A Look at San Jose

[Metro Jacksonville]

A Look at San Jose



San Jose was one of Jacksonville's earliest suburbs to be designed with the automobile in mind.

Full Article
http://www.metrojacksonville.com/content/view/890

[will]

San Jose shows that attractive architecture is not enough to create a vibrant community. Imagine instead that these structures were clustered together and connected. A neighborhood should be more than what you see out of your car window as you zing down a connector road. Nevertheless, with a good tree canopy, proximity to the river, and quality structures, San Jose still has its charms.

[BridgeTroll]

Looks pretty vibrant to me... quiet, well groomed.  I am sure it is sheer joy to jog, walk, or bicycle through the neighborhood.  We cannot and do not all want to live in condos and lofts downtown.

[blizz01]

Didn't Anwar Sadat (Egypt) and Gerald Ford hold a "mini-summit" of sorts at Epping Forest in the 70's?

[billy]

They did meet there.

I grew up in Lakewood, and the urban legend had it that if you went to Epping Forest
on Halloween night ( if you dared cross the pine woods of the massive "front yard", now condo filled)
you would get a silver dollar.

The good qualities of the area are a testament to the good bones of the master plan,
designed by the great city planner John Nolen of Cambridge, Massachusetts.

[will]

Looks pretty vibrant to me... quiet, well groomed.  I am sure it is sheer joy to jog, walk, or bicycle through the neighborhood.  We cannot and do not all want to live in condos and lofts downtown.

It is quiet and well-groomed, but then so are many suburbs. The point was that the neighborhood would be even better if you did not need a car to accomplish simple tasks like getting a gallon of milk or stopping in at a cafe.

[BridgeTroll]

Perhaps someone would know if cafes or small stores were nearby when it was first developed.  At one time it very well may have had those amenities.

[lindab]

At first there was simply a drug store  with a soda fountain and a Piggly Wiggly store in the Lakewood shopping center. It served all the homes off San Jose Boulevard to near Bolles. Beyond Bolles, which was a boy's school, and the San Jose Country Club there was nothing but woods.

Directly behind the shopping center were the homes on the streets named for colleges: Cornell, Auburn, Temple. Those residents could walk to the grocery store. For everyone else it was a drive. To shop for everything else most people rode the bus to downtown since there was only one car per family and fathers drove to work in town. 

The high school was A I duPont. I could walk to the high school but was bused to the elementary school. Epping Forest was the home of Jessie Ball duPont, the whole place. She hosted garden parties yearly to raise money for charity. She also donated a chunk of money to the high school for a center for students with disabilities.

[ProjectMaximus]

Very cool, Linda. Thanks for sharing.

[thelakelander]

Perhaps someone would know if cafes or small stores were nearby when it was first developed.  At one time it very well may have had those amenities.

The original master plan called for a walkable commercial district from the intersection of San Jose and Old St. Augustine Road to the San Jose Hotel (now the Bolles School).  This central area now is the home of the school's parking lots and football stadium.

[lindab]

San Jose wasn't walkable but it was bikeable.  The streets were narrow - only two narrow lanes with almost complete tree canopy. There was very little car traffic and slower speeds.  I could ride for blocks with no hands on the handlebars. Playing cards clipped to the spokes clacking away.  Wowie.

[Captain Zissou]

Thanks for doing this, Lake.  I grew up in San Jose (technically south of San Jose), went to San Jose Episcopal, and am a member of Epping Forest, but I had never heard any of this.  San Jose is a very nice area, but I had no idea it had been a master planned community from way back.  I guess there was no guard gate, retention ponds or water slides to tip me off.

[GatorDone]

One thing I noticed since moving to Jax is that the nicer neighborhoods seem to have some common threads such as pride in home ownership. What I mean by that is people actually maintain their homes and yards. It is not all about money either, I have seen nice lower income neighborhoods were people do take pride in their property. I come from a Midwest city of 150k and it is hard to find a yard that is not mowed frequently and maintained landscaping regardless of the demographics of the neighborhood. I do understand that the Florida climate creates challenges but they are not insurmountable ones. Climate also has nothing to do with junk cars parked in the lawn and trash thrown about the yard.   

[jaxphotocat]

I grew up in the area.  A very short walk from where Old King Rd. connects to St. Augustine Rd.  I went to Wolfson High School.  I think it was a great area, and could be bias since my father was a builder and built many of the homes in the area.

Linda is so right when she points out that  a bike worked, but many things, depending on where you lived in the area, are a bit too far to walk to.

[Ocklawaha]

We might also claim the FIRST BRT SYSTEM in history at San Jose, dedicated buses, what would be called "Quality Bus" left from a station downtown and ran non-stop to San Jose Center. If I run across my clipping from a 1920's newspaper article, I'll post it.

That creek between San jose and San Marco, was the site of ORIENTAL GARDENS, one of Florida's first theme attractions, and remains of the old gardens and ponds, trails etc. are still visible near the West end of "Oriental Gardens Road". History buff's should drive slowly and take a look before every last detail is gone.
Please remember this is private property today so "Take nothing but photos - Leave nothing but footprints."

OCKLAWAHA