by Tim Gilmore, 6/17/2012
Zachariah and Maria took down the trees and they put up the house. They moved into it just before Christmas. L.Z. cleared a field at the east of the house and planted it with everything he had at hand to sustain themselves and to sell left over. He put up a fence at the edge of the crops, the other side of which was swamp. The swamp became Laura Street. The log cabin Lewis Zachariah and Maria Hogans built in 1816 on the northwest corner of Hogan and Forsyth Streets was the first house built in what would become the Original City.
photo courtesy Jacksonville Historical Society
They came before the origin. The old Hogans well lasted almost 100 years, became a landmark from the settlers. The Great Fire of 1901 missed the Duval Hotel where the Hogans House had stood by one city block.
photo courtesy Jacksonville Historical Society
The Duval was bedecked with two stories of sweeping verandas trimmed in gingerbread filigree. It stood across the street from the Post Office Tower. What stands there now is a parking garage over a ground-floor copy center. The building bears the misnomer “Center Square at Forsyth.”
