Tag Archives: Tim Gilmore

Unparalleled Successes from the Now Abandoned State Board of Health Building

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When Florida created its Board of Health in 1889, life expectancy here was 44 years. The successes achieved in making life in naturally inhumane Florida livable stagger the imagination. They’re almost beyond communication. And much of that work happened here — in the now abandoned State Board of Health Building in Jacksonville.  

Recalling Book Burnings at Jacksonville University

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The 1970 Jacksonville University yearbook, the Riparian, was a collector’s item before the year was out. That fraternity members burned the book helped. So did the national news of JU’s president’s threatening to withhold the editor’s diploma. Half a century later, JU grads treasure it as an almost sacred object.

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

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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.

Making an Old Church — with Its Many Past Lives — Home

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Having renovated this old church and made her home here, Jennifer Raines says she’ll never live anywhere else. When Mike Bennett lived here in 1970, it was a “Jesus Freak” hippy commune. A young Vietnam vet named Larry Colton, missing for more than 40 years now, lived here too. A Haitian church destroyed by arson was the last congregation to call this old church home. What lives this building has lived!

Project: Cold Case — “Because One Unsolved Murder Is Too Many”

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Of all 50 states, Florida has the sixth highest number of unsolved homicides: between 1965 and 2021, nearly 20,000. Yet the motto of Project: Cold Case is “Because One Unsolved Murder Is Too Many.” The advocacy platform grew from Cliff Backmann’s unsolved 2009 murder. Now Project: Cold Case represents families from Florida to Alaska, though every family’s grief is the center of the world.

Tracing the Plane Crash of 1944 Down Post Street

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You can still see the patchwork where a fighter plane engine tore through Millard McGhee’s apartment and killed him while he stood shaving. Pilots Jack Egar and James Cope meant to “buzz” Egar’s mother’s house. They both died in the swath of destruction their planes left along Post Street.

When Jax Banned Mickey Spillane

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When Jax banned Mickey Spillane, the tough-talking crime novelist and his “blonde bombshell” wife Sherri came to town. Activist Warren Folks wanted all funding for the Jacksonville Public Library system halted until every book was screened. Spillane said if Folks thought this book was bad, “Wait until he sees the next one!”

Robert Broward’s Favorite Design: The Unitarian Universalist Church of Jacksonville

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Recuperating from a nearly fatal car crash, architect Robert Broward drew the first sketches of his design for the Unitarian Universalist Church of Jacksonville in his hospital bed. Near the end of his life, he said it was his favorite design.

Recalling the Childhood Terrors of Mr. Peanut

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Something wasn’t right about him, the 54-foot-tall man-legume who looked down at children in their parents’ cars. Some kids just remember the joys of popping roasted peanuts into their fizzing Cokes at the Planter’s Peanut Store. The giant Mr. Peanut on Arlington Expressway didn’t last long, but oh how he left his mark!

The Evolution of Broward’s Butterfly House

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When Robert Broward designed his famous Mid-Century Modern “Butterfly House” in 1957, he used rainwater and sunlight as materials. In the early ’60s, Fred Nachman added pecky cypress and clad the house in Gothic iron. When Kathryn Stater purchased it in 2016, it was on the verge of demolition. Now it’s more itself than it’s ever been.