Tag Archives: San Jose Hotel

The Volstead, the Knight Building, and Ghosts of the Fire of 1901

Posted on May 26, 2023 | Leave a comment

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The W.A. Knight Building stands on the old homesite of Edward Cleaveland, “the man who burned down the town,” whose business negligence started the Great Fire of 1901. When the building was new, it was illegal to buy or sell alcohol. It now houses the Volstead, a bar named in irony for the Prohibition Act.

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Tagged All Florida Sand Company, Bolles Hall, Charlie Patton, Cleaveland Fibre Factory, Diamond Interlachen Sands Company, E.E. Cleaveland, Edward Cleavelend, Edward Cleveland, Edward Jelks, Epping Forest, Florida Rock, Greenleaf and Crosby Building, Kazu Sushi Burrito, Knight Lofts, Lyla Dore, Marsh and Saxelbye, Mike Langton, Ottis Toole, Riverside Hospital, San Jose Hotel, Teri Youmans, The Row Riverside, Tim Gilmore, Volstead, W.A. Knight, W.A. Knight Building, W.W. Cleaveland

Leaving the Carl Swisher Mansion

Posted on January 7, 2023 | Leave a comment

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Lori Boyer has called the old Carl Swisher mansion in San Marco home for 35 years. She mourned one husband here, married another. John Swisher, manufacturer of King Edward Cigars, built this house for his son right beside his own in 1930. Boyer says she’s a period in the house’s history and now it’s time for another family.

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Tagged Alan Wilson, Angela Schifanella, Carl Swisher, Edward Moorhouse, Epping Forest, Herbert Swisher, Hugh Nicholson, Jno H. Swisher and Son, John Swisher, Lori Boyer, Lori Nemeyer, Lori Tofflemire, Marsh and Saxelbye, Martha Mitchell, Ron Nemeyer, San Jose Hotel, San Marco, San Marco Square, Swisher International, Swisher Mansion, Tim Gilmore, Tyrie Boyer, Villa Alexandria

The Hidden House, by Ted Pappas, a Mediterranean Revival Revival

Posted on October 21, 2022 | 1 comment

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This house hidden behind a house on the river, is both classical and contemporary. Ted Pappas designed it when he was restoring the Mediterranean Revival mansion called Epping Forest. Indeed, you could call this house Mediterranean Revival Revival. Its current occupant must go unnamed. He does not speak into his shoe, though he did once have a STU-III.

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Tagged Architect Ted Pappas, Bolles Hall, Epping Forest, Hogan's Creek Tower, jax psycho geo, Jim Martin House, Jim Martin Tire, Mediterranean Revival, Mediterranean Revival Florida, pecky cypress, San Jose Hotel, Ted Pappas, Tim Gilmore

New Story: Epping Forest

Posted on April 15, 2021 | 1 comment

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Epping Forest is the grandest historic estate in Jacksonville. Well known, the summits of world leaders here. Well known, its original owner’s personal manipulation of banking in the Great Depression. Why, however, did Alfred Dent believe his grandmother, Jessie Ball duPont, and her brother, Edward Ball, had murdered his grandfather, Alfred duPont? Also, what’s up with the pelicans and squirrels and vampire faces?

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Tagged Alfred Dent, Alfred duPont, Alfred duPont murder theory, Anwar Sadat, Bolles Hall, Bolles School, E.I. duPont and de Nemours and Co., Ed Ball, Edward Ball, Emir of Sharjah, Epping Forest, Florida East Coast Railway, Florida National Bank, Florida Probate Act, Francis X. Donnelly, Gate Petroleum Co., Gerald Ford, Henry Kissinger, Herb Peyton, Jacksonville Jewish Community Council, jax psycho geo, Jessie Ball duPont, Jessie Ball duPont murder theory, John Peyton, Marsh and Saxelbye, Mayor Hans Tanzler, Mediterranean Revival, Priscilla Jennerette, Raymond Mason, Raymond Mason Jr., Ruth Ball, San Jose, San Jose Hotel, San Marco, St. Joe Paper Company, Ted Pappas, Tim Gilmore