Stories Behind the Concrete Slabs of Jax: Part I

5. E.H. Thompson Company, Inc.



In 1912, Earle Thompson established his food service distribution company near the train station, so that customers coming to town could just walk across the street to make their purchases. Located in the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company's former warehouse at 734 West Bay Street in 1950, the company had relocated into a larger structure at 708 West Bay Street by 1970. When the Jacksonville Terminal opened in 1919, this building housed the Jax Press Company. By 1950, it was occupied by Clarence W. Zaring & Company. Zaring was a wholesale grocer and flour jobbing business that purchased flour and feed from Pillsbury Flour Mills in Enid, OK.


Sanborn Map illustrating the location of C.W. Zaring & Company at the intersection of West Bay and Jefferson Streets. Many of these structures were built over the original bed of McCoys Creek.

The foundation from both of these turn-of-the-century warehouses lies just south of the JTA Skyway's Jefferson Street Station. While E.H. Thompson Company's original downtown buildings no longer exist, the company (now at 8081 Philips Highway, remains one the leading foodservice suppliers in North Florida and Georgia.






A drain over the original bed of McCoys Creek.

Article by Ennis Davis, AICP. Contact Ennis at edavis@moderncities.com