Diary of a Downtown Renovation: Planning Phase 1

A diary is a way to capture events as they happen. It is not always sexy, especially when one is dealing with multiple departments at the City, bidding out a project, and working with lenders. Just hang in there with me because there will be a point where you will start to physically see progress! But first let’s retrace my story: After our Landmark Application was approved through the Jacksonville Historic Preservation Commission (JHPC), we had to wait patiently as the application made its way through City Council.

The first stop after JHPC was the full City Council for an initial approval. My partner in crime attended that meeting because I was out of town. These meetings are not the most fun to attend. There are lots of public speakers and it takes forever to get through the agenda. Sometimes there are people there for public comment who just want a platform to speak who are not even addressing anything on the agenda. It can feel tiresome and a bit like the Wild West. We did not speak. Our application was quickly moved to the Land Use and Zoning Committee (LUZ).

The LUZ hearing in February was on my husband’s birthday, so I took that meeting. It was a little more sparsely attended as you can see from the photo. After waiting on several other agenda items, I was asked to come up to the podium and speak to my support of the Landmark status. Then it was quickly and unanimously approved! After that meeting, there was one more City Council meeting for final approval and then we had to wait to receive the official documents from legislative services.

In March, we had a meeting with the restauranteurs who plan to occupy the first floor retail space. Our architect, Brooke Robbins, reviewed the space plans and flow for the first floor and we made some adjustments based on the restauranteurs’ input. We also had a few other friends in the restaurant business review our plans to make sure we were thinking of everything. I am very glad we did because we caught several important things, such as the installation of floor drains, which we didn’t have in our initial plans.

During this time, we also had a local developer and a Tampa-based entrepreneur review the layouts for our two residential floors. These are very small spaces, studio apartments, and we wanted to make sure were were maximizing efficiencies with the existing space. After each of these meetings, we continued to work with our architect to refine the plans. Once they were ready, we conducted walkthroughs with several contractors. You can see in the video the current condition of the building when we walked through! Soon after, our architect sent out the request for proposals. And then we waited….

In April we met with Buildup Downtown’s Executive Director, Allan DeVault, to discuss creative ideas for things like our grease trap location. I agree this is not a exciting topic but when you have a building that is surrounded on all sides by other structures, there isn’t a lot of room for basic operational needs like trash cans and grease traps. Buildup Downtown is great at navigating issues like this that may effect multiple downtown properties versus each business negotiating these things individually. One idea that came out of a meeting with a St. Augustine restauranteur is the city hosting centralized trash compactor locations that businesses can pay into use. This would be really helpful when a structure is literally located on the lot lines. That probably won’t happy for us but it is a great idea as downtown continues to grow.

A couple weeks ago we received the proposals back from contractors. Unfortunately, the project came back about a million dollars more than estimated only 6 months ago. This is a good example of how much construction costs continue to rise. We also altered the plans so I am sure that had an impact. We changed the residential floors from four one-bedroom apartments to the historic layout of eight studio apartments. We altered the front facade back to the historic appearance and added a few more windows to the north and south sides of the building. Those windows have to be constructed with fire-rated glass because of their proximity to the adjacent buildings. Oh, and we kept the original back porch on the third floor instead of closing it in (reduces square footage but creates a nice private outdoor space).

The current step we are working through is meeting with the architect to see if we can find any cost savings. Then we will work with the Downtown Investment Authority (DIA) to categorize the budget and estimate how much we could possibly receive in incentives. After we know that number, we will be going back to our lenders to see about construction funding and bridge loans. Simultaneously, we have multiple architectural reviews at the city, state and national levels.

Again, I realize none of this is very appealing and fun but it is the background work that has to happen for a successful project. We are doing everything we can to make sure this project is done right the first time so that it can have a lasting impact on our community. Stay tuned as we move through this process. And if you are considering investing in downtown, contact me! I would be happy to help you navigate the process.

Researching A Historic Home

One of my favorite closing gifts for a client who just purchased a historic home in Jacksonville was a sweet booklet of their home’s history. They were so thankful of this thoughtful gift and can’t wait to start making their own memories in their lovely new home.

I love learning about history. I’ve visited over 50 National Parks and Historic Sites, and hundreds of museums all over the country. I studied history at Rutgers University and later at the University of Florida during my graduate work. I dedicated most of my career to working with museums, cultural institutions, and historic preservation. Research feels like settling in with a comfy blanket and hot cup of tea — it feels like home.

What better way to use my self-proclaimed history-nerd status in my real estate career than to deep dive into the history of a client’s home? It is not as daunting as it may seem. I have a few easy steps to set you on your way to learning more about your home, too!

Where to Start?

Is your home a contributing structure to a National Historic District? If so, the City of Jacksonville, as well as the State of Florida, will have what is called a Florida Master Site File (FMSF) on your home. The FMSF often includes a lot of the basics about your home, including the year it was constructed, the architect and builder, and the important architectural features. Jacksonville’s residential areas on the National Register of Historic Places are Durkee Gardens, Old Ortega, Riverside/Avondale, Springfield, and Downtown.

On the website for the Historic Preservation Section at the City of Jacksonville, you can find lists of contributing structures by address for Riverside/Avondale and Springfield. You can also call their office to see if they can provide access to a site file in any of Jacksonville’s National Historic Districts. Riverside Avondale Preservation has many of their site files scanned and they have a vertical file on almost every home in the district, which sometimes contains more than just the site file. The Springfield Improvement Association & Archives actually has the site files for that district scanned and available for online access, which makes research so much easier!

Next Steps!

Visit the Special Collections at Jacksonville Public Library downtown for some deep diving into research. This is where things get fun! One really great resource is the Sanborn Insurance Maps, which you can find online in several places. However, there is nothing like leafing through the huge old books and the secrets they hold in person. The image to the right is just a small section of one of the largest books you will ever behold. They have to place the book in a cradle in order for you to use it.

The Sanborn Maps were maps were designed to assist fire insurance agents in determining property hazards and they are a treasure trove of information. They show the size, shape, stories, and construction of dwellings, commercial buildings, and factories as well as fire walls, locations of windows and doors, sprinkler systems, and the uniform nature of them showed changes of the buildings over time. If you shine a light through the back of a page like the one to the right, you can see alterations to the buildings directly pasted on top of the map. I felt like a history spy from National Treasure when I learned that secret!

The downtown library also holds old City Directories where you can search by address, find the name of the person living there, then search by name, and often find all the people living in the household and their occupations. Be aware! Some addresses have changed over time. So, pay attention to the cross streets when you are doing your address search in a city directory!

The library also has various newspapers on file where more prominent buildings were listed under the building construction activity sections. These newspapers have their own directories which can help you narrow down your search before you hop on the microfilm machine and start zooming away.

Additional City Rescues

On the City Property Appraiser’s website, search for your home address, then scroll down the page to the Sales History section. Find the most recent transfer of the property and click the book/page number link. You will be directed to an image of the deed located on the COJ Clerk of Courts website. Within each deed is Property Description that references a Book and Page number for the historic City of Jacksonville Plat Maps (see image top left for an example).

Now, visit the Clerk of Court website and search by Book/Page. In the example above, I would search for Book 2, Page 4. Then click on the Plat Map results and voila, winner, winner chicken dinner - you now have a copy of the plat map for your neighborhood. For this particular home, you would look for Block 80, Lot 5. That is where the historic property is located. I also had a nice print of this plat map framed for my client as another special closing gift.

Another avenue at the city that is a little more daunting than others is researching your building permit and plans, if they exist. These are located in the building department. Call their offices first to make an appointment. This takes a lot of time going through microfilm to locate and there may be nothing at all to find, so it is all about patience.

Ancestry.com

Finally, and this is not accessible for everyone, but if you do have an Ancestry.com account, that is a really great way to find out even more information about the people who lived in your home. You can do a reverse search with an address by year. Again, make sure you have the right address because they did change over time in many cases.

