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Confederate Park History
Confederate Park is located near downtown, in the Springfield area of north Jacksonville. First named Dignan Park, for a chairman of the Board of Public Works, it opened in 1907 and contained the City’s first supervised playground. The United Confederate Veterans chose Jacksonville as the site for their annual reunion in 1914, and the park as the site for a monument honoring the Women of the Southland. Five months after the reunion of an estimated 8,000 former Confederate soldiers, the City renamed the park, and the monument was erected the next year. During the early decades, citizens came from all over Jacksonville to attend cultural events at the park or to see the beautiful Rose Arbor. Visitors strolled along the lovely Hogans Creek Promenade that opened in 1930, and in more recent years attend events sponsored by the Springfield Improvement Association & Woman’s Club.
http://apps2.coj.net/parksinternet/parkdetails.asp?parkid=236
Historic Images and Postcards of Confederate Park
Confederate Park Today
The Monument to Women of the Confederacy was completed in 1915. It was commissioned by the Florida Division-United Confederate Veterans "in memory of the women of the Southland."
This 1930 memorial to poet Robert Burns, is located near the corner of Main and Phelps Streets.
Confederate Playground
Confederate Playground is located just east of Confederate Park. Originally a part of Confederate Park, this area was used by the nearby Armory for drill grounds and tent/nut encampments during both World Wars. The playground was permanently established as a separate facility during the 1950s. Today, it has been converted into a dog park for the pets of urban core residents.
http://apps2.coj.net/parksinternet/parkdetails.asp?parkid=237
Images by Ennis Davis
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Cliffs_Daughter
April 20, 2009, 10:34:26 AMGreat article! I love this park since I work so close to it.
I wonder if there's any way we can get the waterway rails repainted to their former glory? I'd love to be part of the volunteer crew on that project.
fsu813
April 20, 2009, 11:25:43 AMI was there yesterday. a couple things:
1) why isn't this park as nicely kept as Memorial Park? Do all parks get the same amount of money for upkeep?
2) a fence, similar to the one in Rivrseide Park, around the pond would be great. it would keep large trash from being blown in to the pond and make it look nicer.
hooplady
April 20, 2009, 03:44:28 PMfsu813, the Springfield Woman's Club has tried for years to get the City to fence in the pond. It's a safety hazard as well as an eyesore. So far the requests have fallen on deaf ears, but don't fret - our ladies can be pretty persistent.
The WC also renovated and restored the Woman of the South and Robert Burns statues last year - they were overgrown and needed cleaning and repairs. Unfortunately, City funds don't seem to trickle down to this lovely park.
lindab
April 20, 2009, 04:14:37 PMWhat are the buildings next to the canal with the boarded up windows? I'll bet that was a beautiful place at one time.
I've always liked this park and thought that demolishing some of the derelict buildings adjacent to the park and providing more parking and park amenities would make a nice feature for an in-town park.
Ocklawaha
April 20, 2009, 06:30:53 PMInteresting... Photo #6 from the top of the page, "Birds Eye View" in black and white shows a completely different Hogans Creek from the one we all know. A careful look would seem to put the little sailing skiff at 15-20 feet (is that a day cabin?). Also note the berm on the North Side of the creek, is the creek level higher then the duck pond? Where did the berm come from? Looks pretty wide and when the bridge rail-wall went up the berm vanished. Go back to those photos of Camp Milton... This "Confederate Park" might well be built directly in the field of fire from the Federal earthworks that were built to to protect them from the Confederates! Wonder if there are any other photos of Hogans Creek? Boats on the creek? Earthworks?
We might have something more historical then we ever dreamed.
