8 Facts You Didn't Know About Our Beaches!
Downtown isn't the only neighborhood in town that's interesting. Here's eight facts about the beaches that you probably didn't already know.
1. Mineral City
Unknown to most, Ponte Vedra Beach was once a place of heavy industry. The posh community was referred to as Mineral City in the early 1900s, due to titanium, zircon and rutile being recovered and extracted from the sand in its beaches in significant amounts. Mineral City therefore acted almost exclusively as mining grounds for quite some time. This business was profitable due to World War I. Titanium was an extremely important mineral at this time, as it was used in poison gases. Other minerals in the area were used to make metal for weapons.
The mill of Buckman and Prichard, Inc. in Mineral City. Courtesy of the State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/126342#sthash.q9DrKkaw.dpuf
The mining efforts here were largely under control of popular mayor Walter Phillips, who worked alongside Henry Holland Buckman (the Buckman Bridge's namesake) and George Pritchard, for Buckman and Pritchard Inc. In 1921, Buckman and Pritchard's mining rights were sold to the National Lead Company.
After the war however, mineral demand dropped significantly, causing the National Lead Company to change its business focus to building a resort community named after the Spanish city of Pontevedra, Galicia. They brought in the Telfair Stockton Company to help them begin their real estate developing. Their focus was on resort-style communities, with golf courses and dog parks. There developments included Ponte Vedra Inn & Club in 1928.
2. Beach racing capitol of the world
Courtesy of Deadly Dave's Blog - Sharing the lost stories of early American motorcycling at https://dlmracing.blogspot.com/2013/06/jonathan-yerkes-bert-camplejohn.html
It was once believed that Jacksonville Beach, then known as Pablo Beach, would become the racing capitol of the world. In 1903, Florida's first automobile club was established in Jacksonville and by 1906, automobiles were racing up and down the area's beaches.
At the time, its hard packed sands made it an extremely popular area for auto racing and spectating. In April 1906, racer Joe Lander of Atlanta would break the existing world record, driving 5 miles in 4 minutes and 55 seconds. Lander drove a Thomas stock car on the Atlantic-Pablo beaches course, which began at the world famous Hotel Continental. Races would continue to happen on a smaller scale, as the automobile grew in popularity as the "rich man's" toy. There was another large race held in July of 1910, and another, in March 1911. For this race, however, monster cars showed up, and attendance skyrocketed, as people wanted to see if these bigger cars were capable of beating record speeds of 75 miles per hour. There would be one more race held before all racing was suspended as the First World War broke out.
Jacksonville Beach is a crowded parking lot in May 1973. Prior to 1979, cars were allowed on the beach. State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, https://floridamemory.com/items/show/95046
After the war, Daytona's popularity in the auto racing world grew and by the late 1950s, Bill France, Sr. and NASCAR had created the Daytona International Speedway to replace beach racing. In 1979, auto driving in general became officially prohibited in Jacksonville Beach.
3. Rum Row
"Rum Row" was a prohibition-era term that was coined to refer to a long line of ships loaded with liquor and anchored beyond the maritime limit for the United States; approximately 13 miles off-shore. Cargo ships were sent out of major ports to these freight ships, where they would load up on alcohol and sneak it back into port. Jacksonville was a key Rum Row destination.
Due to Florida's proximity to islands in the Caribbean, cities like Jacksonville became some of the earliest Rum Row destinations on the Atlantic coast. Often, Caribbean rum, Scotch whiskey, and English gin were imported from the Bohemian port of Nassau and snuck up into rum row, where it was easy to move up anywhere on the east coast from there. This would lead way to what was known as the "Great Whiskey Way."
Image courtesy of https://www.cowart.info/blog/?m=200712&paged=2
Popular rum runners of the era included "The Real McCoy," William Fredrick McCoy. Originally a Jacksonville boatyard owner, he quickly rose to gain control of Atlantic Ocean rum-running between the Bahamas and Canada. McCoy began to smuggle whisky into the U.S., traveling from Nassau and Bimini in the Bahamas to the east coast of the United States, spending most time dealing on a rum run off Long Island. After a few successful trips smuggling liquor off the coast of the United States, Bill McCoy had enough money to buy the schooner, which he placed under British registry. Another popular runner was John Hysler, known as the Whisky King of Duval. He bootlegged whiskey and lead runs of "hooch" to Mineral City (now Ponte Vedra Beach), and was also allegedly connected to Al Capone. Also known as the "Liquor czar," Hysler died in a 1928 Acosta Bridge shootout with customs after picking up 30 sacks of red whiskey at Mineral City.
