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The 50 mph wood rollercoaster, "The Beach Coaster" operated from 1928 to 1949.
The 1960s/70s
The entertainment oriented attractions die out and parking lots replace them.
The 1980s
Present Day
The Ocean View Pavilion is gone, but parts of it are still in use today.
The Seawalk
A few of these buildings, housing retail remain from the theme park's days
More present day images of Jacksonville Beach: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/content/view/496/117/
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Dapperdan
September 14, 2007, 11:57:59 AMIt was no Coney Island, but we had a ncie beachfront amusement center. Its a shame that history had to die like that, but many such amusement parks died back in the 70s and 80s. My grandmother tells me many stories of that seafront park. Are there pictures of it in the beaches museum?
fsujax
September 14, 2007, 01:53:30 PMMost of this was destroyed during Hurricane Dora in 1964.
Jason
September 14, 2007, 02:35:23 PMGood point FsuJax.
That was a great photographic tour. Jacksonville's rich history still amazes me.
Ocklawaha
September 15, 2007, 11:25:35 PMDora, 1964
You are right that the hurricane trashed the beaches, but the destruction didn't start with Dora. Hurricane Donna in 1960, was a cat.5 storm that followed the same track as the more recent hurricane Charlie. Donna hit Florida twice, once in the South then again in the mid section, crawling up the coast, causing havoc. She killed 364 persons, to Doras, 3. Ranking as the 4th wost storm on the ACE scale. Donna covered more land area then any other hurricane in history, until Wilma in 2005.
Riverwalk Anyone?
I remember both the midway and carnival of our beaches, also a big restaurant that sat over? the dune line (Sea Turtle Inn???). I remember some dramatic reporting as someone filmed the restaurant sliding into the angry sea. The one-two punch of these storms not only destroyed all of it, the City of Jacksonville, never seemed to recover from the tourism blow. We tossed in the towel on the Zoo, allowing it to almost vanish into obscurity. We gave up Dizzyland, Storybook Land, Oriental Gardens and anything else that looked like it might attract someone from the outside world, or give our residents some pleasure. We never rebuilt the beaches, then thumbed our noses at both Walt Disney and Busch Gardens.
47 years later, and the only thing we have done is polish the old Zoo, and lay a sidewalk down the Beach and Riverfront. We have ONE amusement ride in the whole City that is worthy of National News, and it is a joke... We call it the Skyway!
The Skyway finished, The Creekwalk at Hogans, The National Negro League Hall of Fame, The Hard Rock Casino and Southern Music Hall of Fame, The Worlds Most Beautiful Trolley Line, Dixieland II Amusement Park, The Jacksonville Maritime Museum, The First Coast Aquarium, Museum of Southern History, Riverwalk statues of famous Citizens, Florida Transportation Museum, and New Beaches Midway... For 47 years we have slept, while Florida has rocketed past us... Isn't it high time to reclaim the Glory that was ours?
JACKSONVILLE, Queen of the Winter Resorts... My passion, and why the hell not?
Ocklawaha
thelakelander
September 16, 2007, 12:55:11 AMWhat and where were these located?
Ocklawaha
September 16, 2007, 09:38:10 AMDizzyland was on the Southside of Beach Bl, it was also known as the Par 3, Golf range. It contained a rather extensive carnival, a narrow gauge steam railroad about a mile long, golf range, and "goofy golf" course full of giant monsters. Today, there is a single dinosaur remaining. It was relocated in front of a plaza, East of Southside Bl, it eyes still glow at night.
Storybook Land, was in Atlanta, Tampa and Jacksonville. I don't remember the location, but seem to recall it being "in town", maybe Willow Branch or some such. I remember their being giant mushrooms, and a house made like a shoe.
Oriental Gardens, was famous, it was on road maps up until about 1960. Located on Oriental Gardens Road? which is just off of San Jose, right below where Hendricks and San Jose split. They had the whole creek valley filled with cool things, fountains, tropicals, ponds, pavilions and such. Today, you can still see some of the ruins of the ponds and fountains in private yards.
MORE?
Kiddyland, was located off the East side of Blanding, North of Collins. It also had a railroad, pony rides, firetrucks and covered perhaps 5 acres.
Zoo, once had a carnival as well, it also had tilt-a-whirls, merry-go-round, Ferris-wheel, roller-coaster and a railroad that was over a mile long. The railroad was famous and many old maps show the location as "Jacksonville Zoo Railroad". It was co-oped with the different railroad companies and was a scale model of the streamlined trains. So they had a purple set of locomotives lettered "Atlantic Coast Line", and another "Seaboard", etc.
