea Doria, Ann Ricker, Atlantic National Bank, August Beyes, Ben Ketchum, Bowyer's Restaurant, Catherine Ricker, Cathy Bowyer Fine, Conrad Mangels, Creole Queen restaurant, Earnest Ricker, Edward Lane Jr., Elise Ricker, Erma Ricker, Ernest A. Ricker, Ernest Adolph Ricker, Ernest Ricker, Florida history, Frank Marquis, Frederick Puckhaber, Harold Ricker, Helen Lane, Helen Murchison Lane, J.F. Dobbin, jax psycho geo, Liller Belle Ricker, Lu Stuart, Lula Jenkins, Mangels Package House, Marion Ricker, Pappagallo Jacksonville, Peg Kenyon, Queen Anne style house, Queen Victoria, Ricker-Dobbin Company, Riverside Antiques, Riverside Avondale, Riverside Avondale Preservation, Riverside Presbyterian Church, Riverside Presbyterian Day School, Sandy Strickland, Tim Gilmore, Vera Mangels, Vera Ricker, Virginia King, Willis Gerow House

How the Gale House Replaced the House of the Seven Gables

Posted on January 9, 2022 | Leave a comment

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The house was meant to be a new start, but Emanuel died here just four years later. It was quite the life the couple left behind in Ohio. For half a century, Louise Gale, Emanuel’s widow, made the house home for her daughter, siblings and grandkids, carving the Colonial Revival Jax mansion into the Gale Apartments. Along the way, the old house’s story includes the one-man fraternity “Foo Beta Goo,” stuffed emperor penguins and “Riverside characters.”

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Tagged Art Bar, Beth King, Christ Carver John Carver, Christy Frazier, Colonial Revival Jacksonville, E.O. Painter, Edward Okle Painter, Emanuel Gale, Emanuel Gale House, Emanuel Gale Pacetti, fighter plane crash Jacksonville, Gale Apartments, Gale Court, Gale House Jacksonville, Gale Pacetti, House of the Seven Gables Lima Ohio, jax psycho geo, Jessie Lauck, Joseph Pacetti, Louise Gale, Mad Atlas of Virginia King, P-51 crash Jacksonville, Riverside Avondale, Riverside Avondale Preservation, Riverside Liquors, Roger Cruce, St. Paul's Catholic Church, St. Paul's Catholic School, Tim Gilmore, Velma Gale Pacetti, Virginia King, William Lauck

Silvertown and My Mother’s Early Childhood Home

Posted on December 11, 2021 | Leave a comment

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Here’s the story of my mother’s early childhood home in what had been Silvertown, a neighborhood built for black residents after the Civil War and then swallowed up by Riverside. The house is gone now, except for in a few old photos and secondhand memories, and in the letter she dictated in 1940, when she was four years old.

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Tagged 2758 Ernest Street Jacksonville, Avondale Jacksonville, Eddie E. Keene, Eddie Ernest Keene, Eddie Keene, Fairfax Manor, Jacksonville's Architectural Heritage, Joan Irene Keene, Lula Young Hamilton, Mamie Adams, Mayflower Hotel Jacksonville, Moses Keene, Ola Keene, Ola Ruth Keene, Ortega Jacksonville, Riverside Avondale, Roosevelt Hotel Jacksonville, Silvertown, Silvertown Riverside Jacksonville, Tim Gilmore, Torrid Zone movie, Wayne Wood

The Sudden Discovery of My Mother’s First Apartment, 70 Years Ago

Posted on August 13, 2021 | Leave a comment

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I never knew she’d lived here. Never noticed this side address. Until the old pack of photos surfaced, 1954. And here is my mother, who died when I was 12. Here she is, 20 years before I was born. I’m 30 years her elder. And I meet her on that cold February night when she was young and the present promised the future was bright.