McCoy, in his autobiography, entitled The Real McCoy, explains what drew him into this illegal trade. "I went" he says, into rum running "for the cash and I stayed in it for four years for the fun it gave me." In those years he made hundreds of thousands of dollars, and by the time he was arrested he had personally delivered more than 700,000 cases of liquor to the U.S. He wrote, "there was money in the game -- lots of it if you could keep it. Beyond that there was all the kick of gambling and the thrill of sport, and besides these, there was open sea and the boom of the wind against full sails, dawn coming out of the ocean, and nights under rocking stars. These caught and held me most of all." source: https://www.oceannavigator.com/content/smuggler-kicks-st-pierre-boom
4. Little Coney Island
Looking down a roller coaster at the Ocean View amusement park. Photo courtesy of State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, https://floridamemory.com/items/show/31004
The amusement park scene came to beaches in the early 1900s with the construction of The Pavilion. The company responsible would be the Pablo Power and Development Company, whose president was Charles Henry Mann, and Englishmen who had migrated to Jacksonville in the late 19th century.
The Pavilion was huge; covering nearly an entire block, near what is now First Street. The Pavilion would become very popular among both locals and tourists, and featured attractions such as a bowling alley, dance floor, swim room, concession stands, stores, and roller skating rinks. Builders of the Pavilion wanted to continue to grow the area and entice people to visit, so they tried mimicking what they saw in New York; adding hotels, bath houses, and beer halls. By 1916, the area was being referred to as "Little Coney Island."
The Ocean View amusement park on July 3, 1949. Photo courtesy of State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, https://floridamemory.com/items/show/67597
However, Little Coney Island aged badly, and quickly, due to its wooden structures facing constant ocean winds. Around 1925, W.H. Adams created the Ocean View amusement park, which tried to be a better, bigger Little Coney island. With all this going on, and with an issue in contracting, Little Coney Island was torn down that same year.
5. Hotel Continental in Atlantic Beach
Henry Flagler's Hotel Continental was just north of what eventually became the Beaches Town Center. Courtesy of https://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~flbakehs/ContinentalHotelAtlanticBeach1900.jpg
In 1900, after extending a branch of his railroad to Mayport, Henry Flagler built the massive Hotel Continental, on the line between Pablo Beach (now Jacksonville Beach) and Mayport. Flagler intended for the hotel to be a summer resort, partly due to its location. The hotel itself was a large, yellow, colonial-style building with green blinds. It featured 250 rooms for guests, and nearly 60 bathrooms. In addition, there were large parlors, a six-story rotunda, and a dining room that seated 350 people. There was also a dance pavilion, fishing pier, tennis courts, a riding stable, and a 9-hole golf course for guests’ entertainment.
The land surrounding the hotel was subdivided and sold for summer homes. There were promotional activities outside of the hotel such as auto races and air shows. The Hotel Continental also had a bowling alley, a depot, and even quarters for servants to sleep. After years of losing money, Flagler sold the Continental to the Atlantic Beach Corporation in 1913 and changed the name to the Atlantic Beach Hotel. With few people willing to visit during World War I, the Atlantic Beach Corporation went bankrupt. Not long after, the hotel would burn to the ground on September 20, 1919.
6. Beach Boulevard was a railroad
The depot at Pablo Beach on June 18, 1909. Courtesy of the State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, https://floridamemory.com/items/show/268652 - See more at: https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/268652#sthash.OczWAhcH.dpuf
Today, transit advocates can only wish for a rail line that would efficiently move tourist and residents, back and forth, between downtown Jacksonville and the Beaches. Little do most know that, for 44 years, the congested mess we know as Beach Boulevard, was a rail line.
The rail connection between downtown Jacksonville and the beaches was initially established in 1888 by the Jacksonville, Mayport and Pablo Railroad. In 1899, Henry Flagler's Florida East Coast Railway (FEC) acquired the railroad and eventually extended it north to Mayport, transporting coal and tourists.
