Stories Behind the Concrete Slabs of Jax: Part I
A new Metro Jacksonville series that highlights the lost stories behind downtown Jacksonville's surface parking lots.
Unfortunately, some parts of downtown Jacksonville look like a devastated war zone. Once filled with life, building demolitions over the years have left sections of the urban core littered with a weird, eerie mix of building foundations serving as surface parking lots. What was "Railroad Row" may be the largest cluster of dead building foundations still standing.
Railroad Row was Jacksonville's answer to NYC's SOHO, Atlanta's Castleberry Hill, and Dallas' West End. The Row was a four-block district along West Bay Street featuring a compact mix of warehouses, wholesale businesses, hotels and restaurants catering to the nearby Jacksonville Terminal Company railroad depot.
By the time the Jacksonville Terminal opened in 1919, West Bay Street, between Broad and Lee Streets was anchored with wholesale grocery businesses, such as the J.G. Permenter Company, C.W. Zaring & Company, C.M. Lewis Company, Baker and Holmes Company, and the C.E. Guller Company. Located along the yards of the Jacksonville Terminal Company, all received rail shipments of flour and feed from the North for distribution into the State of Florida. Several small eateries and hotels were scattered amongst the wholesale distribution hubs.
Most of Railroad Row was haphazardly demolished between the late 1970s and early 1990s, with the closing of the railroad terminal and relocation of industry from the downtown core. While Railroad Row didn't last long enough to the era when American downtowns become popular again, several building foundations still stand.
Here's a look at five interesting sites and the stories of the businesses behind them.
1. Hotel DeSoto
"We pay no graft to get business, but give you a clean place to stay" - W.E. Garrett, Hotel DeSoto manager in 1922.
Courtesy of https://www.whitewayrealty.com/Home/historical-post/famous-hotels-of-old-jacksonville
Located opposite the Jacksonville Terminal, Hotel DeSoto was one of several small hotels along Railroad Row. According to a 1922 St. Petersburg Times advertisement, rates were as low as $1.50 for a room without a bathroom and $2.00 for a room with a bathroom.
Sanborn map illustrating the location and footprint of the Hotel DeSoto and 928 West Bay Street.
On the bottom floor, facing the streetcar line at 928 West Bay Street, Delman's Cafe was a popular dining spot for guests. By 1926, the space had become the Peter Mano's Restaurant. The DeSoto Hotel operated from 1921 until 1966. It was demolished in 1977. Today, grass grows over the floors where local cuisine was once served and where tourists slept.
2. Southern Ice Company/Atlantic Cold Storage
Sanborn Map illustrating the cold storge building's footprint on the left.
20 South Davis Street was originally built as an ice manufacturing plant for the Southern Ice Company. It was eventually acquired by the Atlantic Ice & Coal Corporation. Covering its entire parcel, the three story brick structure included cold storage space, a 125-ton ice machine, and a 60-ton ice machine on the first floor. Freezing tanks and a condenser room were located above. Companies utilizing the cold storage space included Soud Brothers Wholesale Meats, Jax Food Products Corporation and the Bananza Southeast Inc. ice cream company. All that remains today is massive chunks of foundation where grass still struggles to grow.
An Atlantic Company (formerly Atlantic Ice & Coal) advertisement highlighting the Davis Street cold storage warehouse.
Chunks of concrete slab from the Southern Ice Company's engine room. 100 years ago, 125-ton and 60-ton ice machines stood in this spot.
3. The Palace Hotel/The Surplus Store
During the early 20th century, 615-625 West Bay Street was occupied by the Palace Hotel. At street level, there were a number of retail storefronts, including a Coney Island Restaurant.
Sanborn map illustrating the location of the Palace Hotel/The Surplus Store.
In 1948, Leon Rosenburg started the Surplus Store in this building. His business grew to take up this entire building and an adjacent structure next door. However, Rosenburg was known as being a pack rat who had trouble parting with items for sale in his shops.
"Denise Leigh visited Rosenberg's West Bay Street shop, the Surplus Store, with her daughter and husband. The family was willing to buy, but Rosenberg wasn't eager to sell.
"Everything we looked at and we were interested in, he said he needed to do an appraisal," Leigh said. "Pretty quickly into the visit we realized he wasn't going to part with anything. I think it was his playground." - source
Rosenburg made most of his money through real estate investment and the stock market, so he could afford to be stingy with his items. He operated what grew to 40,000-square-feet of retail space for 54 years, until his death in February 2002. A year later, his son attorney Mark Rosenburg, demolished the building and the former Finkelstein's department store next door. In a 2003 Florida Times-Union article, Rosenburg stated, "They were in really, really bad shape. I wanted to go ahead and get them down."
4. Jacksonville Paper Company
This foundation was the original 1919 site of Clifford Graham McGehee's Jacksonville Paper Company. By the time the McGehee family sold the company in the mid-1960s, it had become the Southeast's largest supplier of paper and paper products.Clifford McGehee's sons, Tom and Frank, immediately opened Mac Papers, after selling Jacksonville Paper. Mac Paper is now the largest supplier of printing paper and envelopes in the Southeastern United States and is celebrating its 50th year in business. The company's plant and offices are now on Philips Highway, just south of San Marco.
The Jacksonville Paper Company's original location (left of Crane Company) is illustrated in the center of this Sanborn Map.
5. E.H. Thompson Company, Inc.
In 1912, Earle Thompson established his food service distribution company near the train station, so that customers coming to town could just walk across the street to make their purchases. Located in the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company's former warehouse at 734 West Bay Street in 1950, the company had relocated into a larger structure at 708 West Bay Street by 1970. When the Jacksonville Terminal opened in 1919, this building housed the Jax Press Company. By 1950, it was occupied by Clarence W. Zaring & Company. Zaring was a wholesale grocer and flour jobbing business that purchased flour and feed from Pillsbury Flour Mills in Enid, OK.
Sanborn Map illustrating the location of C.W. Zaring & Company at the intersection of West Bay and Jefferson Streets. Many of these structures were built over the original bed of McCoys Creek.
The foundation from both of these turn-of-the-century warehouses lies just south of the JTA Skyway's Jefferson Street Station. While E.H. Thompson Company's original downtown buildings no longer exist, the company (now at 8081 Philips Highway, remains one the leading foodservice suppliers in North Florida and Georgia.
A drain over the original bed of McCoys Creek.
Article by Ennis Davis, AICP. Contact Ennis at edavis@moderncities.com