For this example, I found the correct address in the City Directories by looking at the cross streets. Then I searched the historic address in Ancestry.com and found the 1910 and 1920 census records, which listed every household member, their age, where they were born, where their parents were born, their occupation, relation to the head of household, and more. This is the 1920 census which shoes that eleven people lived in this home in Springfield. ELEVEN! There was a man and his wife, his three children, one son-in-law, three grandchildren, and his sister in law and her son. This is a 2032 sf house! Some couples want a house that big to themselves these days!

I hope this information was helpful to you. If you start your journey in historic research and get stuck, reach out to me! I would love to help and get nerdy about history with you.

Homestead Exemption: What is Portability?

Portability is one of the least known or understood benefits of the “Save Our Homes” Amendment in the State of Florida. It may be Florida’s best kept secret after our beautiful Florida springs. Before I dive into portability, let’s discuss the basics of Save our Homes benefits.

If you own a home in Florida that is your primary residence, you may qualify for the Florida Homestead Tax Exemption. The main requirements are that you have to 1) occupy the home by December 31st of the previous year, and 2) live in the home for 6 months of the year. You also have to file for the exemption by March 1st through your local Property Appraiser’s office. If you haven’t already, file an application before the March 1 deadline to capture this important tax benefit!

The Florida Homestead Exemption does a couple of really cool things. It puts a cap on annual property tax increases, which means that the municipality can’t increase the assessed value of your home by more than 3% per year. It also allows for up to a $50,000 exemption of the assessed value of your property. Now, when you sell your existing home and buy a new home, don’t look at the assessed value of the new home and assume that will be the same amount for you. The property appraisers office will often raise the assessed value of the new home closer to your purchase price. That is where Portability can come into play and be a huge tax benefit!

Portability allows you to transfer a portion of the 'Save Our Homes' benefit from a previous homestead to a new homestead to lower your assessed value.

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How does it work? If you qualify, you calculate the difference between the market value and the assessed value of your current homestead. If the value of your new home is more than your current home, the full amount is deducted from the new home’s market value and reduces the new home’s assessed value (the amount that is taxed). If the new home’s market value is less than the your current homestead, then you may still be able to apply a portion of that portability benefit towards your new home.

Take a look at this great graphic for some examples of how you might apply portability. Remember, the maximum amount that can be ported (transferred) is $500,000 of value (difference between Just/Market Value and Assessed Value).

Pro Tip: You have to apply for the portability benefit. It is not automatic!

As an example of portability, I will use my own situation. We sold our single family home in 2020 and purchased a condo that had a market value less than our previous home. The market value of our single-family home was about $150,000 more than the assessed value (the portability benefit). Part of the reason we had this much portability was because we had lived there for a while with a Homestead Exemption that kept the assessed value annual increases at no more than 3%, even though the market itself was increasing at a much higher rate. However, we downsized to a condo, so we were only able to “port” or move a portion of that amount to our new condo. Using the the calculations you see in the graphic above, we were able to port around $100,000 to our condo, which reduced the assessed (taxed) value. Then, we received a $50,000 Homestead Exemption which recused our taxable value even more.

Portability is a little known tax benefit that homeowners are not always prompted to apply for when filing a new homestead exemption. Make sure to take advantage of this Save Our Homes tax benefit when you file your Homestead Exemption (before March 1). For your convenience, below are some of Northeast Florida’s Property Appraiser Websites focusing on Homestead Exemptions, Portability, various other tax benefits, and the application process for each.

Reach out to your Local Property Appraiser!

 
 

For all of your real estate needs, feel free to contact me:

904-708-0825

carmengodwinrealty@gmail.com

 
 

Diary of a Downtown Renovation: The Beginning

So… my husband and I did a thing. We bought a building in downtown Jacksonville! This year, we will start the arduous journey of restoring this Marsh & Saxelbye gem in the middle of our city center.

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We think it is beautiful. We both also have the ability to see what can be, not simply what is. That is what it takes to invest in historic buildings — to have the ability to identify what makes a building special, and to be a dreamer with the vision for a beautifully activated space.

We are so thankful to Ron Chamblin for entrusting us to make this a reality. What is our plan? We will build out a restaurant space on the first floor and four studio apartments on each of the second and third floors. We are so excited to make a difference in our city by helping to revitalize our urban core in this small way. Here is an article from the Jacksonville Daily Record that outlines some of the initial project ideas.

In future posts, I will highlight some of the history in more detail but I have to share a short tale of our downtown beauty. A version of her was constructed in the early 1900s (the earliest inhabitant I can find is 1903). She was originally a two-story wood rooming house with a large front porch. This was at a time when there were still a lot of single and multi family residences downtown, before the Great Florida Land Boom (a history for another day).

The rooming house sheltered so many over the years, some wafting in and out each year, while others stayed on for much longer.

One really interesting resident was Earl Seashole of the Florida Five Jazz Band who lived there from 1915 to 1917. Seashole’s band traveled the national Keith Vaudeville Circuit and was featured in a Victor Talking Machine Company Tour in 1921. Their first performance on that tour was at the Cohen Bros Department Store, which is now Jacksonville’s City Hall! Theodore A. Blinn, a prominent physician and surgeon from Ohio lived in the home from 1906 to 1910, and George T Woodward, operator of The Woodward Photography Studio on Forsyth Street, lived in the home with his wife in 1909.

In 1923, The Jacksonville Investment Corporation hired Marsh & Saxelbye architects, Jacksonville’s most prolific architectural firm of the 1920s, to redesign the building to include space for two retail stores on the first floor. 225 N Laura Street was one of Marsh & Saxelbye’s earliest mixed-use projects and one of only a handful of early small scale commercial designs in Downtown Jacksonville. The firm would go on to design many commercial and residentail buildings in Jacksonville, over 20 of which are on the National Register of Historic Places.

September 1921 Music Trades

One of my favorite things about this project is that there was not any waste.

This was a Green Building Project before the term was coined.

The Specification Sheets (the City of Jacksonville has the original 1923 copy printed on linen) defines how the contractor will remove the porch, lift up the 2-story rooming house, and construct an entirely new first floor out of brick. Then they were to place the rooming house on top of the new first floor and construct a new second and third floor facade that would wrap the building and meet up with the rooming house. You can actually see where the 1923 construction meets up with the circa 1903 rooming house in the photo below that was taken by our architects using a drone.

I learned all of this information by doing a deep dive research project for a Landmark Application through the Jacksonville Historic Preservation Commission (JHPC). Our application was heard before the JHPC last last year and we were approved for the Landmark status — HORRAY! Later this month, the application goes to the full City Council for final approval. Wish us luck!

The process of doing development work downtown is a bear!

The first step was Landmark status. Since I was already doing all of the historical research for the Landmark Application, I went ahead and submitted Part 1 of the Federal Tax Credit Application. Did you know that you can get up to a 20% income tax credit for the rehabilitation of historic, income-producing buildings (if you go through the process with the State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO) and the National Park Service (NPS)? It is a huge effort to file the three part application and get the appropriate approvals. Yet, it will be worth it once the project is completed. I just received notice this month that Part 1 has been approved! Another step completed!

The next steps involve the DIA and the DDRB. Late last year, we had our initial application reviewed and approved through the Downtown Development Review Board (DDRB). The DDRB is a mayoral-appointed committee of nine voting members who are tasked with reviewing design elements for new projects downtown. The idea is to ensure projects meet the downtown master plan, which includes things like walkability and engagement with the street.

