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Urban Parks: Waterworks Park

Today, only remnants remain of a public space that was once home to Jacksonville's largest tourist attraction.

Published May 4, 2009 in Neighborhoods      Digg Digg   Share this article on Facebook Share on Facebook   twitterTweet this!   Open printer friendly version of this article Print Article



Waterworks Park Timeline

1878 - 5.5 acres of low lying land was purchased for $3,300 by the City to establish a waterworks facility.

1884 - Wells were sunk in Waterworks Park to provide the city with an ample supply of fresh water.

1888 - The Sub-Tropical Exposition is built to lure tourist to Florida.  Exhibits include a Seminole Indian camp, displays of Florida products, an art gallery, two artificial lakes, and a zoo.

1889 - President Grover Cleveland visits the Sub-Tropical Exposition for the second time.

1889 - Jacksonville's tourism industry begins to decline and the city battles a yellow fever epidemic.

1890 - A 32-inch copper steam whistle, named Big Jim, blows for the first time.

1897 - Sup-Tropical Exposition building is torn down to make way for a new water reservoir.

1898 - The 40 acre Springfield Park is deeded to the city by the Springfield Development Company.  Springfield Park stretches from 10th to Laura Streets.

1904 - "Old Joe", Waterworks Park's resident 10-foot alligator is said to have died.

Jacksonville history ripe with tales of roaming reptiles
The Florida Times-Union - Sunday, July 27, 1997
Author: Bill Foley, Times-Union columnist

Alligator sightings around Jacksonville are increasing these days as natural gator ground gives way to development. Saurian life is seeping into golf courses, retention ponds and other venues deemed suitable. Legally protected from being turned into shoes and wallets, the reptiles are multiplying Southwide. Thousands are thought to lurk in our midst, red eyes glowing in the dark.

Old Joe hardly lurked. Half a century or more Old Joe wallowed in benign sovereignty in the heart of the city. No visit to Jacksonville was complete without seeing Old Joe, the town alligator, and hearing Big Jim, the town whistle.

Once, for reasons never made entirely clear, Old Joe hauled tail from his proscribed haunts in Waterworks Park and rambled amok through the town, causing mild concern but certainly no panic once the citizens realized the 10-foot gator loose on the city streets was merely Old Joe out for a romp.

Four men from the city light plant took a wagon, a rope and a dog and caught up with Old Joe in Hogans Creek near the Union Street bridge.

"The capture of Old Joe was accomplished only after shrewd tactics with the dog as bait," The Florida Times-Union reported May 22, 1903. "Despite the fact that Old Joe has become somewhat tame as the result of his long captivity and kind treatment in Waterworks Park, he was inclined to resent the unfair methods used to entice him out of his place of refuge."

The newspaper reported that Old Joe was delighted once restored to the park, near what is now First and Hogan Street. He swam around the pond created for him and devoured a copious meal, of what the newspaper did not say.

Source: Jacksonville Public Library online archives


1907 - Waterworks facility expanded to house an 8,000,000-gallon pump.

1915 - The current Waterworks Pumphouse and Electrical Substation is completed.

1929 - Hogans Creek Improvement Project completed.

1967 - JEA is established as the result of city/county consolidation.

1999 - JEA announces plans to convert the Waterworks Building into a museum.

Construction to begin on JEA facility
The Florida Times-Union - Wednesday, November 14, 2001
Author: Karen Brune Mathis, Times-Union senior business writer

Construction should start next month on much of the almost $13 million JEA Waterworks laboratory, museum and visitors center in Springfield for completion by fall 2003.

JEA plans to renovate the century-old waterworks plant at 1002 N. Main St. into the JEA Waterworks Museum and Visitors Center and the JEA Springfield Lab. Part of the plant opened in 1880, and another structure, which will be renovated, was built in 1896.

JEA spokesman Bruce Dugan said yesterday that the project comprises four elements:

-- Interior construction, equipment and furnishings for a $4.7 million laboratory to test the water quality of power, water and sewer plants in the JEA system. The lab will consolidate five existing water labs around the city.

-- A $2.6 million project to restore the 1896-built structure into the water lab and a museum and to make some site improvements, including a new roof.

-- A $3 million package of improvements that includes restoration of an antique steam-powered water pump with a wheel about 14 feet in diameter, demolition of the unstable 1880-built structure and construction of the visitors center.

-- And $2.5 million in site and facility improvements, including exhibit design and construction and a water sculpture plaza.

source: Jacksonville Public Library online archives - The Florida Times-Union

 











 

Waterworks Park Today

































 

Photos by Ennis Davis



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» 19 Comments

heights unknown

May 04, 2009, 07:06:26 AM

Anyone know what happened to Waterworks Park?  That is, why it was done away with or allowed to just diminish into oblivion?  I guess the museum concept died.  Wasn't this Park the original home of the "Big Jim" Jacksonville work whistle?

Heights Unknown

zoo

May 04, 2009, 07:23:54 AM

Heights, Big Jim is still there and still whistles at 7a, noon, 1p and 5p.

Quote
JEA Waterworks laboratory, museum and visitors center

JEA fell down on the museum and visitors center, so don't bother trying to find them. Thanks to the events of Sept 11, and the subsequent homeland security measures, this site is now a reservoir and JEA green training facility, with no real public access. It should be noted homeland security is the reason for the fence, not lack of safety in the area. There is a building that needs to come down near the creek (and possibly more than one). JEA is upgrading the reservoir that is on the Laura St side, and making some improvements to the Main St reservoir also.

