Tag Archives: Springfield

Harry Crews’s Childhood Nightmare Northside

Posted on May 8, 2020 | Leave a comment

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The novelist Harry Crews chronicled how Jacksonville imported desperation from half the state of Georgia. It offered hope, but required human sacrifice. First coming to Jax when his stepfather-uncle aimed a rifle at his mother’s head, Harry lived in half a dozen houses across the Northside, all of which his family called “the Springfield Section.” When Harper Lee read Crews’s second novel, she said William Faulkner had come back to life.

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Tagged " E.E. Cummings, A Childhood: The Biography of a Place, Abraham Joseph, Andrew Jackson High School, Bacon County Georgia, Biography of Harry Crews, Blood Bone and Marrow, Drew Mansion, Erskine Caldwell, Fairfield, Florida Gothic, Franklin Street Baptist Church, Grit Lit, Harper Lee, Harry Crews, Historic Springfield Jacksonville, Hoyett Crews, Jacksonville Northside, jax psycho geo, Jeeter Lester, Junior Lister, King Edward Cigars, Klutho Apartments, Klutho House, Leland Lister, Myrtice Crews, Naked in Garden Hills, New Springfield, North Jacksonville, Okefenokee Swamp, Paschal Crews, Phoenix, Phoenix Avenue, Public School no. 8, Ray Crews, Scar Lover, Southern Gothic, Springfield, Swisher and Son, Ted Geltner, Tim Gilmore, Tobacco Road, University of Florida, white flight, William Faulkner

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

The Barnett National Bank Building, Its Deep Roots and Tendrils through Time

Posted on March 8, 2019 | 1 comment

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It was “the Year of the Skyscraper.” The 10 story building next door began to tilt. Alfred duPont raised Florida from the Great Depression, merely from infusions of his personal wealth. When Barnett began the Bank of Jacksonville in 1877, he couldn’t have known it would grow into one of the largest banks in the South. After Herbert Hoover, Alfred’s wife, Jessie Ball duPont, changed direction. Her hair was graying, but her eyes still sparkled.

Barnett’s personification of its first Automatic Teller Machine frightened Southern working class families. Charles Rice said he’d never sell “Bion Barnett’s bank.” Then he checked into rehab. Then he sold. Then he drowned in his own swimming pool. Now UNF is making the Barnett “the front door to the startup community in Jacksonville.”

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Tagged Adrian Pillars, Aetna Insurance Building, Alfred duPont, Atlantic National Bank Building, Atlantic National Bank Building Annex, bank holiday, Bank of Jacksonville, Barnett Action, Barnett Bank, Barnett Center, Barnett Mansion, Barnett National Bank Building, Bion Barnett, Bisbee Building, Carling Hotel, Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation, Charles Adrian Pillars, Charles E. Rice, Chicago School, Cutler Mailing System, downtown Jacksonville, drive-through bank teller, Edward Ball, Epping Forest, FDR, First Union, Florida Life Building, Florida National Bank, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Great Depression, Greenleaf and Crosby, Helmut Jahn, Henry John Klutho, Herbert Hoover, Hoovervilles, Hotel Roosevelt, Jack in the Box, Jacksonville Historic Preservation Commission, Jacksonville history, Jacksonville tunnels, Jacksonville's Big Three, Jacksonville's first skyscraper, jax psycho geo, jaxpsychogeo, Jessie Ball duPont, Jessie duPont, Judy Davis, Justin Maximo Uffinger, Karen Bowling, Lippincott's magazine, Louis Montayne Mowbray, Louis Sullivan, McCoys Creek, Memorial Park, Mowbray and Uffinger, Nationsbank, New Deal, Park Lane Apartments, Prudential Insurance Building, Robert E. Fisher, Sam the SuperTeller, Sarah Barnett, Savannah, Seth Thomas clock, skyscraper, Springfield, startup generator, Super Automatic Machine, tallest building in Jacksonville, The Carling, Tim Gilmore, UNF, University of North Florida, Wachovia, Wayne Wood, William Barnett, William Bion Barnett, William Boring, Winged Victory, Year of the Skyscraper

When Jax Declared Its Center a “Slum Heart,” ‘Evil,” and Demanded Exorcism

Posted on May 5, 2018 | 1 comment

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The deep baritone drips with condescension, festers with open sarcasm.

“This very plumbing, if you can dignify it with the name of plumbing, can bring disease and death into your home through the medium of your servants.”

“Come to think of it,” Slum Heart recalls, opportunistically, “that servant girl who comes to your house each morning […] Do you know where she goes at night?”