Currently, we are working through architectural plans and test fits (the restaurant and apartment layouts on each floor). We also have to consider the modern building codes that are being forced into this historic space. It is so tough because this building has less than 2’ between it and other buildings — it is completely surrounded by other buildings in the back and on both sides, so there is only so much that we have to work with. The building is also only about 6,000 square feet, so we have been learning a lot about maximizing small spaces! Once we have the engineers approve the plans, we can move forward with obtaining estimates for the work. So many steps. But each one moves us a little bit closer to our goal of revitalizing this beautiful building.

I hope you will join us on our journey! My goal is to take you through the process through social media channels: the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Stay posted for updates on our project and let me know what you think!

Initial Concept Drawing

Holiday Traditions

Riding the Riverside Trolley was a holiday tradition I miss very much!

December is a magical month to me, and not just because I was born on Christmas Day and I get to celebrate another turn around the sun. The weather cools down (well, some days it does). The kids are out of school and work slows down enough that I get to spend more quality time with my friends and family. Also, it just feels like there is a general spirit of happiness, kindness and giving amongst everyone I encounter. Wouldn’t it be lovely if all months were as warm in spirit as December?

I am also a sucker for history and traditions. I feel traditions deep in my bones. They give me a sense of comfort and belonging. Each person has their own holiday traditions. Some originate from warm childhood memories that you desperately try to recreate. Others are new traditions you start with close friends who become like family over time. Some are even solitary rituals. In fact, one of my newest traditions is to wake up early on Christmas morning and take my dog for a walk on a secluded beach.

I find that solitary time is important if you want a balance to all of the social events in December. I feed on those social moments, especially after being isolated the last couple of years. Some of my favorite events are annual parties like Latke Party (my friend’s potato pancakes are the best), The Red Party (a Springfield tradition with great people, red lights and an alligator, rabbit and pig roast, and Friendmas (a heartwarming girl friend holiday hang time). I also really enjoy public events with the kiddos, like Christmas in Avondale, Luminaria, and Holiday Pop Up Events. Strolling through Memorial Park at dusk, admiring the lanterns lining the circular walk that leads up to the “Life” statue, that was one of the most soul filling moments this year. As a family, we also love attending holiday movie events, out in the parks, and at Sunray Cinema. On Christmas Eve, Sunray has a showing of It’s a Wonderful Life, which is a family favorite. When George Bailey realizes his worth and the importance of family and friends, then reaches into his pocket to find Zuzu’s petals, oh the tears that flow!

At home, the first of my favorite traditions is picking out a fresh cut tree, strapping it onto the top of my car and driving it home to be set up and decorated. We’ve collected ornaments from all over the country during our summer travels. It is so much fun unwrapping them and reminiscing about our many adventures, like the breathtaking hike up Mount Rainier, the majestic whales we spotted off the coast of Iceland, and that time the kids counted every step on the way up the Statue of Liberty. We share stories about the visits to Presidential historic sites and awe-inspiring national parks, as well as silly moments like seeing the leg lamp on our visit to A Christmas Story house. We also share stories of family and those we’ve lost. I love thinking of my grandma each time I unwrap and hang up the “Merry Texas Christmas” ornament she made, or remembering my sweet Buttercup kitty when I add her tiny paw prints to the tree.

Another favorite tradition in our household is the annual sugar cookie decorating extravaganza. Really this is just me baking a ton of sugar cookies in various shapes and having all the colors of icing and sprinkles and candy for decorating available. Family and friends come by and we sit around the table and decorate. There are always so many cookies left over. As more people stop by through the holiday season, I invite them to decorate some cookies too. So many of my friends are artists or creatives that most of the time these cookies are too fun and interesting that you just don’t want to destroy them. My daughter always makes an adorable Patrick Star cookie. Even though this isn’t a big event, it is one of my favorite because it is a simple and fun way to bring people I love together.

My final holiday tradition is celebrating my birthday on December 25th, which usually involves a hibachi restaurant (pretty much all that is open). It reminds me of when the dogs ruin the dinner in A Christmas Story movie and the family is forced to go out to eat at the Chop Suey Inn. Yet, my experience is always wonderful. Marveling at the flaming onion volcano surrounded by friends and sake at the hibachi table is one of the most fun holiday traditions.

If you have a holiday tradition you love, share it on my blog page. I truly hope that you enjoy this holiday season celebrating whatever traditions you hold most dear!

Placemaking Grant Opportunities

Want a chance to make your mark on Jacksonville? 

PlacemakingJax has an opportunity for you to do just that! They recently opened applications to the public, offering grants for creative projects that will transform underutilized Downtown spaces. Projects can be pop-up activations or larger-scale renovations of public spaces into celebrated community places. 

I’ve personally been involved in multiple placemaking projects and I can tell you from experience that while they are a lot of hard work each project was extremely gratifying and filled my soul with a sense of purpose. I also got to meet a lot of great people in the process who shared my vision and helped me work towards a better city.

With the Riverside Arts Market, we partnered with the City of Jacksonville to transform a vacant parking lot under the Fuller Warren Bridge into a vibrant and active Saturday market that has operated now for over 10 years! It wasn’t an easy process and took a lot of negotiation, multiple partnerships, and a ton of volunteers to make it happen. But now that vacant lot is a true Jacksonville destination!

With the Riverside Community Garden, I worked with a group of volunteers to build a beautiful garden with fresh herbs, roses and seating for the public to enjoy in a public park space that was no longer serving its original purpose. We held a design contest, had the community vote on their favorite design, and then recruited volunteers every weekend for months to construct a placemaking staple for our community.

And in Riverside Park under the bridge, we helped transform an old retention pond into a fun place for dogs to play and dog owners to gather. We raised funds, partnered with the City, and worked with a local company to construct The John Gorrie Dog Park, which is free and open to the public.  

I still look back on these projects with pride because they permanently improved the place where I live, work, and play. You can make your mark on Jacksonville, too, with the help of a Placemaking Grant. The butterfly effect of placemaking projects can have a tremendous effect on our city.

PlacemakingJax is facilitated by Downtown Vision, which is hoping to increase vibrancy in downtown places where people can gather, like sidewalks, alleyways, vacant storefronts, public parks, parking lots, rooftops, streets, pool decks and the riverfront. 

You can find out more information about placemaking and obtain access to the application at the PlacemakingJax Website. Or you can gather your ideas and head to one of their informational meetings. The next one is on November 15, 5:00-7:00 at Super Food & Brew, 11 E Forsyth Street.

Build Up Downtown!

I love Jacksonville’s historic downtown. I like to call the urban core Jacksonville’s “Original Town Center” because I am a history-loving nerd. Unlike today’s Town Centers, it wasn’t developed as a shopping mall surrounded by apartment complexes and gated communities. Don’t get me wrong, I like visiting the Town Center and I am glad we have an Apple Store. However, our city’s downtown is its heart and soul. It emerged from the ashes of its previous self, rising like a phoenix that brought forth creatives from all over the country to rebuild our city. It has history in the bones of every building that has evolved into each new use over time. It is beautiful and unique and something really special that we should all treasure.

For decades, our City leaders have struggled to find a way to invigorate and activate our downtown. So many proposals. So many ideas. So many plans that sit on shelves and collect dust. NO MORE! Maybe it is because I am an eternal optimist or maybe it is because I’ve been paying attention to the most recent spur in downtown development, but I think the time is now for our downtown to get its due! One new organization working to make that happen is Build Up Downtown (BUD) where I serve as an advisory committee member and share my extensive experience in nonprofit management and community development.

Allan DeVault is the organization’s Executive Director. He served on the Riverside Avondale Preservation board for years as the Treasurer, volunteering for events, pushing through legislation to help our city, and doing whatever he could to make Jacksonville a better place to live. He is someone who cares deeply about uplifting Jacksonville’s Urban Core, the OG: Original Town Center. What is Build Up Downtown? They are a nonprofit that “facilitates and advocates for preservation, smart development and great public spaces in Downtown Jacksonville.” LOVE THAT. More of all of that, please! It sounds easy — make downtown the place to be already! There are hundreds of people who’ve tried to do that in the past fifty plus years who would explain why it isn’t as easy as it sounds. If you want to get nerdy about it, check out these video interviews from the 1960s and 1990s of two Jacksonville visionary architects Bob Broward and Taylor Hardwick who discuss their visions for Jacksonville’s future as well as their disappointments over time.

