Ghost of Jacksonville: Davis Street

G. Davis & Caroline Street



A Jax Beer advertisement can be seen on the side of Watt Moore's restaurant at the intersection of Davis and Caroline Streets in 1941.

the Jax Brewing Company was one of the economic spinoffs of the track at Moncrief Park. One of the track's spectators was William Ostner of St. Louis.  From a family with breweries in St. Louis, New Orleans, Memphis, Louisville, Illinois and Wisconsin, Ostner returned to open the last American brewery before Prohibition adjacent to Moncrief Park. By Prohibition, the brewery, which overlooked Moncrief Park, employed over 240 Jacksonville residents. Before their closure, one residual contribution to society made by Jax Beer was the arguable invention of the six pack. For many years, to access Jax Brewing's Durkeeville brewery, either Myrtle Avenue or Davis Street would have been a part of the route.  

In addition to Watt Moore's Restaurant, other retail spaces on this block in 1941 were occupied by the Jacksonville Journal sub station, Lee Kwong Meats, and Central Fish & Poultry Market. 72 years later, it's hard to find the location of Caroline Street because it doesn't exist anymore. Along with many buildings and black businesses that lined this corridor, Caroline Street was removed in favor of urban renewal.




H. Davis & Phillips Street



http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2013-aug-lavilla-shotgun-houses-on-verge-of-being-demolished

Significant blocks of LaVilla, Hansontown and Sugar Hill were originally dominated with shotgun housing.  Despite being dominated with commercial uses, dense rows of shotgun housing were also found on certain blocks of the thoroughfare. The shotgun house was the southern answer to the rowhouses of the north.

Predominately found in the urban South, shotgun houses tended to be narrow across the front in order to maximize the number of units on each residential lot. Running deep on the lot, rooms were typically arranged one behind the other connected by a long hallway. Because this long hall usually ran the entire length of the house, the name derived from the possibility of firing a round from the front door through the back door without hitting any part of the house.

Many scholars believe shotgun houses reflect African building traditions that entered the American Southeast via the transatlantic slave trade through the Caribbean Islands, starting in New Orleans and brought to cities like Jacksonville by migrating Black freedmen.

This row of shotgun houses was located near the intersection of Davis and Phillips Street. Like Caroline Street, these homes and Phillips Street no longer exist as 75% of Sugar Hill's families were displaced for the construction of Blodgett Homes and a failed urban renewal project by the City Department of Housing and Urban Development.

To make this feasible, the city threatened residents who refused to move by forcing them to remodel their homes and buy more property. Residents whose homes sat on 25-foot-wide lots, which was typical for shotgun housing, had to buy additional property to meet a new 50-foot wide lot frontage requirement.

For many years, the 654-unit Blodgett Homes was Jacksonville's largest public housing complex. In 1988, the City decided to demolish and redevelop the crime ridden aging public housing development.  The Jacksonville Housing Authority's 158 unit Blodgett Villas apartment complex the State Regional Service Center complex occupy this area today. Unfortunately, both developments are gated suburban centers that turn their back to Davis Street and the once proud Sugar Hill community surrounding it.


Blodgett Homes in 1953. Image courtesy of the Florida State Archives.




I. Davis & Missouri Street



Not much is left of Missouri Street today.  In fact, the name doesn't even exist anymore. What remains of it is now known as West 3rd Street.  Prior to the destruction of Sugar Hill, Missouri Street provided a direct east/west connection to Springfield and Durkeeville for Sugar Hill residents. It's very conceivable that this intersection of the epicenter of the Sugar Hill community.

Wilder Park was located a half block west of this intersection. Wilder Park was the city's largest public space for African-Americans prior to desegregation.

Opened in 1927, the Wilder Park Library was the Jacksonville Public Library's first branch location. Along with the branch library, the park's amenities included a track, a baseball diamond, a diamond ball field and a community center. Unfortunately, the space named for Charles B. Wilder, who's descendants donated the land for the park, was destroyed for the construction of the Jacksonville Expressway (Interstate 95) in 1958.

Today, much of this land that was once home to several businesses and homes lies abandoned overlooking Interstate 95. Streets like Missouri (now 3rd Street) no longer provide the vital neighborhood interconnectivity that they were originally intended to serve.





J. Davis & Griffin Street



Today, the intersection of Davis and West 4th Street (originally Griffin Avenue) isn't much of a gathering place or activity center.  Outside of a JTA bus stop, the junction is lined with fences and vacant lots.  In 1941, the scene was significantly different.

Louis Rizk operated a grocery market at the northeast corner of the intersection. Sharing a street level retail space in the same building was a small neighborhood bakery operated by Marie Carter. Other retailers on this block of Davis Street included William Smith's Restaurant and Isaac Abraham's Grocery.




K. Cookman Institute


A sketch of the Cookman Institute in 1898. Image courtesy of the Florida State Archives.

In 1872, Rev. S.B. Darnell established the Cookman Institute as the first institution for the higher education of African-Americans in the State of Florida. Located at Beaver and Hogan Streets, the school was named after Rev. Alfred Cookman, a Methodist minister who provided financial assistance to the school's creation. After the Great Fire of 1901 destroyed the school, a new location was built at the intersection of North Davis and West 7th Streets in Sugar Hill.

In 1923, the Cookman Institute merged with the Daytona Educational and Industrial Training School in Daytona Beach. In 1941, the school became a 4-year college and the name was changed to Bethune-Cookman College. In 2007, the Board of Trustees approved the name Bethune-Cookman University.  Today, Bethune-Cookman's 82 acre urban campus is located just west of downtown Daytona Beach.

After the Daytona merger, the Jacksonville facility was purchased by the Duval County School System to serve as a middle school.  Eartha White, a well known activist and founder of the Clara White Mission, suggested naming the school to honor both Rev. S.B. Darnell and Rev. Alfred Cookman.  While the original school building no longer remains, Darnell-Cookman School of the Medical Arts lives on as a magnet middle/high school with an "A" school grade.


The former location of the Cookman Institute building.