It is very unlikely the "park" will ever even give the impression of welcome, and hopefully when the Creek/park system is master planned, designers can figure out how to minimize its Fort Knox-like interruption of the Confederate to MacPherson parkway. It should also be noted that at one time, the site had a radio station and miniature golf course on it...

thelakelander

May 04, 2009, 08:57:13 AM

Heights, Big Jim is still there and still whistles at 7a, noon, 1p and 5p.

Quote
JEA Waterworks laboratory, museum and visitors center

JEA fell down on the museum and visitors center, so don't bother trying to find them. Thanks to the events of Sept 11, and the subsequent homeland security measures, this site is now a reservoir and JEA green training facility, with no real public access.

Any idea of why JEA decided not to go forward with the museum and visitor's center?  That was something proposed a year or two after Sept. 11.  What is that replica building being used for now?


Here is an image of the golf course that was once in Waterworks Park.



This little building can be seen in the middle of the golf course aerial above.

Deuce

May 04, 2009, 11:02:58 AM

If someone wants, I could ask Bruce Dugan whatever happened to this.

stephendare

May 04, 2009, 11:05:45 AM

How did JEA fall down on this?

My understanding is that after the Museum was built out at JEA's expense and offered to SPAR, the organization then demanded that JEA pay them to operate the museum that they asked the JEA to build.

I guess they were too busy paying for those retail feasibility studies.

thelakelander

May 04, 2009, 11:24:08 AM

If someone wants, I could ask Bruce Dugan whatever happened to this.

Yes, go ahead and ask Bruce.  That was a project that abruptly disappeared even though construction had moved forward.  Also check to see what their future plans are for that space and site.

stjr

May 05, 2009, 12:54:10 AM

Found another view below, apparently pre-WJAX since no antennas:



And here are some more:










thelakelander

May 05, 2009, 12:59:40 AM

Nice find!

stjr

May 05, 2009, 01:04:33 AM

Who knows where Dignan Park is?

thelakelander

May 05, 2009, 01:17:46 AM

That's Confederate Park.  Dignan was renamed after the Confederate reunion held in the space in 1914.

stjr

May 05, 2009, 01:20:51 AM

Thanks, Lake.  Now I realize its just another angle on the card I posted above it labeled Confederate Park.

Here is another of Springfield with a log cabin!


stjr

May 05, 2009, 01:23:57 AM

3rd Street, Springfield:

stjr

May 05, 2009, 01:29:08 AM



stjr

May 05, 2009, 02:31:06 AM

stjr

May 05, 2009, 02:58:57 AM

November 26, 1925:  WJAX, the radio station owned by the City of Jacksonville, went on the air with its first broadcast. (from http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:S913Fm35O38J:www.flahistory.net/November.htm+wjax+radio+history&cd=37&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us )

Aside from WRUF-AM 850 in Gainesville, in 1928, the only other Florida radio stations on the air were WDAE-AM 1250 Tampa, WJAX-AM 930 Jacksonville, WQAM-AM 560 Miami and WDBO-AM 580 Orlando. Other than these four Florida radio stations, the next nearest radio station was WSB-AM 750 ("Welcome South Brother"),  Atlanta,  the 50,000 watt clear channel powerhouse of the Southeast. (from http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:jcOGWiCpxfEJ:www.cflradio.net/850_WRUF_AM.htm+wjax+radio+history&cd=38&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us )






1975 WJAX-FM control room:
(from: http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:oAyM8dUrb4MJ:home.earthlink.net/~zrail/radiondx.htm+wjax+radio+history&cd=44&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us )


deathstar

May 05, 2009, 04:55:49 AM

Jacksonville is so lame now.

strider

June 24, 2009, 09:38:00 AM

Quote
stephendare
May 04, 2009, 11:05:45 AM

How did JEA fall down on this?

My understanding is that after the Museum was built out at JEA's expense and offered to SPAR, the organization then demanded that JEA pay them to operate the museum that they asked the JEA to build.

I guess they were too busy paying for those retail feasibility studies.


Just happened to notice this and thought I'd correct it.

I was actually still on the board when this came up and spent a decent amount of time with Rita Regan on it. First, this was JEA's baby and the offer came when the building was all but done.  While it was very desirable to have that building as the office for SPAR Council, we did have a building that we owned.  Also, there were many restrictions on using the building, there were requirements to man the museum for JEA developed and run events, requirements that SPAR Council pay the entire electrical bill and water and, to be honest, the layout and required hours did not really work well for an organization that supposedly was there for the entire community of Springfield. Doing the museum and keeping the current office was not financially possible. It wasn't a case where SPAR Council demanded they get paid, it was a case where the real world numbers did not work out to make it feasible for both parties.  As we know, no one else stepped up to the plate to man the museum either.  I suspect the real cuprit is the requirements imposed by 9/11.

stjr

July 31, 2009, 08:52:18 PM


Quote
1889 - President Grover Cleveland visits the Sub-Tropical Exposition for the second time.

Grover Cleveland's visit to Jax in Harpers Weekly:

urbanlibertarian

July 31, 2009, 09:11:04 PM

Grover Cleveland is one of my favorite presidents.  He vetoed a bill allocating $10,000 to help drought-stricken farmers in Texas, saying, "I can find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution."
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