I know from experience that it can be difficult to navigate the system as an investor in downtown. Build Up Downtown can make that process easier. BUD supports and builds on the good work of the Downtown Investment Authority (DIA) and Downtown Vision, Inc. (DVI). But what is really interesting and why I think they can make a big impact is that they are a privately funded nonprofit, which may give them more flexibility and agility in their work. Along with Director of Development Laura Phillips Edgecombe, DeVault collaborates with these publicly funded entities in an effort to make our downtown the “epicenter for business, history, culture, education and entertainment.” As a private nonprofit, they just have a little more leeway and ability to move things forward in creative ways. They are really good at being informed on all things related to downtown because they stay abreast of current events and are excellent at communicating with all the various stakeholders. That is an enormous job in and of itself but gives them a good vision for what everyone involved wants for our city’s future. They are also good at connecting people so that they can collaborate and create a greater impact, as well as working with current and future investors and businesses (like me).

As you watch the historic interviews above, you realize that Downtown has come a long way since the 1990s. We have some amazing historic commercial, mixed use, and institutional buildings designed by prominent architects that are being renovated, thanks to historic incentives from DIA. At the heart of our city is the lovely JWJ Park which hosts lots of wonderful events and is fronted by our City Hall, located in Henry Klutho’s 1912 “Prairie School Masterpiece,” the St. James Building. Diagonal across the park is MOCA Jax, a fantastic contemporary art museum located in the historic Western Union Telegraph Building. My husband’s grandfather delivered telegrams by bicycle out of this downtown building as a young boy.

Next door is a top notch Public Library in a contemporary building designed by the international architect Robert A.M. Stern. One of my favorite places at the library is the Florida Room on the 4th floor — it is a Jacksonville History Research Heaven! On the other side of City Hall there is one of the most whimsical candy shops I’ve ever been in, Sweet Petes, where you can get lost in the vibrant colors of sweet treats while you watch them making candy from above. Just steps down Laura is arguably the best bookstore in the country, Chamblin’s Uptown, with a great little cafe and a wide selection of new, used and collectible books (although the Roosevelt location is where you go to get lost in book heaven). This is all just right around JWJ Park. I haven’t even scratched the surface of what downtown has to offer or even mentioned the variety of great restaurants, bars, breweries and independent stores, all situated within blocks of the wide expanse of the beautiful St. Johns River.

As you can see, when I walk downtown I see lots of vibrancy already. However, I also know there is a lot of placemaking, smart development, and driving awareness to do. What is your vision for our Downtown? What elements do you think are the most important as we all plan for our city’s future?

Community Impact Statement – Build Up Downtown  

Thriving downtowns are the heartbeat of every major city and Jacksonville should be no different. For decades, the momentum to change that has had many starts and stops. Right now, Jacksonville is on the doorstep of seeing that change and Build Up Downtown was created to assist in get over that step. There is momentum that we have not seen before that’s been set up over the past 10 years by stakeholders, public and private, that will revitalize our Downtown and keep that momentum moving forward. Jacksonville’s downtown will soon be a unique epicenter for business, history, culture, education and entertainment.

Cavorting to Carolina

This last week I enjoyed a jaunt up to Western North Carolina mountain country. My family has a very small (800 sq ft) cabin on the Cullusaja River, about an hour west of Asheville and an hour south of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It truly is a beautiful part of the country and I can feel my blood pressure drop as soon as I step out and smell that mountain air.

Skip to the bottom for a Few of My Favorite Things to do near Franklin, NC

Our cabin was originally my aunt’s house. Her first husband and his brother bought several lots on the river and helped each other build two houses nearby. I have such fond memories of coming to visit as a child. We’d ride up to the tire store to buy inner tubes and hold them tightly as they dangled outside the car window, hoping they didn’t fly away. Then we’d run up to the bridge and drop in, tube down the river to the swimming hole where we’d climb out and jump off the giant rock, then hike back up to the bridge and do it all over again.

Running wild in the woods, hiking behind a mammoth waterfall, mining for gems at the rock shop, sipping on apple cider — all of these things conjure up the lanky, carefree, adventurous spirit of my childhood. At night we’d all pile onto the porch in sleeping bags and watch the fireflies light up the night sky. It was the only time I wasn’t afraid to sleep outside at night because of the combination of peacefulness and exhaustion.

When my cousin decided to sell the cabin, we couldn’t turn down the opportunity to purchase it, even though it needed a great deal of work. We spent two years renovating the home from foundation to roof. We installed a new kitchen and bath, reworked the plumbing, electric, and HVAC, installed new wood floors, opened up the enclosed porch, and put in a rolling library ladder to access the loft which is now decorated with giant pillows and string lights. We had the most fun putting all of our personal touches on this sweet cabin.

With my daughter home from college at Texas State, we decided to come up for a short trip. On the ride up, I asked my kiddos (16 and 20 years old) to help me make a list of what they wanted to do. As they called out items on their list, my heart was so full — driving up to the gem mine, walking behind the massive waterfall, playing in the river with tubes, visiting the bamboo forest in Cherokee. We did all of these things, and more. These are all memories they have made with us that now remind them of their childhood. Now, just like me, they want to make new memories in these same spaces I’ve enjoyed my whole life. How sweet is that?

Once I got to the cabin and dusk started to set in, the fireflies began to emerge. I am like a kid in a candy shop when it comes to fireflies, like ridiculously ecstatic and it doesn’t fade with time. They are one of my favorite things on the planet earth. We ran around catching them in our hands and watching them light up then releasing them. After they stopped their illuminating dance, we lit some sparklers in the darkness and danced around outside burning shapes into the night sky. Oh, my heart is full.

If you make it up to the Franklin, North Carolina area, here are a few of our favorite things:

  • Jack the Dipper Ice Cream Parlor — There are so many delicious flavors to choose from — I am a fan of mint grasshopper, while my son loves the sorbets and my daughter digs on caramel bourbon truffle . We like to get our ice cream on a hot waffle cone, which they make fresh with a choice of vanilla, chocolate or cinnamon. There are two locations, one in Franklin and one in Sylva.

  • Jackson Hole Gem Mine — We always go inside and browse the shop first, which has an interesting selection of gems, minerals, pottery and rustic kids toys. Then we order boiled peanuts and apple or cherry cider (served hot or cold), and two medium buckets of dirt. Outside the kids set up and start sifting through their buckets to find treasures of amethyst, citrine, quartz and more.

  • Great Smoky Mountains National Park — I can’t possibly outline all the amazing things to do in this park here. My favorites so far are a variety of the wooded nature hikes, the spectacular view of Clingman’s Dome (which is breathtaking at sunset), and the Oconaluftee Visitor Center, which has a sweet Mountain Farm Museum (don’t forget to do the junior ranger program)! Also, sit outside this visitors center at dusk and you might spot of herd of elk who gather here in the evenings.

  • Tubing or kayaking the river — If you own your own tube, there are so many spots to pop in the river and take ride. It is easy if you have someone to pick you up or if you have two cars and can park one at the end point where you want to get out. If you want someone else to take care of you, we like Dillsboro River Company, which has a nice outfit on the Nantahala River. We’ve also rented tubes near Bryson City at the Deep Creek Rental and tubed in the National Park. So many options!

  • Visiting the Waterfalls — The Franklin Chamber has a great Waterfall Guide but my go to waterfalls are all on 64 as you head from Franklin to Highlands. One of the most photographed falls in the area is Cullassaja Falls, followed by what the locals refer to as Bust Your Butt Falls (you can slide down this one into a huge swimming hole or jump off the cliff if you are brave enough). Further up the road is Dry Falls, which is a 75’ waterfall that you can actually walk behind, followed by Bridal Veil Falls, which is a 120’ fall that used to route traffic behind it.

  • Cherokee — There is so much to see in Cherokee, NC. Personally, I love learning about the history and culture so one of my favorite stops is the Museum of the Cherokee Indian, which is so well executed. I am a museum nut and this is one of the best museums I’ve ever visited — it is worth the time! We also always visit the Bamboo Forest which is situated in an island park as you enter town. It is breathtaking and we also enjoy skipping rocks and playing in the water here.

  • Antiquing — There are some really cute antique stores in the Franklin area. One of my favorites has always been the Whistle Stop Depot because it has a great selection and lots of cool things to interest the kiddos, too. There is also some great antiquing in the nearby town of Dillard, GA (just watch your speed as we’ve been warned they like to give out tickets). Another fun place to visit is Culpepper’s Otto Depot , which is a really cool architectural salvage business that you can just get lost inside.

Jax Film History Part 2: Florida's First Studio

In Part 1 of this series, I provided an overview of how and why Jacksonville was the Winter Film Capitol of the World and was a precursor to Hollywood. The first film company to discover Jacksonville and set up shop here was Kalem Company. The studio was founded in New York and named after its founders George Kleine, Samuel Long, and Frank J. Marion. Cold winters, poor weather, and dangerous indoor lighting of the era meant that filming could only occur regularly during certain months of the year.

Kalem’s scout was sent south to search for a winter studio where they could film year round. They stopped in our bustling City in 1907 and quickly wrote back home that they should look no further for a winter film location. Kalem Company immediately set out to open a studio in Jacksonville, making them the first film producer to open a permanent set location outside of the Northeast.

Soon after Kalem ventured south, other producers also began to leave behind cold winters for sunshine and varied landscape. In these early years, most of those companies came south just to film in the winter months. Our first snowbirds! Kalem’s company is notable for being the first motion picture company to remain in Jacksonville throughout the year.

Kalem set up shop in the three story Roseland Hotel which was located on three riverfront acres around the current location of the abandoned Ford Factory (Tallyrand and Clarkson Streets). The Roseland Hotel was one of the first regular tourist hotels in Jacksonville after the Great Fire of 1901. The advertised the ability to accommodate 100 people, had private rooms with hot and cold water, electric lights and call bells. There was a tennis court, croquet grounds, a river dock, and a bowling alley on site.

Kalem moved a whole company to the location. The team included Director Sidney Olcott, Cinematographer George Hollister, Scenic Artist Allen Farnham, and property man Arthur Clough. Kalem’s star actress was Gene Gauntier. She made strides for women in the film industry by also becoming their most productive screenwriter. She also chose locations, supervised sets, and even co-directed many of the films. Gauntier was part of a small group of actors that played different roles in the films made here. Some of the other actors included Jack J. Clark, who was married to Gene Gauntier for a spell, Robert Vignola who played the bad guy, J.P. McGowan, Alice Hollister, and Ethel Eastcourt.

The Diver, Kalem Company, March 1911

I found this old silent film documentary by Kalem entitled “The Diver” which focuses on a shipwreck being blown up with dynamite on the St. Johns River. It is pretty cool because you get to see an authentic diver getting outfitted in period gear and then submerging into the water to set up the dynamite under the shipwreck. It makes you wonder how many shipwrecks they had in our beautiful river back in the day because they look like they knew what they were doing!

It didn’t take long for Kalem to outgrow the boarding house. He constructed a huge studio nearby where he installed a $20,000 lighting system, a glass ceiling, an indoor stage and a 54’x40’ outdoor stage where they would film two movies a week.

In 1908, Kalem produced eighteen 1-reelers called “The Sunny South Series.” The first film was A Florida Feud (aka Love in the Everglades) about a couple in love but dealing with a feud between their families. It was an instant national success, yet, locals were angered by the negative depiction of southerners within Kalem’s first films. It sort of reminds me of Florida Man jokes. It seems it has always been easy to make fun of the south.

Kalem’s third winter in Jacksonville was also the 50th anniversary of the Civil War. Veterans throughout the country were organizing reunions and raising more Civil War monuments than any other time in history. Filmmakers took advantage of the anniversary hubbub and began shooting a ton of Civil War flicks. Kalem even purchased cannons and stored them at the Roseland Hotel for use on their historic-themed films.

A few of Kalem’s Civil War movies can be found online, and if you decide to watch them you will notice that the cards are written in Dutch. This is interesting to me because it shows the international distribution of American films produced in Jacksonville. If curious, check out By a Woman's Wit, The Girl Spy Before Vicksburg and Darling of the C.S.A. Oh, and The Confederate Ironclad which stars Miriam Cooper who would end up landing a staring role in D.W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation (a movie I was forced to watch in my college film class). Cooper wrote a memoir where she told stories about her baby pet alligator that she adopted while living in Jacksonville, which is just so DUVAL to me.

Kalem was sold to Vitagraph Studios in 1917 and by that time they had moved much of their productions to California. I have too many other stories to tell before I talk about the downfall of the film industry in Jacksonville. Stay tuned for the next installment, which will focus on all of the film studies located at Dixieland Amusement Park, one of which had 160 trained animals they used in films, including elephants, tigers, and camels, oh my!

Jax Film History Part 1: Introduction

When you think of filmmaking in Jacksonville…. WAIT - Do you think of film making in Jacksonville? Most of us do not. Maybe because it has been quite a while since we’ve had a major motion picture filmed here. That is mostly due to the State of Florida no longer offering incentives to film companies, so they moved their business to adjacent states that do provide incentives, like Georgia. In the late ‘90s and early ‘00s, Jacksonville hosted major Hollywood flicks and celebrities, like Demi Moore in G.I. Jane, Kevin Spacey in Recount, and John Travolta in Lonely Hearts and Basic (funny story — my mother-in-law was Nurse #1 in that film). Awesome as it was to have these films made in Jacksonville, they were a late addition to a fascinating and complex history of how Jacksonville could have been Hollywood!

Creature of the Black Lagoon life-size model on display at Museum of Science and History, Jacksonville, Florida. The REEL Hollywood: Jacksonville's Film History

Creature of the Black Lagoon life-size model, The REEL Hollywood: Jacksonville’s Film History, Museum of Science and History, Jacksonville, Florida.

In 2016, I was asked to guest curate an exhibit at the Museum of Science and History entitled The REEL Hollywood: Jacksonville’s Film History. I love research, so it was a blast to deep dive into Jacksonville’s rich and sordid history with the film industry, interview people involved with film, and to coordinate with multiple archival institutions and private collectors in order to build out the exhibit. One private collector loaned us a life-size model of Creature from the Black Lagoon! How cool is that?

Did you know that movies were made in Jacksonville before they were in Hollywood? In 1908, Jacksonville hosted its first film production, while the first movie wasn’t made in Hollywood until 1911. In fact, more films were produced in Jacksonville between 1912 and 1914 than in Hollywood, hundreds of them! And the first Technicolor film, The Gulf Between (1917), was produced in Jacksonville out of a modified Pullman train car outfitted with a lab and darkroom. I can just imagine what Jacksonville might have been like at this time, actors arriving in droves for the opportunity to become a star while filmmakers and camera men shot silents on our city streets.

