Lost Jacksonville: Cunningham Furniture Company

[Metro Jacksonville]

Lost Jacksonville: Cunningham Furniture Company



Metro Jacksonville takes a look into the past of downtown's blighted surface parking lots: The Cunningham Furniture Company.

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2011-jan-lost-jacksonville-cunningham-furniture-company

[peestandingup]

The Destruction Of American Cities - Brought to you by the Automobile, Big Oil & Scared White People

[dougskiles]

What is the story on the building next to where the Cunningham building was (in the picture)?  The one still standing?

[Captain Zissou]

Like Sears (closed 1981), Rosenblums (closed 1981), Furchgotts (closed 1984), Levy-Wolf (closed 1984), Ivey's (closed 1985), JCPenney (closed 1985) and May-Cohens (closed 1987), Jacksonville's largest furniture store would also cease operations during this dark period of downtown retail.

Depressing.  It's going to take a century to undo the damage we did in that 4 year span. 

[thelakelander]

What is the story on the building next to where the Cunningham building was (in the picture)?  The one still standing?

Old city directories indicate that it was Cunningham's shipping department at one time.  It was also another furniture store for a couple of decades.  In fact, that entire area was pretty much a furniture and home furnishing district before the days of the wrecking ball took over.

[Captain Zissou]

Stephen, that's absurd.  The area he is describing is more like 2 blocks. 2 blocks that will be prime real estate once the courthouse is up and running.  There are millions of reasons why this idea is moronic, but lets just pick out 4 for simplicity's sake.  

1) The last thing downtown needs is more 'greenspace'.  The Main Street homeless bathroom/pocket park is a glaring example of why this is a bad idea.
2) The courthouse is poorly designed, why do we need to celebrate it by knocking down two historic buildings??
3) How many people will actually be driving the routes he describes and will really even appreciate the added 'presence' of the courthouse?  Most people on broad will be going 40 mph+ and won't even look at the courthouse.
4) Why spend the money to decimate a 2 block area when you have 40 blocks of 'greenspace' to the west and northwest?  If you want to add 'presence', just spruce up the urban prairie that is La Villa.

What he should be focusing on is adding infill that will compliment the 'design' of the courthouse and generate foot traffic on the surrounding blocks.  Any money that could have been spent on his idea would be better spend on developing the plaza area in front of the courthouse.  Busy sidewalks and a well used public plaza will do far more to add to the presence of the courthouse than even the world's best greenspace would do.  This isn't Disney World, and it's not the southside.  Sweeping vistas are out of place and inefficient for an urban environment.  Save that self aggrandizement and irresponsibility for areas of lower density (read: the Acosta campus).  

[fsujax]

Do we know who that quote is from? I agree the last thing we need is more green space Downtown right now!

[Gravity]

I am going to once again chime in and say the concept that is held as "downtown" is outdated. You can say this was "done in a matter of a few years" but businesses followed demand. If we cannot evolve our concepts of what should comprise a downtown and continue the attempts to revive dying models we are chasing our own tails.

Jacksonville's solutions need to be unique to meet the challenges we alone posses, not cobbled together from solutions to other cities and challenges that may look and seem similar at a glance. It is time to Jacksonville to rise with an identity of its own.

A public transportation system needs to transport people to places where people actually need to go. While this should be basic and obvious, the bus/monorail system is designed around hubs that do not serve this fundamental.

A downtown-centric view is, while honorable in ideal, outdated. We need to look to the future, not the past. Downtown will only thrive if it is viably connected with the thriving parts of the city. Right now it is not. Art walk and other events show the potential and demand for culture in the city, but will remain isolated incidents if solutions for parking and/or transportation are not met. 

[Gravity]

Do tell what you think is 'outdated' about a centrally organized development pattern?  Is it the billions of dollars less in public infrastructure that you don't like or is it the efficient use of resources and the greater diversity that it causes?

My basic point is that focusing revival efforts to 60 or so square blocks of a huge city, maybe 10 - 20 that ever  actually housed this romantic "walkable" ideal, and  2 or 3 adjoining neighborhoods is myopic at best.

This would maybe, after the billions in investment recommended by an organization that is basically an investment club,  house a city that Jacksonville was at a time being painted idyllic which never truly existed. This would not and does not fit the needs of the current city.

This isnt centrally organized, this is disjointedly organized and focused around sections of town that have UNIQUE problems which are being ignored or cobbled over with solutions that other cities have devised. Larger cities, which we supposedly want to be, create larger problems with the diversity and shared resources you claim to represent. If we are ignoring the problems we have now, what does that bode for this "future central planning"?

