A view of the Riverside Viaduct in 1926. The Riverside Viaduct was a T-Formed bridge used to hold vehicle and streetcar visitors over the Florida East Coast Railway. It related Riverside Avenue in Brooklyn with Broad Avenue in LaVilla. In 1921, the unique north method to the Acosta Bridge turned an extension of the viaduct. Throughout the early Nineteen Nineties, the viaduct was changed with a brand new Acosta Bridge interchange.
Wanting in the direction of LaVilla’s Railroad Row from the mouth of McCoys Creek. Sandwiched between Jacksonville’s main railroad depots and the riverfront, West Bay Avenue emerged as a spot the place early settlers arrived from Southern Greece and Turkey as sailors from ships that docked alongside the riverfront. Located alongside West Bay Avenue, the district featured Greek-owned eating places, fruit markets, resorts and bodegas serving the big transient inhabitants within the neighborhood of the railroad terminals, riverfront docks and wholesale companies supported by them. However after World Warfare 2, city renewal, technological modifications within the logistics business and the closure of the Downtown passenger rail terminal introduced a decline to a neighborhood as soon as characterised with worldwide aptitude.
A view of McCoys Creek and the Jacksonville Terminal Firm’s railyard alongside the St. Johns River waterfront. The Riverside viaduct and warehouses in LaVilla’s Railroad Row may be seen within the background. As soon as referred to as the Gateway Metropolis, Jacksonville was a serious railroad heart for greater than 50 years. The Jacksonville Terminal Firm was a partnership made up of the rail traces that served the terminal complicated, all of which nonetheless loom massive in right now’s transportation world: Florida East Coast Railway (began by Normal Oil principal Henry Flagler), Southern Railway (now Norfolk Southern Railway) and the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad Firm (now CSX Transportation). At its peak, the Jacksonville Terminal Firm employed greater than 2,000 individuals, making it the second-largest employer within the metropolis on the time.
A view of McCoys Creek between LaVilla and Brooklyn. In 1801, Philip Dell obtained an 800-acre Spanish land grant to determine a plantation on the south aspect of McCoys Creek and the west financial institution of the St. Johns River. The location turned referred to as Dell’s Bluff, named for the 16-foot-high bluffs lining the river’s western shore. Throughout the Civil Warfare, the property served as one of many few campsites for regiments of the U.S. Coloured Troops through the Union occupation of Jacksonville.
Following the struggle, Accomplice veteran Miles Worth acquired the previous plantation in 1868. The following 12 months, he bought the southern 500 acres to John Murry Forbes for $10,000 in gold. Forbes developed the land into what turned the neighborhood of Riverside. In 1869, Worth platted the northern portion because the neighborhood of Brooklyn. Situated close to a number of rail traces, Brooklyn shortly turned a hub for freedmen, freedwomen, and their descendants.
Rows and rows of shotgun type housing dominated Brooklyn’s panorama alongside McCoys Creek in 1926. Brooklyn was characterised by its slim, gridded streets and carried a distinctly Northern identify, whilst its east-west streets had been named after Accomplice generals and its north-south streets after timber. By 1950, the neighborhood’s inhabitants had grown to over 6,000. Nonetheless, by the last decade’s finish, the development of Interstate 95 displaced a good portion of its residents. This venture marked the primary of many city renewal efforts over the following sixty years that will additional scale back the neighborhood’s inhabitants and demolish lots of its unique buildings.
As we speak, though a lot of Brooklyn has been changed by trendy growth constructed inside the final decade, a group of historic buildings west of Park Avenue nonetheless stays, echoes of the neighborhood’s Gullah Geechee heritage.
The neighborhood of Campbell Hill dominates the background of this McCoys Creek view. Developed through the Eighties, Campbell Hill was a compact city enclave tucked between rail yards on the north aspect of McCoys Creek, simply west of the previous Jacksonville Terminal passenger station.
The neighborhood was named after Alexander B. Campbell. A capitalist and entrepreneur, Campbell owned and operated Merryday & Paine’s Music Retailer, ran a tremendous printing enterprise, and was energetic in actual property growth. In 1885, he helped publish the primary works of famend composer Frederick Theodore Albert Delius.