 

“This venture (to Jacksonville) was almost epoch-making, establishing as it did new artistic standards, particularly in atmosphere and inaugurating the custom of traveling far and wide in search of effective and authentic backgrounds. … Our departure created a sensation in the industry.” ~Gene Gauntier, actor and screenwriter

 
Silent film set in Jacksonville, Florida, Florida Memory

Silent Film Set in Jacksonville, Florida Memory

Why did film producers choose Jacksonville? The silent film industry began in New York and Chicago in the 1890s. At that time, filmmakers depended on natural light to make films, but the rainy, cold and cloudy weather often shut down film production during the winter months. As the demand for more films increased, companies were forced to film inside studios. However, the indoor lighting needed to capture moving images was often dangerous. It easily started fires and could even explode. So, motion picture production companies started looking for outdoor locations to film in the winter months.

While the Selig Polyscope Company filmed A Trip to Jacksonville in their travel series in 1906, Kalem Production was the first to open a studio in Jacksonville in 1907 (Part 2 of this story will focus on Kalem Studios). Soon, the height of the film industry was upon the River City, dubbed the “Winter Film Capital of the World.” Sandy beaches, rivers, swamps, jungles, and bustling city backdrops made for an amazing variety of film locations.

Thirty firms would locate to Jacksonville, including Metro Pictures (later MGM), and Fox Film Corp (later 20th Century Fox). Between 1909 and 1926, over 300 films were produced in our city. Companies hired over 1,000 actors who made Jacksonville their winter homes. Actors such as Oliver “Babe” Hardy, Billy West, and Lionel and Ethel Barrymore began their celebrated careers in Jacksonville.

Want to watch a silent film made in Jacksonville in 1916?

Check out Bouncing Baby at Florida Memory

Why Jacksonville?  It was the Southeast’s largest city, with over 57,000 residents. It was a major hub for rail and ocean liners, conveniently connecting it to the Northeast and making it easy to transport people and equipment. In addition to favorable weather and a variety in the landscape, Jacksonville offered inexpensive real estate to set up shop. It also had the talent and political support needed for the industry to blossom.

Why isn’t Jacksonville still the movie capital of the world? I plan to share more about the rise and fall of Jacksonville’s film industry in future stories, including how cars driving off the docks into the St. Johns River and a subsequent Mayoral election signaled the beginning of the end for movie making in Jax. The next story is about the first studio to set up shop in Jacksonville: Kalem Production. Florida Memory has some amazing photos from Kalem’s Jacksonville studio that I can’t wait to share with you!

The Skinny on Jax Historic Districts

 
“In the end, our society will be defined not only by what we create but by what we refuse to destroy.”
— John Sawhill
 

Edgewood Avenue

Considering moving to one of Jacksonville’s beautiful historic districts so you can live a more urban lifestyle in walking distance to parks, restaurants and museums? Or maybe you already live in a historic neighborhood where massive live oak trees draped with Spanish moss hold court next to 100-year-old homes that are built to last another 100 years if properly maintained. When I was serving as the Executive Director of Riverside Avondale Preservation, one of the biggest questions for homeowners was related to the approval process for working on these old gems. You are welcome to scroll to the bottom to find a link to the permitting process or you can take a journey with me to learn a bit about what qualifies as historic, why, and how we got here!

First, did you know that not all historic properties are governed by local law? Which properties are protected by local law has more to do with the history of historic preservation efforts in Jacksonville than the historic structures themselves. Historic designations are the result of the dedicated grassroots efforts of a lot of passionate people who understood that preservation was not just about saving buildings. Historic preservation saves and revitalizes communities, building on all that makes a neighborhood special.

Some Historic Background

Without getting too much into the weeds, a little history goes a long way. Here goes an extremely truncated history of how Jacksonville got historic districts. In 1901, a fire broke out at a mattress factory in downtown Jacksonville and in eight hours 146 blocks were destroyed, a total of about 2,000 buildings. The city went on high alert, sending out messages across the country to recruit architects and builders to come to Jacksonville, as money was being poured into rebuilding downtown. Hundreds of building professionals answered the call. Within five months after the fire, 1,000 building permits were issued!

Much of Riverside and Avondale was still fairly rural at this time (check out the rural photo of Riverside Avenue near Park and King). The architects and builders who came to Jacksonville not only rebuilt downtown, they stayed and expanded housing into Riverside and Avondale. They also challenged one another, using our City as an architectural proving ground. This is why there is such an amazing diversity of architectural styles in Riverside Avondale!

Ok, so fast forward to the 1970s (I know I skipped over decades of history but bear with me). The families that had once inhabited the beautiful mansions and quaint bungalows of our historic districts had moved out to more suburban areas. These beautiful old buildings started to fall into disrepair and in an effort to revitalize the area, the City of Jacksonville changed much of the residential zoning to commercial and office. This disjointed the residential character of much of the neighborhood and also led to historic buildings being demolished to make way for larger buildings to accommodate higher commercial and office uses. In reaction to historic buildings being demolished with speed, Springfield Preservation and Revitalization and Riverside Avondale Preservation were both formed in 1974 by concerned citizens who wanted to save what they knew was special about their neighborhoods. They did what they could to save historic buildings, one fight at a time. Both Springfield and Riverside Avondale were added to the National Register of Historic Places in the 1980s. But it wasn’t until the 1990s that the demolitions were stopped through local legislation. That is when the City adopted a historic preservation element into the comprehensive plan (a long term plan for the city). That element forced the City to start inventorying and protecting historic structures. Unfortunately, from 1970 to 1990 over 1,400 structures were demolished in Riverside Avondale alone. Clearly, the local legislation and protections were much needed.

 
“Politicians, old buildings, and prostitutes become respectable with age.”
— Mark Twain
 

Historic Designation Basics (Local = Legislated)

Historic properties can be locally or national designated (one is protected and the other is not). They can be designated as individual buildings (City Hall, Florida Theatre, for example) or whole districts, which are essentially a collection of buildings representing a time and place of architectural significance that are surveyed as a whole.

Florida Memory

National Register of Historic Places: In addition to a lot of individual buildings, Riverside Avondale, Springfield, Downtown, and parts of Ortega are on the National Register as Historic Districts. This is a great list of the National Register Properties in Jacksonville. The National Register designation is a honor, meaning it does not regulate changes made to individually listed properties or those within historic districts (except that the City does require what is called a “demolition delay” or a review by the JHPC (Jacksonville Historic Preservation Commission).

Local Landmarks and Historic Districts:: Riverside, Avondale, Springfield and the St. Johns Quarter are all locally designated historic districts. Plus, there are about 100 or so individually listed local landmarks. Any exterior work on locally designated properties requires a special permit called a Certificate of Appropriateness (COA) through the City of Jacksonville. The neighborhood organizations RAP and SPAR do not process COA applications or make decisions about your home renovations.

Undesignated Historic Neighborhoods:  So many Jacksonville neighborhoods are packed with historic architecture but are not designated either locally or nationally. That doesn’t mean they aren’t worth designating. For some there is not the local support or drive for the designation process, and for others, too much historic fabric has been lost over the years to create a cohesive district. Some historic neighborhoods that are NOT designated either locally or nationally are Arlington, Durkeeville, Eastside, Lackawanna, Mandarin, Mixontown, Murray Hill, New Town, Panama Park, San Marco, and Tallulah (this list is not mean to be inclusive of all historic areas of Jacksonville).

Obtaining a COA Permit

Administrative Approval: –Did you know you can get what I call a “no fuss” COA permit for work on your historic building? There are certain defined scopes of work that the City of Jacksonville Historic Section staff can approve administratively (if the work conforms to the district guidelines). See Riverside Avondale and Springfield guidelines for reference. Currently, there is no permit fee for these types of applications and there is a quick turn around time (about a week)!

JHPC Approval: The JHPC is a seven member mayoral-appointed commission that reviews those COA applications that can’t be administratively approved (mostly those that don’t meet the regulations or are new construction/additions). There are permit fees, public notice fees and it is a longer process (1-2 months). Essentially, you meet with the City of Jacksonville Historic Section staff, they write up a report of suggestions/modifications based on your application, then there is a public meeting before the JHPC where you get three minutes to present your project. Other people like your neighbors can speak about your project also and then the commission makes a final decision.