Gatorland? there was a Gatorland type attraction down on Phillips around Bayard.
Gatorland? there was another Gatorland type on US 1 North of Callahan.
Trains of Yesterday, a full blown railroad museum at Hilliard.
I sure I could think of a couple of more. I'll let you know if I do, anyone else???
Ocklawaha
Coolyfett
January 24, 2008, 07:40:35 PMJACKSONVILLE, Queen of the Winter Resorts... My passion, and why the hell not?
I think you may be on to something Ock!!!
billy
January 24, 2008, 08:17:58 PMDidn't Dizzyland have restrooms shaped like giant children's blocks?
Tr138
October 09, 2008, 10:40:10 PMPar 3 Golf and Goofy Golf had nothing to do with each other as they were located a mile or two apart. Par 3 was about where Sams is today on Beach Blvd, and Goofy Golf was next to Peach Dr on Beach Blvd.
Papa Jeff
May 04, 2009, 08:38:40 AMSome additional tidbits of information for the beaches area... Where Beach Blvd crosses the Intercostal, to the right, (heading towards town) is the marina, and behind that is a road that few people did not know about for a long time in years past. These days it leads to a public boat ramp. Just before you cross the small bridge to the public boat ramp, is a small park to the left (I haven't been there for about 5 years). That area once held a single room concrete block house that my Great Uncle and Aunt lived in. It was also (to the best of my knowledge) was the last known homestead in Northeast Florida. The homestead included the land the boat ramp was on and most (if not all) of where the marina now stands. A deal was made with Jacksonville Beaches government at the time. Uncle Bill signed over his rights for the land to the city, in exchange, the city laid down a concrete foundation, and built a small one room concrete block house for him and his wife to live in, the city also ran an electric line to the house so he could have a refrigerator. What else the deal may or may not have included, I don't know. But I do know there was never running water (I recall having to use the pump), nor was there any sort of plumbing (I still have pictures of the outhouse, as well as the water pump). But I do know, that upon his death, my Great Aunt had to move out,as the land then belonged to the city, and she lived with us almost until she died. She was in a hospital towards the end.
My Uncle Bill, and Granannie (as we kids called her), lived there for many, many years, running a fish camp. My father told me stories about him living there when he was a child, and traveled to his fish camp from Jacksonville, down Beach Blvd, when it was a one lane oystershell road. Some time back, I talked with some of the members of the Jacksonville Beach Historical Society, and I heard from them stories they knew about him, and I shared what I had been told. I still have photos of the camp, which was so primitive, that even as far as the early 60's all it had was an old wooden outhouse. One of Uncle Bill's favorite things to tell us was if we used the outhouse, to use the big stick and bang on the sides of the outhouse before entering, to scare away any snakes that might be there. (Mom never would use the outhouse.)
I know many stories (both good and bad) about him and Jacksonville Beaches area, and not all of them can be agreed upon, nor will I even begin to tell them here, as they alone would take up quite a bit of space. But two things are not in doubt. One, Uncle Bill was a very unique character. And two, no one knew more about the waters or fish around the beaches for miles better than Uncle Bill. It was rumored he could smell fish under the water, or tell where they were just by looking at the water.
Papa Jeff
PapaJeffMcK@aol.com
billy
May 04, 2009, 08:59:48 AMMy family kept a boat at Beach Marine for years, and I would walk around to the boat ramp.
I could see the house you describe across from the marina, on a little point of land.
There was a dredge spoil area in the salt marshes north of the ramp parking.
The marina was owned by the Woolverton family, and Mrs. Woolverton was a prize winning grower of roses.
There were rose bushes planted throughout the marina grounds.
David
May 04, 2009, 11:15:38 AMI remember Jax Beach being rustic and filled with shacks galore as a kid in the 80's. The lure of the beach really got a hold of me in 2005 when I lived in a dumpy 500 sq ft apartment for 800 a month right across the street from Joe's crab shack.
My advice for anyone who is thinking about moving to the beach and doesn't want to party 24/7; make sure you move at least 5-10 blocks away from the core area. You'll never get any sleep during the spring or summer months. It was pretty sweet being a couple of hundred feet from the ocean though.
Jacksonville's core and Jax Beach's core are two completely different animals though, in terms of....well almost everything. Jacksonville's core neighborhoods fit me better, but I think everyone should live near the beach once in their life. And I don't mean 15 mins away either, I mean a few blocks. The roar of the ocean at night really does help you sleep (At least when there's not fights breaking out in the joe's crab shack parking lot)