OCKLAWAHA
hooplady
April 20, 2009, 08:19:21 PMlindab,
The building with the boarded-up windows is the old EH Thompson supply company at Main & Orange - formerly a car dealership (Nimnicht Cadillac I think?) . It's really cool inside...lots of original tile work. The ramps where they used to drive the cars from the first floor into the showroom are still there too. I know there have been a zillion ideas on how to repurpose this building but so far it just sits there looking sad.
stjr
April 21, 2009, 12:15:14 AMThis was actually the Claude Nolan Cadillac dealership now on Southside Blvd. It should match up to this unless it was redone somewhere along the way:
From Florida State Archives at: http://www.floridamemory.com/PhotographicCollection/displayphoto.cfm?IMGURL=http://fpc.dos.state.fl.us/reference/rc17942.jpg&IMGTEXT=[Claude%20Nolan%20cadillac%20dealership%20:%20Jacksonville,%20Florida]%20[graphic]&IMGTITLE=RC17942
Ocklawaha
April 21, 2009, 12:21:43 AMThat's where my dad bought his cars! Cool, Claude Nolan? The 59 with the tail fins was great, dad had a white one always driven with a black trilby hat, his best friend bought a black one always driven with a black trilby hat! NO JOKE! The made a sport out of "who could bribe the wait staff the most to get the weekly Sunday afternoon lunch tab..." What a couple of nuts.
OCKLAWAHA
stjr
April 21, 2009, 12:39:57 AMAccording to their web site, Claude Nolan Cadillac was founded in 1905. That makes it older than the park next door.
Found this tidbit on the internet. See if you remember driving this family car discussed below and displayed at the Concours d'Elegance at Amelia Island celebrating 100 years of General Motors
See: http://www.conceptcarz.com/vehicle/chassisNum.aspx?carID=10530&iDNumID=3990
stjr
April 21, 2009, 12:52:41 AMFound this article in the Times Union from 2005 recapping the 100 years of Claude Nolan. Apparently this building was built in 1910 and designed by Klutho. Below is part of the article and the full article can be found at: http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/021205/whe_17950997.shtml
1961 Cadillac Convertible:
thelakelander
April 21, 2009, 01:15:02 AMYes, its a Klutho building. It had a pretty nice facade until it was mutilated with the stucco front it has today.
civil42806
April 21, 2009, 11:36:06 PMA beautiful park. about 10 years ago I was taking my wife downtown for the first time ever. Down 17, we started to roll pass the park and she was amazed, park looked gorgeous. then of course then 20 homeboys with there 20oz in the brown bags broke into view leaning against one of the rails of the park, and she said ahhhhh okay.
thelakelander
April 22, 2009, 06:46:50 AM^That's a scene that has changed. The only homeboys hanging out there now are geese.
civil42806
April 22, 2009, 08:59:33 AMThats good to hear, glad they have got it cleaned up. Did appear that way in the pictures, more people using it.
Deuce
April 22, 2009, 10:15:27 AMStill have the guys "holding down the corners" at night sometimes. Recently though there has been a drop-off in that too.
hooplady
April 22, 2009, 10:43:53 AMClaude Nolan - of course, I knew Nimnicht didn't sound right. Double-duh on me since one of the original owners of my house worked there in the '20's & '30's.
So in its original state it is very similar to the building across the street which has been preserved.
fsu813
April 22, 2009, 10:57:47 AMSo does anyone know if all city parks get the same budget for maitenence and clean up ? or is it based on the size of the park ?
anybody?
Cliffs_Daughter
April 22, 2009, 11:14:12 AMtufsu1
April 22, 2009, 11:28:16 AMyeah...but the geese may be more intimidating...those things are huge!
fsu813
April 22, 2009, 03:56:51 PMi'd be very interested in how any money allocated to the park is spent. they have a park security guard there duting the days, something most other parks don't have. i wonder if that eats up funds that would otherwise be spent elsewhere.
Springfielder
April 22, 2009, 04:52:11 PMPersonally, I'm glad there's security there and wouldn't want to see that stopped
chris farley
October 28, 2009, 07:16:50 PMThe entrance to the park shown in a photo above shows 1907 - it is that year since prior to that it was a swamp and Cypruss ponds. The following from the the TU in 1906
Twelve two-horse teams are at work in hauling sand to the new
park site, and each wagon averages ten yards of sand each day, making
the amount of sand placed on the park site daily, about one hundred
and twenty yards.
