Ghost of Jacksonville: Davis Street

C. Hotel Flagler



Catering to nearby railroad terminal passengers, the 125-room Hotel Flagler was located one block north of Ward Street at 905 Adams Street (the intersection of Davis and Adams). The Hotel Flagler was the first hotel owned by hotel magnate Robert Kloeppel, Sr. Kloeppel was a penniless German immigrant who spoke little English when he arrived in America in 1905. Relocating to Jacksonville a year later, he eventually become an attorney who opened a law office in the Flagler Hotel after working in a local sawmill, railyard, and shipyard as a mechanic.

Known for its excellent coffee shop and cocktail lounge, a few years after purchasing the Flagler in 1920, Kloeppel renamed the property Hotel Jefferson.  In addition to Hotel Flagler/Jefferson, Kloeppel owned the George Washington, Mayflower, Pennsyvania and Roosevelt Hotels in downtown Jacksonville.  Excluding the Roosevelt, which lives on as the Carling, all of Kloeppel's early 20th century downtown Jacksonville's have been demolished.



D. Great Fire of 1901


Sanborn Fire Insurance Company maps illustrate the change in LaVilla's and Davis Street's density between 1897 and 1913.

Most have heard of the Great Fire of 1901 but many may not know that this disaster started on Davis Street. On May 3, 1901, a candle factory boiler explosion set ablaze mattresses filled with Spanish moss at the Cleaveland Fibre Factory, which was located on the block bounded by Davis, Beaver, Lee and Union Streets. Eight hours later, the fire had become the most destructive event in the city's history, leaving 10,000 residents homeless and destroying 2,368 buildings in the process.  However, this tragic event paved the way for the rapid rebuilding of a modern Jacksonville.

The rapid population growth that came as a result of the rebuilding effort also transformed the block where the fire originated from. By 1913, Davis Street had been transformed into a roadway lined with a continuous multistory commercial buildings in LaVilla. Businesses operating on this stretch of Davis Street in the heart of LaVilla included William Pappas' Cigars, the Alamo Cafe, Carter Haddock Billiards, Prospect Cleaners, the Duval Barrel & Bottle Company, Bellview Hotel, Julius Jackson Bakers and the Farris & Company dry goods store. A true rags to riches story, Syrian immigrants, Najeeb and Eva Farris, eventually expanded their Davis Street dry goods store into a full blown meatpacking operation on West Beaver Street in 1921.



E. Ashley Street


The Knights of Pythias Building on West Ashley Street contained a hotel, meeting rooms, and street level retail.  This block of Ashley Street is now the parking lot of the LaVilla School of the Arts.

Ashley Street between Davis and Broad Streets was the epicenter of African-American entertainment before desegregation. Some have referred to the district as the Harlem of the South although we'd suggest Harlem may be the LaVilla of the North. After all, early 20th century LaVilla regulars such as James Weldon Johnson, Zora Neale Hurston, Philip Randolph, and Ma Rainey were key figures in the 1920s Renaissance in Harlem. Furthermore, the first published account of blues singing on a public stage occurred in a LaVilla performance at Ashley Street's Airdome on April 16, 1910.

This four block stretch of Ashley featured a lively cluster of major entertainment venues, theatres, bars and restaurants including the Knights of Pythias Building, the Strand, Frolic, Roosevelt and Globe Theatres, Lenape Tavern, Manuel's Taproom, Hollywood Music Store, The Boston Chop House and Mama's Restaurant.  Through the decades, LaVilla's Ashley Street served as a popular performance spot for nationally known African-American figures such as Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald and Ray Charles. Enterainment venue growth also spilled onto Davis Street, which become the location of the Ritz Theatre in 1929.

The fortunes of both Ashley Street and LaVilla would fall as a result of desegregation as middle class African American families abandoned the district for areas of town that had previously been off limits.
However, what the side effects of desegragation could not completely take out, the City of Jacksonville did with the 1990s River City Renaissance plan. In an effort to "clear blight" remaining residents and businesses were relocated and their storied structures were demolished in the process.  Today, only two buildings remain of the once popular Ashley Street strip.  To make matters worse, the street itself was closed and the LaVilla School of the Arts' surface parking lot was built on top of it.


On Ashley Street, looking east towards the intersection of Davis and Ashley Streets. Once a nationally significant entertainment district, Ashley Street between Davis and Jefferson Streets no longer exists.



F. Intersection of Davis Street and Kings Road



Prior to 1936, the intersections of Davis Street with Beaver Street and Kings Road were major streetcar junctions in LaVilla. Both major African-American streetcar routes, Davis Street and Myrtle Avenue served as major north/south roadways into downtown Jacksonville from
Moncrief Park. Moncrief Park was a 125-acre horse racing track four miles north of downtown that opened in 1909 and was considered one of the best in the country at the time.

Naturally, during the early 20th Century, these corridors morphed into major commercial throughfares serving some of the city's largest African-American districts.  Other than the streets themselves, little is left of the walkable commericial building fabric that once dominated Davis Street a century ago.


Businesses in this long gone building at Davis Street and Kings Road included A&P Food Stores, Ossi Abdelrahim Grocery, William Davis Barbershop and Jos Bahnon Shoes. This site is now a fenced in grass lot at the State Regional Service Center complex.