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1. 404 North Julia Street
While the Ambassador Hotel is the major focus of this block, the former Chamber of Commerce building was a beauty in her own right. Completed in 1927, this massive Mediterranean Revival structure was the home of the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce and then the Merck Drug Company before its facade was radically altered by the Marine National Bank in 1957. In 2001, First Alliance Bank purchased Marine National Bank. Two years later, it acquired EverBank, an online bank with $250 million in deposits. The company later adopted the EverBank name and the rest is history.
The original facade of the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce building at the intersection of Julia and Duval Streets.
2. 112 East Forsyth Street
Now the location of the Ann Teague Bonding Agency, this building was constructed in 1904 for the NY Steam Laundry Company.
A NY Laundry advertisement from the 1910 City Directory.
3. 29 East Adams Street
The Burrito Gallery's neighbor was the long-time offices of the Jacksonville Gas Corporation. It was built in 1915 for the Home Telephone Company and was one of H.J. Klutho's last Prairie School buildings in downtown Jacksonville. In 1965, the facade was radically altered by a Hardwick & Lee Architects-designed renovation for the Florida Gas Company.
29 East Adams as the H.J. Klutho-designed Jacksonville Gas Company offices.
4. 170 Hogan Street
Orginally called the Akers-Cody Building, this structure was designed by E.R. Merry Architect and constructed by Griffin Construction Company in 1921. The original facade appeared to be Prairie School. The building would become the long-time downtown location of Rosenblums.
170 Hogan Street as Rosenblums.
The original Prairie School-influenced Hogan Street facade.
5. 119 (right) & 129 (left) West Adams Street
Constructed in 1922, the building where Le Shea's & Minggle City Cafe (119 West Adams) are located was originally built by W.P. Woodcock for the Buckman & Ulmer Company. Professional Auto Supply and Goodfellow's Cafe were the original tenants. Morrison's Cafeteria occupied the space between 1929 and 1950. In the 1960s, the French Novelty was located there and in 1975, it housed Vogue Shops. The adjacent building (129 West Adams) was constructed in 1924 as the Arnold Edwards Building and housed the Edwards Piano Company. During the 1950s, it was the Eastman Kodak Store. By the 1980s, it was Scottie Discount Drug Store. Today, its Scottie Stores.
129 and 119 West Adams Street can be seen to the right of the Levy-Wolf Building in the 1930s.
6. 214-218 West Adams
Mellon C. Greeley's 1929 Adams Street elevation drawing for the Monticello Drug Company building (218 West Adams).
This seven-story, Chicago-style building was designed by Mellen C. Greeley in 1929. It was constructed to be the offices of the Monticello Drug Company. The Monticello Drug Company was founded by T.S. Roberts in Monticello, FL in the 1890s and manufactured a patent medicine for malaria. The company relocated to Jacksonville in 1908 because of better transportation facilities. During WWII, it manufactured pills and liquids to treat cold symptoms. The building's first floor was radically altered in 1982 when the fixed plate glass storefronts and cast stone facade were filled in.
The Adams Street facade in November 2011.
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dougskiles
November 28, 2011, 06:50:01 AMWe really have succeeded in turning old world charm into new world ugly. OK - maybe it wasn't "old world", but these buildings certainly had more character than the cold hard look they have now.
acme54321
November 28, 2011, 08:33:44 AMGenerally the archetecture of the 50's and 60's left a lot to be desired. Too bad these old buildings were altered so severely. It seems of all these 119 & 129 West Adams Street might be restorable to their original appearance.
copperfiend
November 28, 2011, 08:48:09 AMThe bastardization of history.
Tacachale
November 28, 2011, 09:17:45 AMJust out of downtown is the old Armory building, one of the area's oldest, which now looks pretty indistinguishable.
A lot of these look like it's just the facades that have been altered. I wonder if the Laura Street facade grants are successful, if the city would be interested expanding something similar to other areas. Adams Street in general is pretty cool.