Besides this the city carts are busily engaged in hauling clean
dry garbage to the park site which is dumped in the marsh. The
sand teams then come along and cover this with clean white sand.
The amount of dry garbage hauled to the site daily averages ninety
yards.
Five weeks ago teams started to dump garbage and sand just east
of Market Street where the marsh was very deep. This work has
progressed very rapidly and the new site presents a good sanitary
condition.
The park site has been filled in from Main Street to a point halfway
through the block east of Market Street, and within a few weeks
there will be a clean hard strip of good hard ground between Main
and Liberty Streets, which only a few months ago was only a swamp
and unfit for any purpose whatever for the general public
stjr
October 28, 2009, 11:40:38 PM^Nice find, Chris. Thanks for posting it.
Bativac
May 24, 2010, 10:54:00 AMSorry to bump an old thread, but my wife and I visited this park yesterday. The grounds were fairly clean (it's interesting, the creative places people find to stash garbage) but Hogans Creek was absolutely disgusting. It was completely choked with trash to the point where the water could barely be seen.
I found a TU article (http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2010-02-22/story/toxic_past_haunts_future_of_jacksonvilles_hogans_creek) that mentions the creek becoming a potential Superfund site, and for that reason the city doesn't want to spend any money on it.
Is there any restrictions on volunteers getting some of the trash out of the creek? I know it's still a contaminated body of water, and getting the trash out might not do much real good, but it would at least visually improve the park (and maybe make me feel a little better).
Captain Zissou
May 24, 2010, 12:25:48 PM^ I would love to help clean the creek. Is it safe??
fsujax
May 24, 2010, 12:41:01 PMI wouldnt go swimming in it!
Bativac
May 24, 2010, 02:38:41 PMI don't even know how you'd go about cleaning the creek of all the junk that's in there. My only thought was to skim the surface with a glorified pool skimmer and get the bigger stuff out. I certainly wouldn't wade around in there unless I had some serious boots. Anyone have any ideas?
It's sad because the park looks like it really only needs a couple dedicated maintenance men spending a couple days a week on it picking up trash, edging, etc. If you spent a few days giving it a serious cleaning, maintaining it wouldn't take too much effort (or expense). This park goes back a hundred years and it should really be treated as more of a big deal than it is.
Lunican
May 24, 2010, 03:25:52 PMI believe the city has grapple trucks which could be used to pull out all of the shopping carts.
sheclown
May 24, 2010, 03:36:13 PMPark clean up days are definitely a good idea. The hazard's probably no worse than our front yards
Springfielder
May 24, 2010, 05:26:49 PMI was there yesterday and it seems that the city did take all of the Muscovy ducks.
Keith-N-Jax
May 24, 2010, 05:34:58 PMI'm putting a pond in my back yard I would have taken a few of them. Any chance we could get some bottle brush trees planted out there?
Miss Fixit
May 24, 2010, 09:20:49 PMLooks like there will be a clean up day at the Park the first Saturday in June - may be on the Klutho end rather than Confederate - I'll keep everyone posted.
Bativac
May 25, 2010, 08:53:45 AMPlease do keep us posted. I'd love to be involved.
duvaldude08
May 25, 2010, 10:20:38 AMThere also been a drop off the drag queen prostitution up there as well. Years ago it was nothing to see them lined the side walk up there. Ive noticed here lately that they must have relocated.
Miss Fixit
May 26, 2010, 07:48:40 AMThe June block captain's cleanup will be Hogan's Creek in Klutho park, June 5th at 10 am.
We'll be working in (yes, in) the creek itself and on the balustrades as well as portions of the park. Should coincide nicely with the upcoming CSX sponsored tree planting project.
Please come help out and bring waders if you have them!