“This picture was taken from the Mayflower Hotel looking East to Northeast.  Almost all the buildings you see in this picture have been torn down.  The first street you can see in the foreground is Hogan.  About 1955.”  LS

Actually quite a few of the buildings in the upper left half of the photograph are still standing in one form or another but the majority of the buildings in the lower right half of the image age long gone.  Of particular note is the Hotel Seminole with its roof top sign advertising ’100% Air Conditioned’.

“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.

“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.

“A close up of downtown in the late 1940’s.  The photo was taken looking South & East.”  LS

An interesting aerial image of downtown Jacksonville with small typed labels scotch taped to the surface of the print identifying existing roads, locations and buildings built years later that have taken the place of several that are shown in this photograph.  Loyd Sandgren never gave me the impression that he was particularly nostalgic about the changes he saw in Jacksonville during his 30 plus years documenting the ebb and flow of the city but he was very conscious of the scenes he had captured that in his later years only existed in his photographs.

Another photo from the Loyd Sandgren Collection of the McLanahan Amoco Service station located at Main Street and Beaver Street.  A couple recognizable buildings peak up from the downtown skyline.  I particularly like the advertising sign on the wall to the left.

The billboard has a particular connection to me although it predates me by a few years.  It advertises for Amaco gas but at the bottom of the billboard is the line “Don’t Miss 12-Hour Grand Prix for Amoco Trophy…Sebring, Florida. Sat., March 23rd.”  From my research this would date the photo from 1957.  The race was won by a Maserati 450s co-driven by Jean Behra and Juan Manuel Fangio and the second place finishing Maserati 300s co-driven by Stirling Moss and Harry Schell.  Also listed as a possible driver in the second place car was Carol Shelby although he never drove in the race. Those are some heavy hitters in the racing world. I first went to Sebring in 1960 as an infant while my father worked on the medical team there.

“This is an extreme wide angle camera, 110 degrees.  Picture taken in front of Brown’s Camera Store, 118 West Bay St.  The Seminole Hotel, middle top.  About 1958.”  LS

I don’t know exactly what camera Loyd Sandgren used for this shot.  I’ve seen the negatives and it was shot on 120 mm roll film.  My guess is that Brown’s Camera had the camera in their shop and he took it out to play with and shot a couple of rolls of film with it.  This format image only shows up once in his collection of work.  Great looking car!

“The Bisbee-Baldwin real estate Co. on the corner of Forsyth & Pearl St.  In the background you can see the George Washington Hotel, on the extreme left is the post office.  1955.”  LS

This downtown Jacksonville building was built in 1951 and is currently on the market for just shy of a million dollars.

“This picture was taken from Forsyth & Main Streets.  Note the Krystal hamburger place, the Woolworth’s.  See how many people were on the streets then.  1948.”  LS

While looking for another image I came across this great street view of Forsyth Street looking West from Main Street that showed downtown with all it’s theaters, stores and people on the street.  You can see the St. Johns Theatre advertising for the movie My Wild Irish Rose and the Arcade Theatre, shoe stores and tailor shops.  There is the F.W. Woolworth Co. and The Krystal hamburger restaurant on the corner.  The original print is in rough condition but it has survived longer than the businesses and many of the buildings captured in it have.

“This is the way the Woolworth Store looked like just before it opened (note the sign in the windows).  The J.C. Penny store had not moved in.  This was on the corner of Monroe and Hogan Streets.  This was 1954.”  LS

The window signs advertise for the Grand Opening, Wednesday 9 O’Clock, March 23rd.  The building was completed in 1955 and Woolworth’s and Penney’s operated until the mid 1980′s when they both closed at this location.  In the 30 years in between they functioned as part of the core downtown shopping experience.  The Woolworth store was also the site of Civil Rights sit-in’s in the 1960′s.

The Federal Courthouse now occupies this block of downtown Jacksonville.

At the intersection of West Bay Street and Hogan Street.   This is another scene that is long gone from Jacksonville’s downtown.  At the corner is the Greyhound Bar and Package Store with advertising for a dentist’s office on the floor above it.  In the background are the Hotel Aragon and the Hotel George Washington with it’s Christmas Tree looking advertising sign on the roof.  What is particularly fascinating is the copy of the Jacksonville Journal in the rack leaning against the fire hydrant in the foreground of the photograph which allows the image to almost be dated to the exact day it was taken.  The date on the paper can’t be read but the top headline is “President Strozier of FSU Dies”.  FSU’s president Robert Strozier died of a heart attack April 20th, 1960 while in Chicago on a speaking engagement.  The Jacksonville Journal was Jacksonville’s afternoon paper while The Florida Times-Union was the morning paper so it is likely that Strozier’s death was reported on the same day that he died.  The other headline is “Ike May Cancel ROK Visit, New Riots Sweep Country”.  ROK stood for the Republic of Korea, now better known as South Korea and it was in the middle of riots that would force the country’s president to step down and go into exile the same month.

The BB&T Tower now occupies this corner of the intersection and across the street to the right stands the Florida Bank and Bank of America Tower.  The Skyway track runs down West Bay Street from the left and turns up Hogan Street at this intersection.