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Tagged Copeland Street Riverside Jacksonville, Ernest Street Riverside Jacksonville, Gilmore Street Riverside Jacksonville, Joan Gilmore, Joan Irene Gilmore, Riverside Avondale, Tim Gilmore

New Story: Architect Ted Pappas’s Design for St. John the Divine Greek Orthodox Church

Posted on December 5, 2020 | Leave a comment

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The first solo design for architect Ted Pappas, son of Greek immigrants, was the new home of the city’s Greek Orthodox church. The history of St. John the Divine reflects the history of the Greek community in Jacksonville. The icon screen, built by George Doro a century ago, moved to Pappas’s postmodern design from the original church, a historic landmark demolished for a parking lot. Now, a new congregation has saved this sanctuary for another generation.

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Tagged Architect Ted Pappas, Athens Cafe, Congregation Ahavath Chesed Synagogue, Dellwood Street, E.B. Papazisis, Eleftherios Pappas, Ernest Street, Fifika Pappas, First Baptist Church, Frank Lloyd Wright, George Doro, George Doro Fixture Company, Gilmore Street, Greek Orthodox church Jacksonville, Henry John Klutho, J.H.W. Hawkins, James Kalogerakos, jax psycho geo, Margaret Street, Mark Pappas, Mary L. Singleton Senior Center, Mary Roman, Metropolitan Community Church of Jacksonville, Michael Sarris, Nick Louh, Phillip Pappas, Riverside Avondale, Robert Broward, Robert E. Lee High School, Springfield Jacksonville, St John the Divine Greek Orthodox Church, St. John Episcopal Cathedral, St. John of Damascus, Stockton Street, Taylor Hardwick, Ted Pappas, Tim Gilmore, Tom Christon

The Purple Petunia Goes Postmodern

Posted on July 18, 2020 | Leave a comment

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Eight years ago, I first wrote about The Purple Petunia, an antique store and flower shop in an old “Tudor style” service station. Now Andrew Suslak and Brandon Merkle are turning “the Petunia” into Post Modern Brewing, reviving a storied Riverside address. So here’s a revised and fuller story, telling of Wesley B. Plott, digger of old bottles from lost dumps, mercurial antique dealer, breaker of old lamps, shooter of intruders and accidental environmental activist, who lived his last days alone in a small back room of “the Petunia.” Here’s to the Petunia going postmodern!

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Tagged Algonquin Antiques, Andrew Suslak, Anne Plott, Barter House, Bill Delaney, Bob Phelps, bottle collecting, bottle collecting Florida, Brandon Merkle, Cedar Point, Clapboard Creek, Diazinon, Don Gay, Ed Brooks, Ginger Rowland, I.G. Farben, jaxpsychogeo, Joseph Richardson, Kenco Chemical, Lavelle Goff, Livebeck Island, New Berlin, Post Modern Brewing, Purple Petunia, Riverside Avondale, Seedsmith, Shawna Rowland, Spectracide, Spectracide explosion, Stockbroker Tudor, Sulfotepp, The Norm gay bar, Tim Gilmore, Tudor Revival, Wesley B. Plott, Xavier Richardson

Story #509: Riverdale Inn / Brazile House / Kelly House

Posted on February 7, 2020 | Leave a comment

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Walter Brazile founded B & B Exterminating Co. in his rambling old boarding house. He nurtured the business and nurtured people, including Rufus King, Jr., brother of Virginia, author of that 8,448-page book about Jax. William Kelly, turpentine magnate, built the house 115 years ago. Albert O’Neall, though a Quaker, took a job here building bombing ranges. Now the former HQ of B & B has been restored as a bed-and-breakfast. One of my favorite writers stayed here just last week.

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Tagged Albert Ellis O'Neall, Albert O'Neall, Arden Herrin, B & B Exterminating, Barnett Mansion Springfield, Benvenuto, Bret Burmeister, Charlie Towers, Claude L'Engle, Consolidated Naval Stores, Elizabeth Brazile, Eric Waln, Florida history, Gum Bunch, Haydon Burns Library, Henry John Klutho, Irma O'Neall, J.E.T. Bowden, Jacksonville Florida, jax psycho geo, Jessica Miner-Killian, Jonathan Greeley, Larry James Bana, LaVilla, Malcolm Gladwell Jacksonville, Marjorie Ann O'Neall, Mary Mychael Waln, McCoys Creek, Mellen Greeley, Memorial Park, Napier Apartments, naval stores, Orren McJunkins, Ortega Jacksonville, Palms Boarding House, Palms Hotel, Riverdale Inn, Riverside Avondale, Riverside Hospital, Rocco Morabito, Rogers Towers, Rufus King Jr., Slappey Building, The Mad Atlas of Virginia King, The Row, Tim Gilmore, Tim Gilmore Florida, Tom Gilmore, Virginia King, Walter Brazile, Walter P. Brazile, William Kelly, William O'Neall