The FEC gave up on its beaches rail line in 1932. A lethal combination of the Great Depression and cars and roads becoming more popular, ultimately led to the railroad's demise. After abandoning the railroad branch, the FEC conveyed its right-of-way to the state of Florida. In 1949, the state completed its conversion of the old railroad into a new road now known as Beach Boulevard.
Flying over Beach Boulevard in 2012.
7. Manhattan Beach
The 447-acre Hanna Park is one of Jacksonville's most visited public spaces. A little known fact is that the property was also home to Manhattan Beach, Florida's first beach for African Americans during segregation. Manhattan Beach was established by Henry Flagler and his Florida East Coast Railroad company around 1900, for the African American workers that they employed.
Hanna Park today
The park flourished for many years, until about 1940, when it was superseded by another destination, Amelia Island's American Beach. A few years later, the land was donated by Winthrop Bancroft, who required in exchange, the name be changed to Kathryn Abbey Hanna. Hanna was a teacher and author from Chicago, who moved to Florida and served on the board of Parks and Historical Places. During the 1970s, the City of Jacksonville acquired additional property, expanding Kathryn Abbey Hanna Park.
Hanna Park today
8. Revolt forms Neptune Beach
The Beaches Town Center area in 1918. Courtesy of https://www.historicaltextarchive.com/sections.php?action=read&artid=447
Neptune Beach was originally part of Jacksonville Beach. Neptune Beach’s history dates back to 1922, when a local named Dan Wheeler, built himself a train station. Wheeler had a home in what is now Atlantic Beach, and would have to walk all the way from Mayport each day. Wheeler’s friend in the railroad industry told him that if he built his own station, the trains would have to stop there. He nicknamed it “Neptune.”
This portion of the beach succeeded in 1931, and was named after this little train stop. The people of Neptune beach separated from the rest of the beach during the tax revolt. Times had gotten hard due to a land book collapse and as a result, tax revenue had dropped. The people of what would be known as Neptune felt that they were paying taxes and not getting commensurate benefits. They won the vote to separate 113 to 31.
Downtown Neptune Beach after WWII. Courtesy of https://www.historicaltextarchive.com/sections.php?action=read&artid=447
Article by Kristen Pickrell and Ennis Davis, AICP. Contact Kristen at kpickrell@metrojacksonville.com. Contact Ennis at edavis@moderncities.com
Unknown to most, Ponte Vedra Beach was once a place of heavy industry. The posh community was referred to as Mineral City in the early 1900s, due to titanium, zircon and rutile being recovered and extracted from the sand in its beaches in significant amounts. Mineral City therefore acted almost exclusively as mining grounds for quite some time. This business was profitable due to World War I. Titanium was an extremely important mineral at this time, as it was used in poison gases. Other minerals in the area were used to make metal for weapons.
The mill of Buckman and Prichard, Inc. in Mineral City. Courtesy of the State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/126342#sthash.q9DrKkaw.dpuf
The mining efforts here were largely under control of popular mayor Walter Phillips, who worked alongside Henry Holland Buckman (the Buckman Bridge's namesake) and George Pritchard, for Buckman and Pritchard Inc. In 1921, Buckman and Pritchard's mining rights were sold to the National Lead Company.
After the war however, mineral demand dropped significantly, causing the National Lead Company to change its business focus to building a resort community named after the Spanish city of Pontevedra, Galicia. They brought in the Telfair Stockton Company to help them begin their real estate developing. Their focus was on resort-style communities, with golf courses and dog parks. There developments included Ponte Vedra Inn & Club in 1928.
2. Beach racing capitol of the world
Courtesy of Deadly Dave's Blog - Sharing the lost stories of early American motorcycling at https://dlmracing.blogspot.com/2013/06/jonathan-yerkes-bert-camplejohn.html
It was once believed that Jacksonville Beach, then known as Pablo Beach, would become the racing capitol of the world. In 1903, Florida's first automobile club was established in Jacksonville and by 1906, automobiles were racing up and down the area's beaches.
At the time, its hard packed sands made it an extremely popular area for auto racing and spectating. In April 1906, racer Joe Lander of Atlanta would break the existing world record, driving 5 miles in 4 minutes and 55 seconds. Lander drove a Thomas stock car on the Atlantic-Pablo beaches course, which began at the world famous Hotel Continental. Races would continue to happen on a smaller scale, as the automobile grew in popularity as the "rich man's" toy. There was another large race held in July of 1910, and another, in March 1911. For this race, however, monster cars showed up, and attendance skyrocketed, as people wanted to see if these bigger cars were capable of beating record speeds of 75 miles per hour. There would be one more race held before all racing was suspended as the First World War broke out.
