10 Cool Places In Jacksonville That Don't Exist Anymore

2. Downtown Wharves



A wharf is a structure built along a waterfront so that ships and vessels may rest, dock, load, etc. In cities like San Francisco and Seattle they have become popular tourism destinations. For much of Jacksonville's early history, downtown's riverfront wharves along Bay Street were a beehive of activity, featuring a network of seafood markets, bars, shipyards, and wholesale industries to match.  

By the 1950s, many had become dilapidated dens of crime and economic despair. In an effort to clean up and modernize the waterfront, most of downtown's wharves were demolished and converted into riverfront parking lots by the Haydon Burns administration.


A fish market at the end of Ocean Street. Today, this area is a parking lot for the Jacksonville Landing.

Read more:

Lost Jacksonville: Wharves, Merchant Marines and Ports

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