Bativac
November 28, 2011, 09:41:21 AMWhat is the deal with the Hogan Building? Did someone seriously look at that rendering, look at the building that was there before, and decide "yeah, this looks much better"?
Proof, I guess, that Jacksonville has been weird about respecting its own history for decades.
stephendare
November 28, 2011, 09:51:13 AMagain, some of this nonsense you can thank the Feds for. In the 1970s, the feds launched a massive program to 'encourage' energy efficiency. Probably only a few on here remember gas rationing and the energy crunch in the showdown with OPEC.
Many of these new facades were designed in order to cut out the effect of solar heat on Air Conditioning units that had been installed in buildings originally erected in the days of air and water cooled construction.
We now have the techniques and the technology to do the same thing without encasing a building in cement, but at the time, we didnt. There werent even window tinting treatments in common use, much less double paned or technologically advanced window materiels.
In the case of the Klutho designed Gas Company Builidng, Taylor Hardwick was simply trying to match the architectural vocabulary of his new library to the surrounding environment.
Tacachale
November 28, 2011, 10:08:31 AM^Interesting. Perhaps now that the new technology exists, there may be even more of a call to restore the facades.
stephendare
November 28, 2011, 10:18:16 AMExcellent point Tacachale. I don't think many people in the downtown community are aware of the reasoning behind the horrible facades anymore.
And of course it wasnt just the facades that we 'improved' into horribility.
Take a look at the top of that building next to Scotty's.
Thats a long skylight that would have been used to light, vent, and passively cool the building. Notice that it has been tarred over.
Tacachale
November 28, 2011, 10:34:50 AMIt sounds like there is some definite potential here, especially if the reception of the Laura Street improvements is good, which I hope it will be.
fsujax
November 28, 2011, 10:37:07 AMI remember after TS Fay I was driving down Washington St and saw a bunch of siding that had been ripped off a building, exposing the brick that was under it. I thought to myself why even replace the siding, the brick looks so much better. The siding was replaced and the brick was hidden from view.
hightowerlover
November 28, 2011, 10:45:13 AMThis is one of the more interesting series, hope to see more in the future.
I-10east
November 28, 2011, 10:56:04 AMIt's funny how people say comments like 'We're bastardizing history' like it's only exclusive to Jacksonville, C'mon yall, this so called 'improved modernization' went on in every major metro all over the country. We all agree that the before pics are better.
Jaxson
November 28, 2011, 01:02:48 PMWhenever I drive down Liberty Street, I think of how the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) building is 'bastardization' of the old Jacksonville Police Department headquarters. In my opinion it is a bad attempt to make a historical building into something that it should not be.
Kay
November 28, 2011, 01:09:17 PMA lot of times the original facade is under the "new" facade. It would be great for downtown to see the original facades uncovered on these old buildings.
Dog Walker
November 28, 2011, 01:35:33 PMThe Shads did just that on the Five Points Theater Building; ripped off the horrible stucco cover with the big 5 on it and uncovered the original building. This is a huge improvement.
Taylor Harwick and J. Brooks Haas have a lot of ugliness to answer for.
billy
November 28, 2011, 01:52:19 PMdon't forget the Claude Nolan Cadillac facade.....
Wacca Pilatka
November 28, 2011, 02:29:02 PMCentral Fire Station on Adams is another good one for this category, though I think that was a 1944 remodeling.
Stephen, thanks for the insights as to why some of these alterations happened.
krazeeboi
November 28, 2011, 02:36:27 PMWhile in all cases the original facades were much better, in some cases the altered ones aren't quite as bad and in some cases they are almost unforgivable.
If it hasn't already done so, Jacksonville should look into a facade improvement/restoration program that many cities across the country have implemented.
urbaknight
November 28, 2011, 02:52:48 PMI called the number on the side of 218 west Adams, which advertised the intent to build condo units. I called but the number had been disconnected. Have they scrapped those plans? If so, why don't they get rid of the ad?