Campbell Hill rose in prominence with the opening of Henry Flagler’s Jacksonville Terminal, changing into a fascinating neighborhood for the employees who powered the town’s rail financial system. Campbell Hill thrived till the development of Interstate 95 in 1957. As we speak, solely a handful of buildings stay of this as soon as vibrant group.
{A photograph} of McCoys Creek flowing via Campbell Hill. Considered one of Campbell Hill’s most notable former residents was Frank Benjamin “Frankie” Manning. His mom, a dancer, left Jacksonville for New York in 1917 through the Nice Migration. There, Manning realized to bounce at an early age and later turned a pioneer of the Lindy Hop and swing dancing. Over his illustrious profession, he carried out with legends like Duke Ellington, Depend Basie, and Ella Fitzgerald, and appeared in movies together with Jittering Jitterbugs, Scorching Chocolate, Malcolm X, and Stomping on the Savoy.
A view of the Gress Manufacturing Firm’s planing mill alongside the north aspect of McCoys Creek. Morgan Valentine Gress, born in 1875 in Jesup, Georgia, based the corporate. He was the son of George Valentine Gress, a rich lumber magnate and former Georgia state consultant. The Gress household held cultural significance as effectively: George Gress’s elaborate dwelling is alleged to have impressed “Tara,” the enduring plantation in Gone With the Wind, to which the household was reportedly associated via creator Margaret Mitchell. George additionally bought and donated the huge cyclorama portray The Battle of Atlanta to the Metropolis of Atlanta, housing it in a specifically constructed construction in Grant Park. At 42 toes tall and 358 toes in circumference, it stays one of many largest work within the U.S.
Morgan Gress reportedly fell out of favor along with his father after marrying Georgia native Eugenia Stephens, main him to depart the household enterprise. He based his personal wholesale lumber firm in Georgia, later relocating it to Jacksonville in 1907. Settling in Riverside, Gress turned a outstanding civic determine in Jacksonville earlier than passing in 1961. As we speak, Bellingham Marine Industries occupies the location of his former planing mill alongside McCoys Creek.
Wanting east alongside McCoys Creek from North Riverside. Housing in Campbell Hill on the south aspect of the creek dominates the background.
A view of the Myrtle Avenue bridge over McCoys Creek in Campbell Hill. Previous to its completion, Campbell Hill was phyiscally separated from Brooklyn. After the opening of the bridge and Myrtle Avenue streetcar line, Myrtle Avenue developed right into a business heart for the Campbell Hill neighborhood.
Previous to the Civil Warfare, Colonel Lucius Augustus Hardee owned a plantation named Rural House, alongside McCoys Creek. Situated one mile west of the St. Johns River, Hardee’s plantation produced lengthy staple cotton. Colonel Hardee was additionally a cotton dealer related along with his uncle’s agency in Savannah, GA, Noble A. Hardee, Son and Firm. After the struggle, Hardee constructed a brand new “colonial type” residence on the location of the previous plantation named Honeymoon.
A view of the St. Johns River close to the mouth of McCoys Creek. On the left, the unique Acosta Bridge was the primary vehicle and solely streetcar crossing over the St. Johns River when it opened in 1921. Initially referred to as the St. Johns River Bridge, the “Yellow Monster” was finally named for Metropolis Councilman St. Elmo W. Acosta, who satisfied voters to approve the bond difficulty to construct the bridge. Tolls had been charged till 1940, incomes greater than $4 million for the town. As a consequence of excessive upkeep prices and elevated visitors circulation, it got here down within the 1990’s to make method for the Acosta Bridge we all know right now.
The Florida East Coast Strauss Trunnion Bascule Bridge, on the precise, is the oldest remaining bridge crossing the St. Johns River. It was initially constructed by oil magnate Henry M. Flagler, to offer higher entry to South Florida and served as the ultimate chapter of Jacksonville’s decline as a serious vacationer heart. This 1925 bascule bridge changed the unique swing-span bridge that opened on January 5, 1890.
Editorial by Ennis Davis, AICP. Contact Ennis at edavis@moderncities.com. Historic pictures courtesy of the Jacksonville Public Library’s Particular Collections Division.