Tag Archives: Virginia King

Hove Hall and the Sacrifice the House Demands

Posted on November 11, 2022 | 3 comments

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It’s not just that John Hove, Florida businessman and former Swedish judge, has spent a decade renovating this 1920s riverfront mansion that his renaming the house makes a necessary romantic sense. He never knew what strange Christmas pasts the house harbored and couldn’t have predicted the scale of personal tragedy. Still, this renovation will mark the achievement of a lifetime!

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Tagged Anders Hove, Anna Taliaferro Lane, Anwar Sadat, Atlantic National Bank, Bill Lyerly, Buffers USA, Charter Company, Craig Becker, Crittall Casement Window Company, Edward Lane, Epping Forest, Hanna Hove, Hanna Hove Becker, Herb Peyton, Hove Hall, Jack Moment, James Taliaferro, jaxpsychogeo, Jean Lyerly, John Hove, Lane-Towers House, Mad Atlas of Virginia King, Marsh and Saxelbye, Pokey Lyerly, Raymond Mason, Rogers Towers, Secretary of Defense James Mattis, Tim Gilmore, Virginia King, Yvonne Hove

How the Applegate House Became Kiley Secrest’s

Posted on March 26, 2022 | Leave a comment

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When architectural portraitist Kiley Secrest first moved to Springfield a decade ago, he set about drawing it, one house at a time. He illustrated The Mad Atlas of Virginia King, about that strange woman who wrote an 8,448 page book about Jax. He’s fascinated with Fillmore Applegate who built for his wife Stella the cottage Kiley just bought, where he hopes to spend the rest of his life.

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Tagged Arthur Perry, Drysdale Street, Drysdale Street Jacksonville, Fillmore Applegate, Fleming Island Clay County, Hart Furniture Company, horseshoe arches, Hurley Winkler, jax psycho geo, Kiley Secrest, Kiley Secrest Jacksonville, Mad Atlas of Virginia King FSCJ, Northwest Quadrant Springfield Jacksonville, Pat Nodurft, Perversion magazine, Redwing Street Jacksonville, Residential Renderings Jacksonville, Residential Renderings Kiley Secrest, Richard Drysdale, Springfield Jacksonville, Stella Applegate, The Mad Atlas of Virginia King, Tim Gilmore, Virginia King

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

How the Gale House Replaced the House of the Seven Gables

Posted on January 9, 2022 | Leave a comment

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The house was meant to be a new start, but Emanuel died here just four years later. It was quite the life the couple left behind in Ohio. For half a century, Louise Gale, Emanuel’s widow, made the house home for her daughter, siblings and grandkids, carving the Colonial Revival Jax mansion into the Gale Apartments. Along the way, the old house’s story includes the one-man fraternity “Foo Beta Goo,” stuffed emperor penguins and “Riverside characters.”

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Tagged Art Bar, Beth King, Christ Carver John Carver, Christy Frazier, Colonial Revival Jacksonville, E.O. Painter, Edward Okle Painter, Emanuel Gale, Emanuel Gale House, Emanuel Gale Pacetti, fighter plane crash Jacksonville, Gale Apartments, Gale Court, Gale House Jacksonville, Gale Pacetti, House of the Seven Gables Lima Ohio, jax psycho geo, Jessie Lauck, Joseph Pacetti, Louise Gale, Mad Atlas of Virginia King, P-51 crash Jacksonville, Riverside Avondale, Riverside Avondale Preservation, Riverside Liquors, Roger Cruce, St. Paul's Catholic Church, St. Paul's Catholic School, Tim Gilmore, Velma Gale Pacetti, Virginia King, William Lauck

Springfield’s Florence Court Apartments

Posted on June 26, 2020 | Leave a comment

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Cyara likes to imagine herself “Queen Florence.” More than a century before, the builder of the Florence Court named these apartments for his wife. On the sidewalk, you’d buy linen spats and a ham and beef tongue sandwich. So why was the architect’s name an open secret for 50 years? Mushrooms grow downward from ceilings. This building’s declined almost all its life. Who’s ready to step forward and save it?

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Tagged 1748 Bakehouse, Anthony Scott, Benjamin Tucker, Bernard Mitchell, Capitol Theatre, Crispy's Springfield, Cyara Williams, Florence Court, Florence Court Apartments, Florida Hotel, Florida Life Building, Frank Lloyd Wright, Frank M. Richardson, Harry Atlas Shoe Repair, Henry John Klutho, Hyperion Brewing, Ken Amaro, Kingsbury Norton, Klutho Apartments, Klutho House, Louis C. McCormick, Morocco Temple, Newell's Bakery, Paul's Luncheonette, Prairie Style Cross, Robert Broward, Slide Kelly Slide, Social Grounds Coffee, Springfield Court, Springfield Jacksonville, Syrup of Figs, The Architecture of Henry John Klutho: The Prairie School in Jacksonville, The Mad Atlas of Virginia King, The Yankee Clipper, Tim Gilmore, Tree of Life, Virginia King, W.H. Newell, William Hoff

Story #509: Riverdale Inn / Brazile House / Kelly House

Posted on February 7, 2020 | Leave a comment

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Walter Brazile founded B & B Exterminating Co. in his rambling old boarding house. He nurtured the business and nurtured people, including Rufus King, Jr., brother of Virginia, author of that 8,448-page book about Jax. William Kelly, turpentine magnate, built the house 115 years ago. Albert O’Neall, though a Quaker, took a job here building bombing ranges. Now the former HQ of B & B has been restored as a bed-and-breakfast. One of my favorite writers stayed here just last week.

