Great info. I am relatively new to Jax (3 years) and haven't had a chance to contextualize all of this history. For instance, you say "the bust of the Florida Boom," but I'm not quite sure what to do with that.
Can someone recommend a good (preferably the best) book on the history of our fair city?
The Florida Land Boom happened in the 1920s when people bought up a huge amount of property. It was an uncanny predecessor to what happened in the sub-prime mortgage crisis; prices were driven up by easy credit and speculation. It busted in the late 20s and left a lot of people upside down on their properties.
As far as books go, here are some recommendations: A great overview is in James Robertson Ward's
Old Hickory's Town from 1985. The best book covering more modern history (into the 1990s) is James Crooks'
Jacksonville: the Consolidation Story, from Civil Rights to the Jaguars. Wayne Wood has written three great books that cover particular features:
The Jacksonville Family Album: 150 Years of the Art of Photography,
Jacksonville's Architectural Heritage, which is a must read, and
The Great Fire of 1901, which he wrote with the late great Bill Foley. An older book that gets cited a lot is
Frederick Davis' "History of Jacksonville, Florida and Vicinity from 1925. It's very thorough but clearly out of date in various ways. There are also some great books on Jacksonville/NE Florida in Indian history and the colonial period and particular events such as the Patriot War, the Civil War and the early film industry.