Altruism and Efficiency should include everyone, not just fellow investors. There are already areas of town where businesses have developed these things that government have failed to do. So I guess what I am against is the forced nature of your fixation, not the ideals you claim to represent. Here is a tip going forward, automatically responding to anything that isn't lockstep with your recommendations reveal your bias.

Are we re-building Jacksonville as it was in some mythical bygone era, or looking to the future?

[thelakelander]

Jacksonville's solutions need to be unique to meet the challenges we alone posses, not cobbled together from solutions to other cities and challenges that may look and seem similar at a glance. It is time to Jacksonville to rise with an identity of its own.

A public transportation system needs to transport people to places where people actually need to go. While this should be basic and obvious, the bus/monorail system is designed around hubs that do not serve this fundamental.

A downtown-centric view is, while honorable in ideal, outdated. We need to look to the future, not the past. Downtown will only thrive if it is viably connected with the thriving parts of the city. Right now it is not. Art walk and other events show the potential and demand for culture in the city, but will remain isolated incidents if solutions for parking and/or transportation are not met.  

I actually agree with this, although I do believe we stand to learn a lot of what to and what not to do, from peer cities, in implementing a variety of concepts and plans within our own unique environment.

An example would be mass transit.  While the system should be set up to uniquely serve Jacksonville's environment, we can learn from other places like Little Rock or Nashville on how to design a cost effective system.

Another example would be Savannah.  You don't have to copy their squares and architecture but we can apply the successful concepts of clustering complementing uses together to stimulate synergy and vibrancy within a compact setting.

[thelakelander]

My assumption is that many view downtown as an isolated environment instead of realizing its only a part of a much larger network of communities.  What happens in a forgotten neighborhood like New Springfield, Eastside, Tallyrand or Durkeeville also has an impact on the ultimate potential of downtown in general.  While many are only focused on the "walkable downtown core", there is a need to look at the entire preconsolidated city as a whole.

[Ocklawaha]

No matter if you tore down the ENTIRE building fabric of downtown and turned it into a suburban golf course, the geography and dynamics of the St. Johns River will still dictate that the cows cross at the ford DOWNTOWN. This part of the city was planned by GOD!

OCKLAWAHA

[Captain Zissou]

Altruism and Efficiency should include everyone, not just fellow investors. There are already areas of town where businesses have developed these things that government have failed to do. So I guess what I am against is the forced nature of your fixation, not the ideals you claim to represent.

Where are these areas of town you speak of?

[Gravity]

I agree with some parts of it as well.  Identity, proper planning for transit etc.  But very interested in this whole 'downtown centric' is 'outdated' opinion.

awaiting the response eagerly.

Clearly the entire city's decision to live, work and play elsewhere is not enough data for you. Clearly the various walkable towncenters should not count as viable resource and centers around which to plan. Places with ample parking should be shunned.  

Clearly the empty monorail cars and trolley lines, increasingly vacant buildings and green spaces are just screaming of people's ignorance to embrace something modern.

Once again, business have supplied solutions that government has not. Downtown is disintegrating because you are trying to fit downtown into the same footprint that existed 20 - 30 even 40 years ago, when the city was much smaller. This is the future you are trying to sell? Refusing to grow with the city will only continue to hamper any real progress.

Whatever you manage to revive out of downtown with artificial injection of resources and development ( roundabouts, anyone?) will only take away from what a viable connection to the city would provide. This requires an integrated plan that involves the entire city. Until that happens... well... what more data do you need?

[Captain Zissou]

Clearly the entire city's decision to live, work and play elsewhere is not enough data for you. Clearly the various walkable towncenters should not count as viable resource and centers around which to plan. Places with ample parking should be shunned. 

Clearly the empty monorail cars and trolley lines, increasingly vacant buildings and green spaces are just screaming of people's ignorance to embrace something modern.

I find this humorous, so thanks for that.

I can't be sure, but I think you may be including SJTC in your list of 'Walkable Town Centers'.  Please, explain to me how that place is in any way walkable?? You may also be including Tapestry Park.  How would that be considered a walkable neighborhood when you consider that if you want anything other than Jimmy Johns, running shoes, or a steak dinner you have to drive in your car?? 

'downtown', as you perceive it, is not downtown at all.  Downtown is the core and the 4 or 5 urban neighborhoods surrounding it.  To isolate one from the other is impossible.  The core would be nothing without those neighborhoods and they would be nothing without the core.