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Tagged Alexander Crosby, Bender Cawthon, Black Bottom, Blodgett, Brentwood, Brooklyn, Durkeeville, Eartha White, Federal Housing Authority, Florida Theatre, Hansontown, Jack Spottswood, Jacksonville Housing Authority, jaxpsychogeo, LaVilla, Mollie Chapman, Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church, Nasrallah Building, Negro Advisory Council, One Bad Apple, Slum Heart of Jacksonville, slumlords, Springfield, State Board of Health Building, Tim Gilmore

The Buried Head Behind the Drew Mansion

Posted on October 13, 2017 | 1 comment

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Something was down there. They knelt in the muck and bramble, peered closer, and finally one boy fished his fingers around in the hole and fell backward in fear.

Wire services reported that locals called it “the haunted house.” United Press International referred to it as “the Haunted House of Jacksonville.”

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Tagged Drew Mansion, Duval Medical Center, haunted house of Jacksonville, Horace Drew, Michael Tiliakos, Paul Short, Springfield

Hansontown Lies Beneath FSCJ’s Downtown Campus

Posted on October 7, 2017 | Leave a comment

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Hansontown lies beneath Florida State College at Jacksonville’s Downtown Campus, figuratively and, in part, literally.

When Florida Junior College consolidated its downtown locations into the new Downtown Campus in the late 1970s, it eliminated the last of Hansontown, a century-old neighborhood built for freed slaves and former U.S. Colored Troops.

Some FSCJ leaders now espouse views on urbanism much like those the college abandoned by building Downtown Campus.

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Tagged Bethel Baptist Church, Camilla Thompson, Central Grammar and High School, Clara White, Clara White Mission, Cynthia Bioteau, Daniel Dustin Hanson, Douglas Anderson, Downtown Campus, Durkeeville, Eartha White, Ed Napier, FCCJ, FJC, Florida Community College at Jacksonville, Florida Junior College, Florida StarSt. Joseph Missionary Baptist Church, Florida State College at Jacksonville, FSCJ, FSCJ Archive, Hansontown, Henry John Klutho, Jennifer Grey, Joseph Augustus Baldwin, LaVilla, Orange Street, Springfield, Sugar Hill, Sugar Underwood, U.S. Colored Troops

Blinded by the Lighthouse Replica / First Baptist Church

Posted on July 7, 2017 | Leave a comment

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Just before Christmas, 1998, several homeowners downtown and just to the north in Springfield said they’d “seen the light” and the light made them mad as hell.

One Springfield resident called the new First Baptist Church parking-garage lighthouse replica “extremely obnoxious, just this blinding glare flashing in our windows.” It seemed like the church had stationed “a spotlight […] right outside the house.”

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Tagged Bob Gray, Bruce Holbrook, David Galbreath, Dudley Freeman, First Baptist Church, First Baptist Church lighthouse, Homer Lindsay, Jacksonville, jaxpsychogeo, Jerry Vines, Karla Crawford, Maria Williams, Matanzas, Springfield, Springfield Preservation and Restoration, St. Augustine Lighthouse, Tim Gilmore, Tony Crawford, Trinity Baptist Church

New Story: The Strange History of Springfield’s Bungalow Court

Posted on May 7, 2017 | 1 comment

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In these old photographs, Harry Walters still smiles forward, six years old, holding his Easter basket on a Sunday slipping further and further behind us.

Ironically, by the time Dancy Terrace’s front porches appeared in the 2006 movie Lonely Hearts, starring John Travolta and Salma Hayek, the entire court was abandoned.

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Tagged bungalow court, Charles E. White, Dancy Terrace, Hailing Zhong, Harry Walters, Jacksonville, jaxpsychogeo, Johannes Ullrich, John Travolta, Lonely Hearts, murmuration, Ottis Toole, Porch Fest, Redell Street, Salma Hayek, Springfield, starling, Tim Gilmore, Victorian architecture

New Stories: Barnett Mansion and Springfield Tunnels

Posted on December 4, 2016 | Leave a comment

Two stories. Scroll down for both.

Click below for the full story about Barnett Mansion:

“There are so many stories in this house,” he says.

In the 1970s, the police saw William Barnett, 1824-1903, standing in the shadows and drew their guns.

Click below for the full story about Springfield Tunnels:

Billy says he and his friends slipped through an aperture into a system of extensive tunnels beneath the Barnett Mansion in Springfield.

The great strength of conspiracy theories and urban legends is that you can’t prove a negative.

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Tagged "The O'Possum Hunt", Barnett Bank, Barnett Mansion, Bion Barnett, C. Adrian Pillars, Charles Adrian Pillars, Great Fire of 1901, Hogans Creek, Jacksonville, Jim Krahn, Joel McEachin, Ottis Toole, Solomon Lodge, Springfield, Stalking Ottis Toole, The Mad Atlas of Virginia King, Tim Gilmore, Virginia King, William Barnett