Jacksonville Beach is a crowded parking lot in May 1973. Prior to 1979, cars were allowed on the beach. State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, https://floridamemory.com/items/show/95046
After the war, Daytona's popularity in the auto racing world grew and by the late 1950s, Bill France, Sr. and NASCAR had created the Daytona International Speedway to replace beach racing. In 1979, auto driving in general became officially prohibited in Jacksonville Beach.
3. Rum Row
"Rum Row" was a prohibition-era term that was coined to refer to a long line of ships loaded with liquor and anchored beyond the maritime limit for the United States; approximately 13 miles off-shore. Cargo ships were sent out of major ports to these freight ships, where they would load up on alcohol and sneak it back into port. Jacksonville was a key Rum Row destination.
Due to Florida's proximity to islands in the Caribbean, cities like Jacksonville became some of the earliest Rum Row destinations on the Atlantic coast. Often, Caribbean rum, Scotch whiskey, and English gin were imported from the Bohemian port of Nassau and snuck up into rum row, where it was easy to move up anywhere on the east coast from there. This would lead way to what was known as the "Great Whiskey Way."
Image courtesy of https://www.cowart.info/blog/?m=200712&paged=2
Popular rum runners of the era included "The Real McCoy," William Fredrick McCoy. Originally a Jacksonville boatyard owner, he quickly rose to gain control of Atlantic Ocean rum-running between the Bahamas and Canada. McCoy began to smuggle whisky into the U.S., traveling from Nassau and Bimini in the Bahamas to the east coast of the United States, spending most time dealing on a rum run off Long Island. After a few successful trips smuggling liquor off the coast of the United States, Bill McCoy had enough money to buy the schooner, which he placed under British registry. Another popular runner was John Hysler, known as the Whisky King of Duval. He bootlegged whiskey and lead runs of "hooch" to Mineral City (now Ponte Vedra Beach), and was also allegedly connected to Al Capone. Also known as the "Liquor czar," Hysler died in a 1928 Acosta Bridge shootout with customs after picking up 30 sacks of red whiskey at Mineral City.
McCoy, in his autobiography, entitled The Real McCoy, explains what drew him into this illegal trade. "I went" he says, into rum running "for the cash and I stayed in it for four years for the fun it gave me." In those years he made hundreds of thousands of dollars, and by the time he was arrested he had personally delivered more than 700,000 cases of liquor to the U.S. He wrote, "there was money in the game -- lots of it if you could keep it. Beyond that there was all the kick of gambling and the thrill of sport, and besides these, there was open sea and the boom of the wind against full sails, dawn coming out of the ocean, and nights under rocking stars. These caught and held me most of all." source: https://www.oceannavigator.com/content/smuggler-kicks-st-pierre-boom
4. Little Coney Island
Looking down a roller coaster at the Ocean View amusement park. Photo courtesy of State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, https://floridamemory.com/items/show/31004
The amusement park scene came to beaches in the early 1900s with the construction of The Pavilion. The company responsible would be the Pablo Power and Development Company, whose president was Charles Henry Mann, and Englishmen who had migrated to Jacksonville in the late 19th century.
The Pavilion was huge; covering nearly an entire block, near what is now First Street. The Pavilion would become very popular among both locals and tourists, and featured attractions such as a bowling alley, dance floor, swim room, concession stands, stores, and roller skating rinks. Builders of the Pavilion wanted to continue to grow the area and entice people to visit, so they tried mimicking what they saw in New York; adding hotels, bath houses, and beer halls. By 1916, the area was being referred to as "Little Coney Island."
The Ocean View amusement park on July 3, 1949. Photo courtesy of State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, https://floridamemory.com/items/show/67597
However, Little Coney Island aged badly, and quickly, due to its wooden structures facing constant ocean winds. Around 1925, W.H. Adams created the Ocean View amusement park, which tried to be a better, bigger Little Coney island. With all this going on, and with an issue in contracting, Little Coney Island was torn down that same year.