It's a shame because this building is exactly the right type for apartments. And with space for urban style shops at street level, It would be just like the buildings I grew up with in the Northeast cities.
It would be a great addition to Downtown that would take a step toward alleviating my homesickness.
duvaldude08
November 28, 2011, 03:00:28 PMWe already have a facade improvement program and the Landing plus several other downtown business were awarded a grant.
krazeeboi
November 28, 2011, 03:13:39 PMThat's good to see. Hopefully, the owners and tenants of some of the buildings featured will take advantage of the program.
Also, Columbia, SC has a historic building downtown where the exterior has been so heavily altered until it's really beyond restoration. Because it's an ideal representation of the architectural trends of the mid-twentieth century and hasn't retained its original features behind the newer facade, it has received a special landmark designation from the city. Thankfully, it's not too fugly and is actually now being rehabbed for some type of retail use.
Originally it looked like this:
It currently looks like this:
After renovations, it will resemble this:
Tacachale
November 28, 2011, 03:35:29 PM^The last facade grant was for Laura Street buildings specifically. However, if that proves successful, hopefully they the city will consider expanding the initiative to other areas.
strider
November 28, 2011, 06:23:53 PMMy sister owns a 1860's building in Ohio. When she looked into historic grants, she was told that it was not affordable to remove the 1980's facade off the building. But we learned something interesting. The more successful a building owner was, the more likely the building would be improved. If the owner of a historic building had the funds and no historic protections were in place, the building got remodeled. IF the owner did not have the funds, it did not. In fact, often even basic repairs did not get done. The proverbial two edged sword. Have money, the building gets what it needs but most likely gets remodeled and so loses it's historic appeal or no money and the building falls into disrepair.
A look downtown and we can pretty much see that it happened the same way here.
acme54321
November 28, 2011, 08:54:36 PMThe old chamber of commerce and gas company buildings seem to be the biggest atrocities in this list. Unfortunately from the outside they also appear to be the most irreversible.
The amount of setback visible in the Hogan building's windows leaves some hope that the original brick is still salvageable under there. Even though the building was rather bland in it's original form it certainly couldn't get any worse than the current concrete fortress look.
Ernest Street
November 28, 2011, 09:12:22 PMI don't have a pic nor an address, but one old timer once pointed out to me the building directly across from Florida Theatre
(which at the time was the Jax ballet studios) and pointed out the Bastardization of the original arch. he replied that that was the "Draft Building" for the Korean war and also Vietnam.
He also commented that during the 50's too many decisions were made downtown in the afternoon, after "Heavily Alcoholic" lunches.
Are you old enough to remember the term "5 Martini Lunch?"
Dog Walker
November 29, 2011, 09:49:37 AM3 Martini lunch! LOL! After 5 you wouldn't make it out of the restaurant!
Your point is well taken, though. Those were heavy drinking days.
Debbie Thompson
November 29, 2011, 12:55:13 PMAnd the days of "urban renewal" where everything old needed to look modern, or go. Remember, in the 1950's, these buildings hadn't reached historic, they were just old. People don't think too much of altering a 40-50 year old building they don't like. They don't think ahead 50 years to when it could be historically significant. Especially commercial buildings, which are investments that have to be rented.
I imagine back then, there were few companies that wanted to occupy those old buildings without modern renovations. Back then, it was considered the smart thing to do. We were the "Bold New City of the South." Only recently do we recognize it was short-sighted.
Time to re-renovate and bring back the historic detail.
Wacca Pilatka
November 29, 2011, 12:56:40 PMI think I read that Haydon Burns' ca. 1960 "Jacksonville Story" presentations emphasized that the city had looked "dated" but now modern architecture was in place.
Mike D
November 29, 2011, 01:27:17 PMThere's a possibility the original buildings are still there underneath all of the additions...or, at least, enough of the original exisits to make restoration possible. Now, which local companies are willing to get on board and bring some visual life back to downtown by reversing the modernizations?