Tag Archives: Sandy Strickland

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

The Dramatic Story of the Pappas Building

Posted on May 29, 2021 | Leave a comment

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It was architect Ted Pappas’s artistic self-portrait. It’s when the State of Florida decided people, and neighborhoods, mattered less than cars and through-traffic. It’s also a mystery. Why Pappas salvaged the stones and where he placed them. What else do you do when your city shoots itself through the art you bequeathed it? I’ll be damned if there’s not hope still.

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Tagged Alex Sifakis, Beaches Library, Beverly Keneagy, Clyde Harris, David Bauerlein, Doug Milne, Epping Forest, First Guaranty Bank, Florida Architect Magazine, Florida Department of Transportation, H.C. Care Co. Building, H.C. Care Company, Haskell's Highway, Jacksonville Transit Authority, Mark Lee Pappas, Mark Pappas, Mellen Greeley, Miles Price, Pappas Building, Preston Haskell, Riverside Avenue, Riverside Brooklyn, Sandy Strickland, St John the Divine Greek Orthodox Church, Taylor Hardwick, Ted Pappas, Thomas Purcell, Tim Gilmore, United States Colored Troops

Curry-Thomas: A taxidermied specimen for every year of business

Posted on February 19, 2019 | Leave a comment

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70 years from the founding of Curry-Thomas Hardware and Gun Shop, two men in their 70s stare at each other. They’re both retired cops. Roger’s father Everett Curry worried about the death of the hardware trade, but Charles Thomas’s son Steve says gun sales have kept the store thriving. Big-game trophies of physicians and philanthropists take starring roles in the hardware store menagerie.

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Tagged Charles Thomas, Curry-Thomas, Curry-Thomas Hardware and Gun Shop, Dr. John Snow, Everett Curry, jackalope, jaxpsychogeo, John Snow, Lenny Brodie, Matt Thomas, Roger Curry, Sandy Strickland, St. Nicholas, St. Nicholas Shopping Center, Stefanie Snow, Steve Thomas, Tim Gilmore, Tim Thomas, Tom Genest

Big Jim, Mouthpiece of the City’s Wild Soul

Posted on January 19, 2019 | 1 comment

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Rexall Drugs sold the Americanitis Elixir to salve the nerves of anxious city dwellers suffering from noises like Big Jim. The State Board of Health condemned the old steam whistle, said it brought strong, rugged men to the breaking point.

John Einig, the same inventor who built Jacksonville’s first automobile, had designed Big Jim. The whistle sounded the end of world wars, the dawn of electric lighting, the Great Fire of 1901, and the death of its inventor. The 140 year old whistle still sounds four times a day over Springfield and Downtown.

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Tagged Americanitis Elixir, Big Jim, Big Jim steam whistle. Americanitis, Florida State Board of Health, Jacksonville Electric Authority, Jacksonville Waterworks, James Patterson, jaxpsychogeo, JEA, John Einig, Kiley Secrest, Lou Winnard, Patsy Bryant, S.B. Hubbard, Sandy Strickland, Sarah Clarke Stuart, Springfield Jacksonville, St. James Hotel, T. Frederick Davis, Tim Gilmore, Waterworks Building