Related, and fitting for February/Black History Month, some interesting history of the site via SIAA:
John Edward Onley: For a few years, he and his family lived on Main Street, between West 1st and 2nd Streets, on property currently under development by Corner Lot. At his death, the Jacksonville Evening Metropolis stated that “there were few men better known in Jacksonville than Mr. Onley.”
Onley, an African American man, was born in 1834, in Accomack County, Virginia, and is initially notable for his status as a “Free Inhabitant” of that state. Before the Civil War, he moved north to New Jersey, where he met and married his first wife and had two sons. By 1860, the family had relocated to Brooklyn, New York; he worked as a railroad porter in Manhattan. By the war's end, John Onley also had two daughters and had prospered enough to co-own a brick house in Brooklyn.
Onley moved to Jacksonville in the late 1860s, where his family lived on East Beaver Street and he worked as a house carpenter. His first wife died in 1870; he remarried, and by 1880, his household grew to include his second wife, a grown son and daughter, three younger children, a boarder, and two lodgers. During these years, John grew his business, becoming a house builder/contractor and accumulating property which he would often develop and sell.
In July 1886, John and Victoria Onley purchased a large lot and house on Main Street, near West 1st, for $1400. The Onleys lived in a 2-story frame house that formerly stood on the southern portion of this lot (then 1320 North Main Street; shown in lower right corner on attached 1897 Sanborn map). The family stayed here for only a few years before subdividing the property, building another house next door (1326 Main Street), selling both portions, and moving to a house that he owned on West Union Street. The Union Street house burned in the 1901 Jacksonville fire, but he rebuilt it and was living here when he died in 1905, age 71.
John E. Onley’s obituary in New York Age (a weekly African American newspaper) described him as “one of the most widely known citizens of Jacksonville.” His Evening Metropolis obituary also noted that he had “traveled in the West Indies and in Central and South America,” and was a “contractor and builder and had acquired much good property in Jacksonville.” For his business and real estate accomplishments, he earned the respect of his fellow citizens, both Black and White. He and several family members are buried in Jacksonville’s Old City Cemetery.
