History in Pictures: The Jacksonville Terminal
For decades, it was the gateway to Florida and the largest passenger rail station south of Washington, DC. With over 2,000 employees, it was also one of Jacksonville's largest employers. Unfortunately, they say good things must come to an end. Today, Metro Jacksonville shares a visual timeline of the rise and fall of downtown's train station: The Jacksonville Terminal.
The old Jacksonville Terminal station, built in 1898, around 1910. The current Jacksonville Terminal building was completed in 1919.
State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, https://floridamemory.com/items/show/30411
How we travel throughout the city has dramatically changed since the 1919 opening of the Jacksonville Terminal.
State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, https://floridamemory.com/items/show/142621
A true intermodal transportation center: Railroad Row's West Bay Street, just outside of the new Jacksonville Terminal, in 1921. Rail passengers arriving to Jacksonville, transferred to Jacksonville Traction Company streetcars to gain access to neighborhoods throughout the city. This photograph also captures the Terminal Hotel at the intersection of Bay and Johnson Streets. The Terminal Hotel was an example of early 20th century Transit Oriented Development (TOD).
State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, https://floridamemory.com/items/show/142529
Streetcars line Bay Street to pick up and drop off riders at the Jacksonville Terminal in 1921.
State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, https://floridamemory.com/items/show/142530
From left to right: An aerial of the Brooklyn neighborhood, McCoys Creek, Jacksonville Terminal and Railroad Row District during the 1920s.
State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, https://floridamemory.com/items/show/142389
The Jacksonville Terminal concourse in 1921.
State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, https://floridamemory.com/items/show/32440
The Jacksonville Terminal concourse in 1921.
State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, https://floridamemory.com/items/show/32441
The Atlantic Coast Line engine 1723 at the Jacksonville Terminal. This locomotive was built by the Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1921 and scrapped on November 16, 1925.
State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, https://floridamemory.com/items/show/146893
Inside the Jacksonville Terminal's main waiting room in 1921.
State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, https://floridamemory.com/items/show/32443
Segregated waiting room at the Jacksonville Terminal in 1921.
State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, https://floridamemory.com/items/show/32442
Mrs. and Mr. Thomas Alva Edison on the back of a train at the Jacksonville Terminal in 1930.
Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, https://floridamemory.com/items/show/35515
Seaboard Air Line Railroad's locomotive 3006 "Silver Meteor". The locomotive's first run was in February 1939.
State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, https://floridamemory.com/items/show/32426
President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1944, arriving at the Jacksonville Terminal.
State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, https://floridamemory.com/items/show/31954
The Jacksonville Terminal in February 1954.
State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, https://floridamemory.com/items/show/53097
Life in Jim Crow Era Jacksonville: Interior of a segregated passenger railroad car in 1948. The "Colored" section is located in the rear of the car.
State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, https://floridamemory.com/items/show/52962
Seaboard Jacksonville Terminal engine 30 on April 16, 1948. State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, https://floridamemory.com/items/show/52968
An Atlantic Coast Line train (503) at the Jacksonville Terminal in 1960.
State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, https://floridamemory.com/items/show/7752
Last run of the Florida East Coast Railway passenger trains on July 31, 1968.
State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, https://floridamemory.com/items/show/26060
The remaining portion of the 1898 railroad depot on Bay Street in the early 1970s.
State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, https://floridamemory.com/items/show/39123
The closed Jacksonville Terminal in ruins, during the late 1970s.
State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, https://floridamemory.com/items/show/64672
Aerial view of the closed Jacksonville Terminal and what remained of LaVilla's Railroad Row district in the late 1970s.
State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, https://floridamemory.com/items/show/142022
July 1987 aerial view of the Prime Osborn Convention Center (former Jacksonville Terminal).
State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, https://floridamemory.com/items/show/15969
The interior of the main waiting room in 2007. Photograph courtesy of Metro Jacksonville.
Metro Jacksonville's Ocklawaha explores the terminal's hidden underground tunnels in 2008.
What's left of Railroad Row's Terminal Hotel in 2010. Photograph courtesy of Metro Jacksonville.
General Information
Name: Jacksonville Terminal
Year constructed: 1917-1919
Architect: Kenneth M. Murchison - New York
Terminal Facts:
1. During it's heyday, it handled as many as 142 trains and 20,000 passengers a day.
2. It was Jacksonville's third "Union Terminal".
3. The architectural design is borrowed from New York's Penn Station (demolished).
4. The interior features a 75-foot barrel vaulted ceiling.
5. The last passenger train rolled out on January 3, 1974.
6. The restoration to convert the facility into a convention center was started in 1985.
Article by Ennis Davis