Part two of Metro Jacksonville's series that highlights the lost stories behind downtown Jacksonville's surface parking lots.

Unfortunately, some parts of downtown Jacksonville look like a devastated war zone. Once filled with life, building demolitions over the years have left sections of the urban core littered with a weird, eerie mix of building foundations serving as surface parking lots. What was once "Railroad Row" may now be the largest cluster of dead building foundations still standing.
Railroad Row was Jacksonville's answer to NYC's SOHO, Atlanta's Castleberry Hill, and Dallas' West End. The Row was a four-block district along West Bay Street featuring a compact mix of warehouses, wholesale businesses, hotels and restaurants catering to the nearby Jacksonville Terminal Company railroad depot. Most of this downtown district was haphazardly demolished between the late 1970s and early 1990s.
Stories Behind the Concrete Slabs of Jax - Part 1
Here's a look at five surface parking lots and the stories of the businesses behind them.
Terminal Hotel
Terminal Hotel in 1921. Courtesy of the State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, http://floridamemory.com/items/show/32444
Originally known as Bettelini's Hotel, the Terminal Hotel was an early example of Transit Oriented Development (TOD) in Jacksonville. Located at 1023-1035 West Bay Street, the hotel was directly across the street from the main entrance to the Jacksonville Terminal's passenger concourse. Here, rail passengers could book a room while visiting town or hop on a streetcar to get to other Jacksonville neighborhoods. Like many buildings on the blocks surrounding it, the Terminal Hotel was demolished decades ago. Today, people still visit the site, parking their cars inside the remnants of its brick walls. Well, what's left of them under the Skyway's elevated infrastructure, anyways.
Terminal Hotel in 1921. Courtesy of the State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, http://floridamemory.com/items/show/32445
Stories Behind the Concrete Slabs of Jax - Part 1
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