Tag Archives: Spanish American War

The Beerbower House: Prehistoric Avondale

Posted on April 5, 2019 | 1 comment

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The house will ever be imbued with the story of its strange genesis. Casper and Ida ferried coquina to the woods where Riverside ended. When the president called Elsie “predestined to be a star and kissed [her] on the brow,” she told her mother, “You kiss me too. I may never be kissed in the White House again.” Then Tilly had occasion to chat with Lynn Beerbower, to find out “how small boys used to earn their pleasures.”

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Tagged "Break the News to Mother, 1776 Challen, Al Jolson, American Expeditionary Forces, Anti-Ragtime Girl, Avondale, Axel Hendrickson, Beerbower House, Behind the Lines, Bette Davis, Casper Beerbower, Challen Avenue, coquina, coquina gates, Dark Victory, Edgewood Association, Edgewood Avenue, Elias Jaudon, Elsie Janis, Florrie was a Flapper, George Buker, Ginger Harris, Gloria Swanson, Hollywood Walk of Fame, Ida B., Ida Beerbower, James Randall Challen, jax psycho geo, jim russell, John Talbott, Leah Powell, leatherleaf fern, Lynn Beerbower, Magnolia Plantation, Mary Hendrickson, Napoleon Bonaparte Broward, Riverside Avondale, Spanish American War, St. Augustine, Talbot Avenue, Telfair Stockton, Tell Tilly, The Jazz Singer, The Three Friends, The Trespasser, Tilly Teller, Tim Gilmore, Vaudeville, Virginia Harris, Washington Oaks, water hyacinths, William McKinley

St. Vincent’s Hospital

Posted on April 15, 2018 | Leave a comment

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Mostly my father just sits here in the hospital bed—like a Buddha—awake and aware. What’s it like in there? I cannot fathom the question.

The Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul founded this hospital in 1916. You could see them, walking the city, walking Riverside, in their elaborate starched habits that looked like ossified wings or horns flung out from their heads.

It’s time for my father to go home. (More than a decade ago, he told me it was okay when it was time for him to go.)

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Tagged Carson McCullers, Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, Jacksonville, jaxpsychogeo, Riverside Avondale, Spanish American War, St. Vincent's Hospital, St. Vincent's Medical Center, The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Tim Gilmore

New Story: Death and Life of a Spanish American War Fort

Posted on November 23, 2016 | Leave a comment

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The guns never fired. Behind concrete parapets, the two eight foot long, 16-ton “rifles” peered over the bluff, waiting for the Spanish ships to take the St. Johns River into Jacksonville.

Perhaps the spirits they believed haunted these grounds and witnessed walking up from munitions tunnels were the ghosts of their virginities.

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Tagged Arlington, Camp Cuba Libre, Cleve Powell, David Radcliffe, Duval County, Elizabeth Guthrie, Fort Caroline, Fort Caroline National Memorial, Genevieve DeLoach, Jacksonville, North Florida Land Trust, Spanish American War, Spanish American War Fort, Tim Gilmore, USS Maine