My Mom came and got me from my Grandmother in 1965 and moved me to Jacksonville. She lived at 817 West Duval Street about 3 houses from the corner of Duval and Davis; before that she lived at 826 West Adams Street (a vacant lot now sits there).
She rented a very nice, clean room out of one of the old two story houses that used to grace that area in Lavilla; understand, back then those houses were kept up pretty nice. There was a laundromat on that corner and an army/navy surplus store also. Ashley was a beehive of activity back then. I attended A. L. Lewis Elementary School which was to the west just past I-95; in fact, I could walk to School in less than 10 minutes from Duval and Davis where I lived. In the Lavilla Neighborhood you could always hear about 10 or 20 different types of music from juke boxes and African American nightclubs blaring from Ashley Street and also the numerous bars and holes in the wall on Davis Street.
I didn't know that that area North of Lavilla past State Street was know as "Sugar Hill." My Grandfather and his wife lived on 502 West 18th Street on the Corner of 18th and Boulevard, right in the heart of "Sugarville." That area was a very very nice African American Community and Neighborhood back then, and yes, many musicians, teachers, politicians, community activists, etc. lived in Sugar Hill...my Grandfather was a well respected plumber in the black community, Sugar Hill, Lavilla and Moncrief, for over 50+ years before his death in 2006; it's kind of run down in that area now and my Grandfather and his Wife are now dead and gone.
I grew up in Lavilla but we only lived there for about three years before moving to Fort Myers in 1967. Again, Davis Street was "popping" so to speak and was always a beehive of activity back then but Ashley Street was totally off the chain; I was only a child but my Mother allowed me to roam around and I remember how that area was "back in the day."
Beaver Street was also interesting. Now those areas, including Sugar Hill mostly resemble bombed out carcases of their former self. And it is a shame about the discrimination thing back then and on through the 70's and 80's, forcing those people out of their homes and their neighborhoods; and now we're scrambling to try and find our identity.......I wonder why?
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