5. Hotel Continental in Atlantic Beach
Henry Flagler's Hotel Continental was just north of what eventually became the Beaches Town Center. Courtesy of https://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~flbakehs/ContinentalHotelAtlanticBeach1900.jpg
In 1900, after extending a branch of his railroad to Mayport, Henry Flagler built the massive Hotel Continental, on the line between Pablo Beach (now Jacksonville Beach) and Mayport. Flagler intended for the hotel to be a summer resort, partly due to its location. The hotel itself was a large, yellow, colonial-style building with green blinds. It featured 250 rooms for guests, and nearly 60 bathrooms. In addition, there were large parlors, a six-story rotunda, and a dining room that seated 350 people. There was also a dance pavilion, fishing pier, tennis courts, a riding stable, and a 9-hole golf course for guests’ entertainment.
The land surrounding the hotel was subdivided and sold for summer homes. There were promotional activities outside of the hotel such as auto races and air shows. The Hotel Continental also had a bowling alley, a depot, and even quarters for servants to sleep. After years of losing money, Flagler sold the Continental to the Atlantic Beach Corporation in 1913 and changed the name to the Atlantic Beach Hotel. With few people willing to visit during World War I, the Atlantic Beach Corporation went bankrupt. Not long after, the hotel would burn to the ground on September 20, 1919.
6. Beach Boulevard was a railroad
The depot at Pablo Beach on June 18, 1909. Courtesy of the State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory, https://floridamemory.com/items/show/268652 - See more at: https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/268652#sthash.OczWAhcH.dpuf
Today, transit advocates can only wish for a rail line that would efficiently move tourist and residents, back and forth, between downtown Jacksonville and the Beaches. Little do most know that, for 44 years, the congested mess we know as Beach Boulevard, was a rail line.
The rail connection between downtown Jacksonville and the beaches was initially established in 1888 by the Jacksonville, Mayport and Pablo Railroad. In 1899, Henry Flagler's Florida East Coast Railway (FEC) acquired the railroad and eventually extended it north to Mayport, transporting coal and tourists.
The FEC gave up on its beaches rail line in 1932. A lethal combination of the Great Depression and cars and roads becoming more popular, ultimately led to the railroad's demise. After abandoning the railroad branch, the FEC conveyed its right-of-way to the state of Florida. In 1949, the state completed its conversion of the old railroad into a new road now known as Beach Boulevard.
Flying over Beach Boulevard in 2012.
7. Manhattan Beach
The 447-acre Hanna Park is one of Jacksonville's most visited public spaces. A little known fact is that the property was also home to Manhattan Beach, Florida's first beach for African Americans during segregation. Manhattan Beach was established by Henry Flagler and his Florida East Coast Railroad company around 1900, for the African American workers that they employed.
Hanna Park today
The park flourished for many years, until about 1940, when it was superseded by another destination, Amelia Island's American Beach. A few years later, the land was donated by Winthrop Bancroft, who required in exchange, the name be changed to Kathryn Abbey Hanna. Hanna was a teacher and author from Chicago, who moved to Florida and served on the board of Parks and Historical Places. During the 1970s, the City of Jacksonville acquired additional property, expanding Kathryn Abbey Hanna Park.
Hanna Park today
8. Revolt forms Neptune Beach
The Beaches Town Center area in 1918. Courtesy of https://www.historicaltextarchive.com/sections.php?action=read&artid=447
Neptune Beach was originally part of Jacksonville Beach. Neptune Beach’s history dates back to 1922, when a local named Dan Wheeler, built himself a train station. Wheeler had a home in what is now Atlantic Beach, and would have to walk all the way from Mayport each day. Wheeler’s friend in the railroad industry told him that if he built his own station, the trains would have to stop there. He nicknamed it “Neptune.”
This portion of the beach succeeded in 1931, and was named after this little train stop. The people of Neptune beach separated from the rest of the beach during the tax revolt. Times had gotten hard due to a land book collapse and as a result, tax revenue had dropped. The people of what would be known as Neptune felt that they were paying taxes and not getting commensurate benefits. They won the vote to separate 113 to 31.
Downtown Neptune Beach after WWII. Courtesy of https://www.historicaltextarchive.com/sections.php?action=read&artid=447
Article by Kristen Pickrell and Ennis Davis, AICP. Contact Kristen at kpickrell@metrojacksonville.com. Contact Ennis at edavis@moderncities.com