Tag Archives: St. James Hotel

Making History: Ebb and Flow on the Northbank

The incorporated in 1859, two short years before the Civil War began and destroyed much of its nascent commercial district. Development was a long and slow process for the remainder of the century, often driven more by outside capital than the local sawmill and lumber trade. In 1868, local citizens successfully lobbied the to construct a school for black youth. Stanton Institute opened the following year. The Board of Trustees christened it “the best school building in the state.” At the same time, northern capitalists financed the construction of the , the fanciest of several downtown hotels catering to a …

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BEFORE THE MUSIC DIED: LaVilla – ”The Great Black Way”

“West Ashley Street,” sang the in 1927, was the only place you could “ever lose these awful Jacksonville Blues.” That same year,  recorded a mysterious ragtime blues guitarist named playing “Ashley Street Blues,” with singing, “I’m a heartbroken woman with the Ashley Street Blues.”  recorded another version of “Jacksonville Blues” in 1928. She was “red hot” in Atlanta, she sang, “But the man I love lives down in Jacksonville.” West Ashley was the central thoroughfare for , a mostly black town after the , a slave plantation earlier in the 19th century, and during Jacksonville’s brutal Jim Crow years, one …

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NEIGHBORHOOD: Hemming Park

Laid out in the early 1820s, a public square was created by , considered to be the founder of Jacksonville. After his death, his heirs sold the piece of land to the city for $10, maintaining the vision of this square, originally called , to be a public square. The Civil War left Jacksonville decimated, but those northern troops returned as tourists. By 1869, Jacksonville had become a hot destination for visitors. Great hotels were built to accommodate, and Jacksonville had over a dozen; the biggest and fanciest two faced onto  (another one of Hemming Park’s former names). “You could …

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