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Tagged Albert Ellis O'Neall, Albert O'Neall, Arden Herrin, B & B Exterminating, Barnett Mansion Springfield, Benvenuto, Bret Burmeister, Charlie Towers, Claude L'Engle, Consolidated Naval Stores, Elizabeth Brazile, Eric Waln, Florida history, Gum Bunch, Haydon Burns Library, Henry John Klutho, Irma O'Neall, J.E.T. Bowden, Jacksonville Florida, jax psycho geo, Jessica Miner-Killian, Jonathan Greeley, Larry James Bana, LaVilla, Malcolm Gladwell Jacksonville, Marjorie Ann O'Neall, Mary Mychael Waln, McCoys Creek, Mellen Greeley, Memorial Park, Napier Apartments, naval stores, Orren McJunkins, Ortega Jacksonville, Palms Boarding House, Palms Hotel, Riverdale Inn, Riverside Avondale, Riverside Hospital, Rocco Morabito, Rogers Towers, Rufus King Jr., Slappey Building, The Mad Atlas of Virginia King, The Row, Tim Gilmore, Tim Gilmore Florida, Tom Gilmore, Virginia King, Walter Brazile, Walter P. Brazile, William Kelly, William O'Neall

New Story: Thomas Porter House

Posted on October 10, 2019 | Leave a comment

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Last week’s JaxPsychoGeo story was about a crossroads once the most prestigious in the city. This week’s story centers on the one house that remains. Its future is uncertain. Half a century ago, Bess Porter Keely remembered what it was like, half a century before, to get married in her childhood home.

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Tagged Akel's, Baalbeck, Bess Porter Keely, Duncan Fletcher House, Duncan U. Fletcher, Florida history, Heliopolis, Henry John Klutho, Jacksonville, James Taliaferro House, Jessie-Lynne Kerr, KBJ Architects, Kentucky Home for Roomers, Landrum and Brown, Robert Broward, Sharon Gould, Thomas Porter, Thomas Porter House. T.V. Porter, Tim Gilmore, Virginia King, Walter Porter

St. Johns Flower Market’s Long Strange Trip

Posted on April 16, 2019 | Leave a comment

From Moonies to “flower pimps” to midcentury modern architecture, Click here for the strange and wondrous story of St. Johns Flower Market.

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Tagged Canary in the Coal Mine, Charlie Strickland, Ed's Roses and Ribs, Emily Gilmore, Fairfax, Fishweir Elementary School, Gina Martinelli, Goal Post Sandwich Shop, Goliath Flores, Jacksonville, jax psycho geo, Jim Pons, Jonathan Lux, Katrina Thiesen, Lenny Thiesen, Leonard Theisen, Lonesome Ride, Madison Square Garden, Marianne Thiesen, Mass Wedding, Moonies, Ortega, Riverside Avondale, Skinner's Dairy, St Johns Flower Market, Sun Myung Moon, Taylor Hardwick, Tim Gilmore, Unification Church, University of North Florida, Virginia King

The Jacksonville Free Public Library–Whose Heads These Are I Think I Know

Posted on May 26, 2018 | 1 comment

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Shakespeare and Herodotus look out across downtown from the tops of these columns. Whose heads would I stake here?

In a special election, Jacksonville nearly rejected Andrew Carnegie’s magnanimous donation for a new library.

I’d still like to find Elizabeth Long. I wonder if she’d touch me the way she touched the armless Hermes.

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Tagged Andrew Carnegie, Bedell, Bedell Law Firm, Charles Pillans, Chester Bedell, Colored Reading Room, DeVault, Dittmar, Elizabeth Long, Florida Historical Quarterly, George Bedell, George Utley, Haydon Burns, Henry John Klutho, Horatio Bisbee, Jacksonville Free Public Library, jaxpyschogeo, Jim Crooks, Lynn Skapyak Harlin, Pillans & Coxe P.A., Rocco Morabito, T. Frederick Davis, Taylor Hardwick, The Mad Atlas of Virginia King, Tim Gilmore, Virginia King

Pedrica Mendez’s House

Posted on September 26, 2017 | 1 comment

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When Padrica was a little girl in the 1940s, the Cuban community in Jacksonville surrounded her and her family with love and a yet larger sense of family.

One night as she left the opera in Rome, a photographer snapped her picture, wrote, “in omaggio alla sua bellezza,” or “in homage of your beauty,” on the back of the photograph, and gave it to her.

The fire that consumed the great two-story house next door jumped sparks at Padrica’s house.

Still what most struck Padrica were the cadences she heard in the Orthodox music of ancient Ethiopia that reminded her dearly, tearfully, of rhymes and end-lines from old “Negro spirituals.”

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Tagged Alvin Ailey, Bert Williams, Carmen Jones, Durkeeville, Ed Austin, Enrico Caruso, Frank Nero, Havana Night Club, Jacksonville, jaxpsychogeoTonyaa Weathersbee, Jennifer Chase, Joel McEachin, Josephine Baker, LaVilla, Manuel Rivera, Manuel's Tap Room, Mariano Stabile, MaVynee Betsch, Padrica Mendez, Pedro Mendez, Queen of Sheba, River City Renaissance, Solomon Shad, Sugar Hill, The Two Spot, Tim Gilmore, Victor Banjo, Virginia King

Tag Archives: Virginia King

Hove Hall and the Sacrifice the House Demands

How the Applegate House Became Kiley Secrest’s

The Ernest & Catherine Ricker House & All Its Many Lives

How the Gale House Replaced the House of the Seven Gables

Story #509: Riverdale Inn / Brazile House / Kelly House

New Story: Thomas Porter House

St. Johns Flower Market’s Long Strange Trip

The Jacksonville Free Public Library–Whose Heads These Are I Think I Know

Pedrica Mendez’s House

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