Bebe Deluxe, Storybook Pride Prom, and the History of Gay Pride at Willowbranch Park and Library

Posted on June 29, 2019 | Leave a comment

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It’s the 50^th anniversary of Stonewall, and at Willowbranch Library, an epicenter of gay rights history in Jacksonville, hundreds of supporters of gender and sexual minority young people rally in their defense after Jacksonville Public Libraries Director Tim Rogers canceled their sold-out Pride Prom.

Now there are two teen pride events, instead of one. The prom still takes place, at a now undisclosed location, a local church, and hundreds of supporters rally at Willowbranch Library to express their solidarity and love.

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Tagged Activist Mommy, AIDS Memorial Project, Allman Brothers Band, Ashley Miller Kraan, Beatrice Palmer, Bebe Deluxe, Bernard Close, Bob Gray, Charles Deskin, David Hodges, Eliaz Jaudon, Elizabeth Johnston, Ernie Selorio, Evan Freda, Gay Liberation Front, Gay Pride Jacksonville, Jacksonville Area Sexual Minority Youth Network, Jacksonville Dog Festival, Jacksonville history, Jacksonville Pride, JASMYN, jaxpsychogeo, Jennifer Janin Miskell, Lee Carlton, LGBTQ Jacksonville, Love Grove, Magnolia Plantation, Marsha P. Johnson, Metropolitan Community Church, Neena Eisenberg, Nicole Self White, Pride Month, Riverside Avondale, Robert E. Lee High School, Robin Patton, Ron Hersom, Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, Stonewall Inn, Storybook Pride Prom, Sylvia Rivera, Tim Gilmore, Tim Rogers, Trinity Christian Academy, Walt Whitman, Wilder Park, Willowbranch Creek, Willowbranch Library, Willowbranch Park

St. Johns Flower Market’s Long Strange Trip

Posted on April 16, 2019 | Leave a comment

From Moonies to “flower pimps” to midcentury modern architecture, Click here for the strange and wondrous story of St. Johns Flower Market.

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Tagged Canary in the Coal Mine, Charlie Strickland, Ed's Roses and Ribs, Emily Gilmore, Fairfax, Fishweir Elementary School, Gina Martinelli, Goal Post Sandwich Shop, Goliath Flores, Jacksonville, jax psycho geo, Jim Pons, Jonathan Lux, Katrina Thiesen, Lenny Thiesen, Leonard Theisen, Lonesome Ride, Madison Square Garden, Marianne Thiesen, Mass Wedding, Moonies, Ortega, Riverside Avondale, Skinner's Dairy, St Johns Flower Market, Sun Myung Moon, Taylor Hardwick, Tim Gilmore, Unification Church, University of North Florida, Virginia King

Tag Archives: Riverside Avondale

Remembering O.Z. Tyler, Epic Poet on Willow Branch Canal

The Ernest & Catherine Ricker House & All Its Many Lives

How the Gale House Replaced the House of the Seven Gables

Silvertown and My Mother’s Early Childhood Home

The Sudden Discovery of My Mother’s First Apartment, 70 Years Ago

New Story: Architect Ted Pappas’s Design for St. John the Divine Greek Orthodox Church

The Purple Petunia Goes Postmodern

Story #509: Riverdale Inn / Brazile House / Kelly House

Bebe Deluxe, Storybook Pride Prom, and the History of Gay Pride at Willowbranch Park and Library

St. Johns Flower Market’s Long Strange Trip

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