Ghost of Jacksonville: Davis Street

[Metro Jacksonville]

Ghost of Jacksonville: Davis Street



Metro Jacksonville's Ennis Davis exposes a major early 20th century African-American urban thoroughfare that no longer exists.

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2013-nov-ghost-of-jacksonville-davis-street

[Noone]

Thanks. Are you planning on showing the MLK parkway that is now under construction and some before and after pics? Talk about a loss of building stock.

[JayePorter]

Thank you. I love reading about Jax history, especially from around the turn of the century. I wish I could have seen it then.

[GlennO]

Great article.  Thanks for sharing.

[IrvAdams]

That was excellent, thank you for the research. I am a native, and I hung on every word of description and studied every picture. Are we (Jacksonville) alone , or in the minority, in the fact that we destroyed many of what would be historical, keepsake buildings? Wasn't this the norm for most cities until recently?

I know I have been educated and have recently come to realize you don't tear anything down, you always find a re-use. Either restore it or mothball it for someone who can at some time bring life back to it.

Thanks again for the post.

[BridgeTroll]

Great article Ennis!

[John P]

What could have been

[thelakelander]

Thanks. Are you planning on showing the MLK parkway that is now under construction and some before and after pics? Talk about a loss of building stock.

Other than Sanborn maps, I don't have access to many before pictures.  Most of the homes and businesses that used to be there were taken out in the 1960s for the original 20th Street/Haines Street Expressway. Kooker Park used to be a neighborhood park with housing surrounding it. Now it sits in the middle of an expressway interchange. The neighborhoods surrounding that interchange have been just as negatively impacted as those along Davis Street. Btw, you can see the original destruction in the same 1960s aerial used in this article about Davis Street:

[thelakelander]

That was excellent, thank you for the research. I am a native, and I hung on every word of description and studied every picture. Are we (Jacksonville) alone , or in the minority, in the fact that we destroyed many of what would be historical, keepsake buildings? Wasn't this the norm for most cities until recently?

Jax wasn't alone. The majority of cities eliminated minority districts like this in the mid-20th century under the guise of erasing "blight". Following principles endorsed by Robert Moses, highways and other infrastructure projects were used to divide neighborhoods along racial lines and eliminate places of weak political influence.  Just in Florida alone, highways took out chunks of similar districts like Overtown (Miami), Central Avenue (Tampa) and Parramore (Orlando).

Where I do find Jax unique is that most cities moved away from this type of stuff in the later half of the 20th century.  Jax has not. I believe the majority of LaVilla was taken out as late as the mid-to-late 1990s.

[fieldafm]

Probably in the top 5 of all time MJ articles.  Lake is my hero.

[BackinJax05]

In 1977 there was a large exposition of model railroads in one of the old Railroad Row buildings. All I remember is it was near the pedestrian overpass, shown on the Sanborn Map. My cousin & I went there on my birthday that year. I was only 11, but I still remember how cool all those buildings looked.

[thelakelander]

Sorry about the typos.  It was pretty early this morning when I was still adding text and imagery, so it didn't make it to our editors. I've gone back in an fixed what I could find. Anyway, now that we have a few interns helping with the back end operation of the site, I can now spend a little more time putting together in-depth articles like this for all areas of the city and county.  I'm looking forward to it.

[deathstar]

I know more about the history of Jacksonville in the 5 or so years I've been here than I ever heard of in my 31 years here on earth. Thanks, lake, these are the type of articles that I truly enjoy!

[Wacca Pilatka]

Where I do find Jax unique is that most cities moved away from this type of stuff in the later half of the 20th century.  Jax has not. I believe the majority of LaVilla was taken out as late as the mid-to-late 1990s.

Quite right, Lake.  The mass demolition process began during the Austin administration.

If you look at pictures of the area in Old Hickory's Town (1982) you can see how much more of LaVilla was intact then.

[Debbie Thompson]

Every time I read one of these excellent articles about lost history, what could have been, I find myself both fascinated about what we had and equally infuriated about what has been lost.