How to Apply for a COA: : The City of Jacksonville’s Historic Section has a pretty good overview of the Steps to Obtaining a COA so check that out to learn more and to access the application portal.

I hope this was helpful! Still have questions?

Feel free to reach out to me at carmengodwinrealty@gmail.com. I love all things historic and am happy to help!

Bus Stop Beers

Beer in Frosty Mug with lemon at European Street Cafe, Riverside, Jacksonville Florida

This year my son’s bus stop changed from his old Elementary School to European Street Cafe, which has been operating on Park Street in Riverside for thirty years. Now, is that luck or what? I feel like we all deserve a little luck after the chaos of the last few years. So, I took advantage of the best bang for my Happy Hour Buck at E-Street this school year (they have a 2-for-1 happy hour drafts special!). As the school year is coming to an end, I am already reminiscing about sending a group message to my friends with three simple words, “BUS STOP BEERS!” Then heading out to sit at one of the many shaded tables on their patio and wait patiently with a frosty mug in hand.

Magically, one by one, my girlfriends start to appear. Sometimes one or two friends show up with their children, while other times so many join us that we have to spread out over two tables. Soon after I arrive, my son lazily saunters over from where the bus dropped him off, loaded down with a twenty pound backpack (they apparently don’t use lockers anymore in an effort to destroy our children’s posture). On occasion, this exhausted trouper would take charge of the “kid’s table” and entertain the little ones (or better said, let them climb all over him). It was so nice this school year to enjoy a little time together with friends (who are like family) over a great meal with the best beer special in town.

BLT wrap with chips at European Street Cafe, Riverside, Jacksonville, Florida

This particular day I had a BLT Wrap with a triple order of bacon, lettuce, tomatoes, mayonnaise and swiss cheese - YUM - a side of chips, pickle spear, and ranch dressing. The ranch dressing is for my chips because I am extra health conscious. Also, pickle spears are highly underrated in my opinion. My favorite beer on tap is the Hacker-Pschorr Weisse topped off with a slice of lemon. My son showed up and ordered two classic reuben sliders. Then two of my friends popped by, one with their child, for hot dogs, hummus, brews, and great conversation with lots of laughter. It was a fun way to wind down after a hard week and start out the weekend right.

Be prepared: after the meal you pay inside at the cash register, which is right beside the dessert cases, full of pies, cakes and melt in your mouth cookies (seriously, those cookies, though). Facing the cakes and pies is a great selection of carry out beers and wine from around the world. They also have a huge area with an assortment of bizarre and fun candies, which I always get roped into buying for my kiddo. I am a sucker for the colorful rock candy on sticks because they remind me of my childhood.

European Street Cafe not only has great deals and yummy food and beer, they have the best people who work for them. They are friendly and kind and make you feel at home. I am gonna date myself here but it reminds me of Cheers “Where everybody knows your name, and they’re always glad you came.” Most of the time they bring me my favorite beer before I even order it!

Dog in stroller at European Street Cafe, Jacksonville, Florida

Other patrons are always friendly too! This day, some guests at the table next to us brought their dog, Pablo in his own little doggie stroller. Their owners said that Pablo was really a dog masquerading as a sheep (he kind of felt like a sheep too). Our tables became fast friends even though we’d never met before! This often happens in Riverside because people are friendly, curious, and we love the uniqueness and quirkiness of our neighbors.

European Street Cafe, Riverside, is located at 2753 Park St. in the Historic Park and King Corridor. The two other locations are Jax Beach and San Marco. Hours are 10:00 am to 9:00 pm daily. Kids eat free on Mondays. Happy Hour BOGO draft beers, short or tall 2:00 pm to 7:00 pm.

European Street Cafe, Riverside, Jacksonville, Florida Art Deco Historic Building Adaptive reuse

One of my favorite things about European Street Cafe in Riverside is the beautiful Art Deco architecture. It is a perfect example of adaptive reuse within a National Historic District. According to Wayne Wood, the building was designed in 1942 by Michael Vaviloff, an architect from Miami. Vaviloff is listed as designing a few apartment buildings in Miami Beach during the same timeframe, as well as redesigning the Pan American Airways System Terminal Building to be adaptively reused as Miami City Hall. I wonder if he thought about his art-deco gem of a service station being adaptively reused as a cafe one day? I doubt he could have ever imagined that!

It is unclear if Jones Super Service Station initiated the construction or were simply first proprietors of this super cool art-deco building. Maybe an oil company owned the building and a local proprietor operated the business (some say Orange State Oil)? The design was certainly a unique statement meant to attract attention and people to this service station over others (check out this pictorial article about other Jax Stations). Jones’ original location was on the opposite side of the street (2724 Park Street) and they were located there until 1941. Once the Art Deco building was contructed, Jones Super Service Station moved across the street into the building and operated there from 1942 to 1944. By 1946, the building had turned over to Conrad and Blanchette Filling Station. From 1950 to 1955, Wetheringtons Cities Service Station operated in this location, followed later by Park Street Cities Service Station. Cities Services Company was a national oil provider and a precursor to CITGO.

At some point prior to the 1970s, the service station went defunct and the Florida Barber College relocated there from West Adams Street to operate their school. The school was also open to customers as a barbershop through much of the 1980s. Unfortunately, after the school closed, the building sat vacant and boarded for years. It is surprising it wasn’t demolished. Although Riverside Avondale Preservation formed in the 1970s, there were no local ordinances at that time to protect historic structures from being razed. Over 1,400 historic structures were lost from the 1970s to the 1990s in Riverside Avondale alone.

Luckily, in the 1990s, restauranteurs Mary and Lew Zarka began to consider expanding their successful German deli restaurant, Mr. Dunderbak’s, which they had opened in 1980 at Regency Square Mall. The Zarkas certainly had vision when they found the abandoned old service station on Park Street and decided to renovate it into a cafe. Personally, I think it takes a special kind of person to see not what something is but what something can be. And it took a lot of vision because Riverside was different in the 1990s — it wasn’t as sure of a bet as it is today (trust me, I lived a few blocks away in a quad on Olga at this time). The Zarkas forged ahead, building on their success in Regency with a new concept, European Street Cafe, and after much rehab work opened what the locals lovingly refer to as “E-Street in August 1992. Today, their son Andy Zarka carries on the new tradition with special touches of his own. Thank you, Zarka family!

I have made my mark in European Street. As you walk in the door to the Riverside location, turn to your right and you will see my name engraved in gold on one of several wall plaques. These plaques represent the Brewmeister Club, where one “drinks around the world” by trying one of the most extensive beer selections in Jacksonville (20 rotating beer taps and 200+ bottled beers). It took me a full year to check off all the beers in the Bremeister Club. Not only did I get my name on the wall, they awarded me one free beer a day for a full year! Now that is a deal! You can use the E-Street loyalty app to track your Brewmeister Club progress and learn about daily deals! Thanks for reading and I hope to see you at E-Street, bus stop beers or summer time shandy.

Date Night with Axes

Carmen Godwin, David Nackashi, Claire Nackashi, Daniel Ciccarello, River Godwin at Stumpy's Hatchet House, Springfield, Jacksonville, Florida

Ok, so it was a date night with my son, to be fair. I’ve always been a bit terrified of axes. I mean, think about all the famous axe-wielding people, historic or fiction. There is Lizzie Borden who killed her father and step-mother with an axe (allegedly). Jack Torrance chased his family around the Overlook Hotel with an axe in The Shining (ask me sometime about my stay in that historic hotel - let’s just say I didn’t sleep well). Then there was Carrie Nation who decided the best way to move the temperance movement forward was to take a hatchet to the bar of various saloons serving booze. Oh, Carrie, how misguided were you?

