A transaction taking place at the ticket window of the Greyhound Bus station in downtown Jacksonville. I’d place this photograph from the late 1940′s or early 1950′s and it was probably the Bay and Hogan Street location which predated the current Greyhound station downtown. Great informational signage.
Tags: advertising, bus, bus station, Greyhound, historic photograph, man, ticket window, tickets, vintage photography, woman
“Here is a picture of the crowd at the Miss Jacksonville Contest of 1954. The contest was held in the Palace Theatre. Note the young photographer near center. People were pretty well dressed compared with today.” LS
Anyone recognize the young photographer wielding the Speed Graphic in the crowd?
Tags: audience, crowd, historic photographs, men, Miss Jacksonville, Palace Theatre, photographer, speed graphic, vintage photography, women
A nice action photo of three boats from Jacksonville’s Borum Boat Company in formation as they skim the surface of the St Johns River. These wood runabouts had great lines and borrowed their distinctive fins from the cars of the late 1950′s when these boats were being made. You can find more information about Borum Boats at this previous post.
Tags: boating, boats, Borum, Borum Boat Company, historic photogaphy, men, St. Johns River, vintage photograph, wood boat, wormen
“The Levy’s store in downtown Jacksonville, 1955. Note on the right was the Kodak store, the tall building on the right was the Greenleaf Building. All buildings still stand but all the names and businesses have changed.” LS
Judging by the station wagon on Adams Street I would say this is more likely the 1960′s but take away the building awnings and change some signage and this corner of Adams and Hogan Streets looks pretty much the same today.
Tags: Adams Street, building, downtown, historic photograph, hogan street, Kodak, Levy's, vintage photography
“Here is a picture of where the Windsor Hotel was. Today, the bottom right is where the Ball Building is. The big parking lot is where the Woolworth Store is and also on the left is where the Robert Meyer Hotel stands. The middle left is where the city Electric Building is, it was the Independent Ins. Co. 1951.” LS
Looking at the photos of downtown from Loyd Sandgren’s collection makes me realize how fleeting so many things in the history of the city really are. The buildings that occupy the city are often just temporary occupants of a particular plot of real estate. Structures that we view as permanent were built for a specific purpose at a particular point in time and when they becomes obsolete they enter a tenuous period where they are simply viewed as old. The lucky ones that are so unwanted that they are left neglected sometimes get a second life when their unique architecture or character is rediscovered after a period of being out of circulation. Others occupy a desirable location and are demolished to make way for the latest new project. This photograph illustrates the full spectrum of downtown’s evolution. In the last 100 years this particular parking lot has housed The Windsor Hotel, a replacement for the original structure that burned down in the 1901 fire. It was demolished in the 1950 and the lot was used as a parking lot. In 1954 the Woolworth’s and Penny’s opened for business facing the Hogan Street side of the lot and in 1959 The Robert Meyer Hotel opened on the back portion of the lot. Those made way for the new Federal Courthouse which opened for business in 2003. Across the street is Hemming plaza and many of the surrounding buildings have been there for most of the last 100 years, having been preserved and eventually repurposed.
Tags: cars, Cohen Brothers, Federal Courthouse, Hemming Plaza, historic photography, parking, Penny, Robert Meyer, Seminole Club, skyline, St. James, vintage photograph, Woolworth
This is another photo by Loyd Sandgren that he took of Jacksonville’s Olympic Weightlifter Joe Dube’ putting on a demonstration for a crowd at the old bandshell at Jacksonville Beach. Probably shot in the 1960′s. This was from a group of photographs owned by Joe Dube’ that were shot by Sandgren who covered Dube’ before and after his medal winning performance in the Mexico City Olympics in 1968.
Tags: audience, Bandshell, crowd, historic photograph, jacksonville beach, Joe Dube, Olympics, vintage photography, weightlifting
“This was the 100 block of West Bay St. On the left was the Mal Haughton & Co. Then the Mock Furniture Co. Then Brown’s Camera Store, it started in 1916, then one of the offices of Stockton, Whatley & Davin Co. The 50’s.” LS
Loyd Sandgren started working as a photographer for Brown’s Camera store after he left the Navy in the 1940′s. He also did photography for Stockton, Whatley & Davin, often flying around the state to photograph their real estate ventures. A parking lot and a small office building now occupies this block of Bay Street. Here is another post showing the view from in front of Brown’s Camera looking North to the other side of Bay Street. The Bank of America tower now covers most of this side of the road.
Tags: Bank of America, Bay Street, Browns Camera, downtown, historic photograph, Mal Haughton & Co, Mock Furniture, Stockton Whatley & Davin, vintage photography
“The interesting thing about this picture is the man that owned it had to move away and he said to me, “it’s a great house and you should have it.” I liked it, as it had 4 bedrooms and looked like a house from the North. My wife didn’t like it that much and the house was very expensive, $13,500 so we let it pass. It was on San Marco lake.” LS
The photo is undated but I’m guessing it is from the late 40′s early 50′s. I drove past it the other day and it looks almost unchanged from this photo except it now has a solid driveway and a bay window replaces the flush windows to the left of the front door. I would guess it would sell for a little more than what Loyd Sandgren had the option to buy it for if it went on the market today.
Tags: historic photography, home, house, Lake Marco, neighborhood, San Marco, vintage photograph
An early 1950′s view of the Mathews Bridge shot from Arlington looking North West toward Jacksonville’s Talleyrand area. The 7736 feet long by 58 feet wide steel bridge first opened to traffic April 15, 1953 and is celebrating it’s 60th. anniversary connecting downtown Jacksonville to the Arlington neighborhood and opening the door to the commercial development of the area East of the St. Johns River.
Tags: Arlington, bridge, historic photograph, Mathews Bridge, St. Johns River, Talleyrand, vintage photography
“Here is tow ships that were at our base. This was in 1944 and they were about as big as we could handle at the time.” LS
Another early photo from U.S. Naval Frontier Base, Mayport, Florida. I could not track down any solid information about this particular ship but if any Navy Ship experts out there can add more specific details, they would be welcomed.
Update: Larry Lyons came through with this link which fills in a little more information about the ship.
Additional Update: Don Smith also added some additional insight about this particular ship which was build here in Jacksonville. See his comments and link below.
Tags: historic photograph, Mayport, Naval Frontier Base, navy, ship, vintage photography
Follow me:
