Ten Reasons to Save Fire Station Five

[fsu813]

putting it next to the Fire Museum would also be great.....but it seems it can't travel that far.

[Charles Hunter]

could they move it down to the river, and barge it to Metro Park / Fire Museum?  Houses have been moved that way.

[mtraininjax]

I agree with Charles, barge it down to the fire museum.

[Captain Zissou]

The firehouse subs idea is something I have been advocating for years.  It really would be a move that would solidify them as one of our great corporate citizens.  I would also switch back from Larry's (I switched away from firehouse in May and have already earned frequent customer discounts at my new home, I'm a big sub guy) if they did this.  There has to be somewhere in Brooklyn with room for this.

Otherwise, adding it to the fireman museum area would be cool and add another signature piece to met park.

[vicupstate]

could they move it down to the river, and barge it to Metro Park / Fire Museum?  Houses have been moved that way.

Would it fit under the three bridges necessary (Acosta, Fuller Warren, Main St)?  I'm thinking no.

However, the Firehouse subs idea is killer.  It would take vision and leadership to pull off.  Someone would have to pull the deal together with Fidelity, Firehouse, coj all on broad, maybe even other parties too.   Ok....... maybe I need to put down the crack pipe. 

 

[stjr]

Re: Firehouse Subs - how many thousands of employees work for the Fidelity Companies, BCBS, EverBank and tenants, St. Joe and tenants, Haskell, YMCA, and Florida T-U, not to mention all the Riverside Avenue and riverwalk traffic - that all could come by for a sub sandwich?  Not like there are any restaurants fronting Riverside Ave outside of the office buildings.  And, within a block of interchanges with I-95 and I-10.

A license to print money?

[thelakelander]

could they move it down to the river, and barge it to Metro Park / Fire Museum?  Houses have been moved that way.

Would it fit under the three bridges necessary (Acosta, Fuller Warren, Main St)?  I'm thinking no.

However, the Firehouse subs idea is killer.  It would take vision and leadership to pull off.  Someone would have to pull the deal together with Fidelity, Firehouse, coj all on broad, maybe even other parties too.   Ok....... maybe I need to put down the crack pipe.

It definitely would fit under the Main Street bridge and should be able to fit under the Acosta with no problem.  It would not have to go under the Fuller Warren.

FDOT also owns a chunk of the dirt lot directly across the street, next to Johnny's.  Its excess land from the Riverside Avenue widening.  So if nothing else could be found, perhaps they could move it directly across the street to the SW corner of Riverside & Forest?

[lindab]

Great idea. Brooklyn needs something to give it a presence.

[Bativac]

I was sad when the city quit using this building as a firehouse because I knew it meant its days were numbered. I'd love for this building to be saved but if the commenters on News4jax.com represent a cross-section of the city's populace, there's almost zero support for trying to save the building (at least, if the city has to pay for it).

I was born and raised here, but I've lived in many different places and have never encountered people so ignorant of their past, and so willing to bulldoze it, as those in my hometown. Not that the old firehouse is some great historic artifact, but people's reaction to the question "demolish it or save it?" seems indicative of the state-of-mind of most Jacksonville residents...

[vicupstate]

^^ Indeed.

To give some perspective, there use to be 50 mansions lining the very same street that this station is on (Riverside Avenue).  Only two survive today.  If that collection had been preserved, it could have put Jacksonville in the same league as New Orleans, Savannah and Charleston, with the tourism and positive image that would flow from that.  This city is so blind some times.   

[thelakelander]

Sometimes?

[JaxNative68]

I thought those mansions were destroyed in the great fire and that whole stretch of land was used as a debris dumping ground during the downtown clean up after the fire.

The city did make a deal with Fidelity in swapping land.  Fidelity has lived up to their end of the deal by building the pocket park by the river and deeding the land to the city.  If the city were to back out now by not giving them the land where the fire station sits, then I imagine they would have to pay fidelity a pretty penny for the river front property the park sits on.

Plans I have seen show a stretch of retail shops to be located on the north side of Forest St between the pocket park and Riverside Ave where the current fenced in surface lot is.  The fire station was to fall to give way to the realignment of Forest St.  The city was trying to make it the Gateway to the city from I-10 and I-95.  There is no reason why the realignment couldn't take place on the existing parking lot and the new retail be place behind the fire station and incorporated the fire station into it.

With the retail market the way it is in that area, I don't see that project taking off anytime soon, I can't imagine Fidelity is in any rush to build it, which will give the city the chance to let the building sit uncared for and rot like they do with all of their uninhabited building.  Then they can condemn it and tear it down, claiming it is in the best interest of the citizen's safety . . . like we haven’t seen that one before.

[thelakelander]

I thought those mansions were destroyed in the great fire and that whole stretch of land was used as a debris dumping ground during the downtown clean up after the fire.

The great fire did not burn anything south of McCoys Creek.  However, those buildings did fall to the Great dynamite and bull dozer over a half century later.

[JaxNative68]

thanks for the correction, I had been led to believe otherwise, until now that is.

[vicupstate]

Sometimes?

touche'