Axe throwing is a perfectly good date night. It could also be a fun group outing with your crew. My night at Stumpy’s Hatchet House in Springfield’s Historic District was with a crew that included three of my friends, me and my son, and a new friend we met that night who joined our group. Apparently, my new friend has an alter-ego named Carmen — I feel we were destined to meet! Fast new friends are always aplenty in Springfield and they are the best!

Carmen Godwin, bullseye, Stumpy's Hatchet House, Jacksonville, Florida

Stumpy’s is located at 1719 North Main Street, between Reddi Arts and The Block Skate Supply in the heart of Springfield. They opened in May 2022 and are owned by a lovely couple who reside in Ortega and support all things local to Jacksonville. When we arrived, the rest of our party wasn’t there yet so we hung out in the waiting area. They have a bar with stools and an area near the window with a comfy couch. At the bar and snack counter, I ordered a beer for me and a soda for my son. While waiting, I bumped into the Executive Director of Springfield Preservation & Revitalization (SPAR), and chatted things up with her for a bit about all of the wonderful things happening in Springfield. Kelly is always prepared to greet you with a smile and give you a minute of her time, no matter how busy she is — and she is always busy — trust me I used to run Riverside Avondale Preservation so I know what a huge job that she has on her shoulders. Next time you see her, make sure to thank her for all that she does!

Once our friends arrived, we were given wristbands and walked to an area to sign waivers — of course you have to sign a waiver — you are throwing an axe that spins through the air to hopefully slam and embed into the wall, hopefully! After we signed our lives away, the friendly and enthusiastic staff went over all of the axe throwing rules, which are also displayed on a large wall board for reference. It is basically all of the things you need to know to keep you safe during your adventure. Mainly, you have to watch your surroundings, don’t hand the axe off to someone else, two people throw at the same time and don’t retrieve your axe until the other person has finished their throw. No problem! Easy peasy!

Except, all those rules evaporate once you start throwing and that rush of adrenaline surfaces the resting DNA of your axe-wielding Viking ancestors and makes you think you are a badass warrior woman fighting for your life on the field of battle. Actually, I don’t know that I have Viking ancestors but I do know I had some warriors in my family tree. I bet we all do somewhere along the line. This place will let your ancestor-warrior persona fly.

When I first started throwing, I thought I’d never figure out how to get the axe to land on the board. Everyone in my party was hitting the board at least occasionally, if not regularly, except me. Then, after a while, I stopped thinking about how I was throwing or standing and I just focused really hard on that circle in the middle of the board, and then it clicked. I hit a bullseye, then another, then another. Yes, I do apparently have innate axe throwing skilzzz! I just had to dig deep, stop overthinking it, and let my instincts do the work. It was so much fun!

As you can see from this video, my son apparently inherited those ancestor warrior genes too! BULLSEYE! We were built to throw axes, apparently — Get it River!

In each area, there is a list of games you can play with the axe throwing, which kind of reminded me of darts and all the different games you can make out of hitting the board in different places and orders. The games would keep it rotating quickly between players. Our group would just throw multiple times until we were exhausted, then trade. Wonder what four people do while two people are throwing? At Stumpy’s there is so much more! You can snack and drink in the gathering areas between the rooms, which are outfitted with hightop tables, chairs, and comfy couches. Or you can play one of the many other games that are all about the place. There is a shuffleboard table, a giant jenga, a large connect four, and several other game tables spread around the place to keep you occupied.

I would certainly visit this place again. Here are the deets: Stumpy’s has a Hatchet Happy Hour every Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 4-6 pm, where admission is just $20 per person for an hour of playtime. Reservations are highly recommended. Regular price admission is $25 per person for an hour of gaming and hours are Wednesday-Thursday 4-10pm, Friday 4-11pm, Saturday 2-11pm and Sunday 2-8pm.

I am really looking forward to doing this again with a group of friends. I am thinking … women warrior girls night! I call Boudica, the warrior Queen of Iceni!

Springfield Tour of Homes 2022

Home Tours are my jam for so many reasons.

I love the character of historic homes built in a time when creativity was key and building products and techniques were focused on craftsmanship. I love the little special details like a milk door, a carved surround on a fireplace, or stained glass house numbers on a window above a door. I love the evident care put into these homes by their owners who safeguard historic elements while also modernizing the home with their own personal style. Plus, at heart, I am a Looky-Lou. Some of you relate to that, I know you do! I was a Looky-Lou before I heard the term for the first time on Portlandia. Curiosity abounds and drives me towards the unknown of a historic home tour. I can not resist!

The 43rd Annual Springfield Tour of Homes is this weekend, May 14-15 from 12-5pm. This year will feature six beautiful historic homes and two lovely gardens. I have searched everywhere to find out where the houses and gardens are located but I guess they are keeping it a secret until the day of the tour. That is fun too, I suppose.

We do know one historic location! On Saturday, you can tour Bethel Baptist Institutional Church (215 Bethel Baptist Street) as they will be hosting an Open House that one day of the tour. Bethel Baptist is the oldest Baptist congregation in the state of Florida, founded in 1838. The building on tour was constructed after the Great Fire of 1901 destroyed the former structure and most of Downtown Jacksonville. It really is a special treat to be able to visit this historic African American church, not only because of the beauty of its architecture and construction, but mostly because it is filled with so much of our city’s rich history and culture.

Bethel Baptist Institutional Church, Jacksonville, Florida, historic photo

Reserve early bird tickets for $15 online before the tour at Springfieldtour.com. Or pay $20 on the day of the event. Either way, you have to pick up your tickets and the tour map at the SPAR Headquarters (1321 North Main St).

SPAR members get an extra discount. Not a member? Learn more about SPAR Council. Springfield Preservation and Revitalization (SPAR) is “the non-profit neighborhood membership organization that aims to enhance and preserve the historic Springfield neighborhood.” Supporting local historic preservation groups is an important part of living in or playing in a historic district. These organizations protect and promote their neighborhoods, which increases home and business value, boosts tourism, and helps make them the best places to live and play in Northeast Florida.

Bicycles parked under a tree Jacksonville, Florida

My favorite way to experience any home tour is by bike! It really is the best way to see the full beauty of a neighborhood. Ideally you could walk the tour but most tour stops are too far away to leisurely walk the whole tour in a day. Just imagine bicycling down historic streets, shaded by old live oak trees, the wind blowing through your hair, catching the scent of jasmine vines. You can even strap on a small cooler with lunch and drinks and have a short picnic in one of the local parks. If you want to join a bike group, SPAR is offering a special bike tour on May 14 from 1-4pm. Hosted by the wonderful Leigh Burdett of e2ride bike tours, visitors will be guided along a special route that includes not only the homes on the Tour but also highlights other interesting historical locations in the neighborhood. Leigh is a great storyteller - you won’t regret going on a tour with her.

Can’t wait to see you and my other Looks-Lou friends soon!

Biking Riverside

I would be remiss if I didn’t redirect to my first blog, Engines Off. Back when I was working a demanding job as the Executive Director of Riverside Avondale Preservation, spending countless hours at City Hall, carting two kids to school, tennis lessons, and all their other extracurricular activities, I had the brilliant idea to to create an experiment. Could I give up my car and for a full year and just ride a bike everywhere? Would that even be possible in Jacksonville?

The answer is YES! I did it and I have the emotional scars to prove it. Actually, it was a great year, full of surprises. I learned new things about myself and my kids, I enjoyed hitching rides with friends on rainy days, and I learned to stop and smell the roses, literally. The summers were tough because of the heat and the challenge of traveling between meetings without walking into one soaked in sweat (always carry a towel and a change of clothes). However, it was nice to bring everything closer to home and to simplify my life and that of the children. We walked to school every morning, created a greater connection between us, and we all experienced our neighborhood through a different lens. Want to know more about my journey? Check out Engines Off to learn more!