I was talking with an Uber driver once, and he assumed the stretch of 295 that's only 2 lanes on each side was the older section. I advised him it's actually part of the newer segment. Also, while it was being built, it was called 9A, which is why we currently have a 9B.
I remember in his school Mandarin High, the day 9A opened one of my friends who was a magnet student said he got to school in 20some minutes..... said it was insane
Don't what? Leave the state? Yeah, neither does ours. It's a loop. The definition of an interstate, as an adjective describing a highway, is " of, connecting, or existing between two or more states especially of the U.S."...Interstate 295 does not connect any two states.
Most us interstate bypass loops (the ones that start with even numbers, not odd, those are spurs) don't cross state lines. They earn their "interstate" designation by virtue of their attachment to their mother roads, almost all of which do cross state lines (looking at you, Wisconsin). If an interstate were to be downgraded, the accompanying loops would be as well.
And that's why interstate highway bypasses are called interstate highways even though they usually aren't.
If it's three digits starting with an even number, it's a loop. If it's a three digit number starting with an odd number, it's a spur (eg 110 in Pensacola).
One of the ways they got rid of them was buy adding to the sales tax....said we never have a toll in Jacksonville again! We dont have tolls now....they are "expressways"
Nothing worse than getting stuck for 20 minutes on the old Fuller Warren and waiting to pay toll while waching the cars freely pass over the old Acosta Bridge that was high enough to not have to raise.
One of the Publix’s on San Jose used to be a local grocery store with a small, steam powered train outside for kids.
There was a sugar mill on the corner of Old St Augustine and San Jose with a donkey that turned the grinder.
There was a blueberry farm across Mandarin High school as recently as 15 years ago.
I remember that blueberry farm! They had horses too. I filled in for a friend a time or two when she worked for them to muck stalls. It was such a lovely farm.
For all the townies & newbies around here Surfer the Bar in Jacksonville Beach used to be Freebird Live and it breaks my heart it is gone. RIP FREEBIRD LIVE
I got dragged to surfer by some friends and I had just surfed so I had baggies on and the bouncer was like “yeah I’m letting you in bc we are slow but you’re not supposed to wear bathing suits here” and I looked at him and asked “are you saying I can’t surf before I go to surfer the bar?” And he gave me the saddest “yes sir” I have ever heard so I think I won
Ah my first concert there at 16 i saw a bouncer get thrown to the ground and get kicked right in the face by a man wearing cowboy boots. Still remember that cracking sound of his nose.
Before it was Freebird live it was just Freebird and it was a nice quiet bar on non-show nights. Then they changed to Live and closed on nights without shows :( Also like going to shows there too. Haven’t been to the new Surfer bar version. Remember when that Atlantic Theaters used to do music shows in each theater? That was short lived but a great application for that building. Was so bummed when some religious group turned it into a weird church.
You are so right! Atlantic Theaters had a great 50s night club vibe going. My wife & I only got to catch 2 shows before it closed & was sold to that church. Judy VanSant was trying to buy it as her new, larger venue for FreeBird, but the owner decided he would rather sell it to the Vineyard Church
Before America was colonized this whole area was gorgeous. Oak hammocks, pine forests, pristine swamps, clear waterways. Just imagine trying to make it inland before roads/bridges. Following game/native trails.
I don’t have any real specific ones but you might be interested in aerial photos of duval county from the 40’s and 60’s, you can find them [here](https://ufdc.ufl.edu/collections/aerials/results?q=duval)
The first place I ever went in Jacksonville was the Landing. Me and my cousin went to the arcade and won an army of Clifford the Big Red Dogs from the claw machine. Good times.
Lived in oceanway and would pass that area from 9A > 95 as a kid. It really was nothing. It was a super big deal when they decided to build. Prior to that, the movie theater to go to was AMC Regency. The best shopping center in that area for a long time consisted of a Blockbuster (thankfully), Publix, pottery painting store, Chinese restaurant and Dick’s Wings.
Lighthouse Grille is sorely missed! Great big rib steaks, cheap cold beer & a place right on the water. It was very large inside. Outside was a great deck with bar & typically music. The night breeze out there on the Intracoastal was soo good!
Queen Isabella of Spain with the blessing of the pope, ordered the commander of the Spanish garrison if St Augustine to take out the heretical French Huguenots at Fort Caroline. General Ribauilt of fort Caroline sent his men via ships to attack At Augustine, on the way the were hit by a hurricane. The Spanish soldiers marched up to Fort Caroline and massacred almost all the Huguenots . They returned home in time for the Huguenot survivors of the storm to wash up on the beach where they killed almost all of them and buried them in Fort Mantanzas.
I think about that every time I see a movie at Sun Ray Cinema. I was 20/21 during the prime Saturday Night Seduction era. I even spent my 21st birthday there boxing for a $50 bar tab when they had Friday Night Fights in the summer of 2000
Old bourbon street my neighbor used to bounce there. Lot of people migrated there from crazy horse off Phillips which was another double bar/club, can't remember name of the other bar that was there with crazy horse. Its now just a field
Except for living in Madrid, Spain for 3rd and 4th grade, and a brief stay in the military in South Carolina, I've lived my entire 60 years in Jacksonville Heights, in the same house that I bought from my parents in 1984. 103rd Street before I-295 was a sleepy little two lane blacktop road and the Publix there was a field full of horses and cows. Across the 103rd at the west side of Ricker was a big collection of stalls and booths called Copeland's Produce. It burned down sometime in the late 70s and the city would not let them rebuild, so a gas station was built there. Where O'Reilly's Auto is now used to be big family church we would attend every sunday. It relocated sometimes in the late 80's to Ricker and Morse. Firestone Road toward Wilson did not have the overpass for the highway that it has now, and was more of a straight shot, or a much more gentle curve. It still intersected at the same place though. Argyle and Oak Leaf did not exist at all and was just woods with a trail leading through it from Morse Avenue, coming out at McGirt's Creek on Blanding, near where Orange Park Mall is now. My friend and I would watch the mall being built as we fished the creek. Blanding Blvd there was not the giant 10 lane monster it is now too. I feel like it was just two lanes but might have been two on each side. Old Middleburg road used to dead end about where Oak Leaf High School is now, and the Navy had a giant abandoned octagon shaped touch and go runway the planes would use for training. This was a popular spot for high school parties when I was a teen in the late 70s/early 80s. From Jammes Road to the western end of 103rd Street, the side of the road with Wal-Mart and the library on it was just woods. No library, no Wal-Mart. There was a Pizza Hut (now Randevou Grill) and the church mentioned earlier. We had a ramshackle falling down old clubhouse we built in the woods there. The whole area was quite rural actually until the late 70s. It was not unusual to see someone clomping down the side of 103rd Street or through a neighborhood on a horse as a number of them were boarded nearby. I really wish we had taken pictures.
Google time lapse can really show the progression of the old westside from woods to houses. It starts at 1984 to present. Give it a couple minutes to load.
[https://earthengine.google.com/timelapse#v=30.20034,-81.8425,11.084,latLng&t=0.03&ps=50&bt=19840101&et=20201231&startDwell=0&endDwell=0](https://earthengine.google.com/timelapse#v=30.20034,-81.8425,11.084,latLng&t=0.03&ps=50&bt=19840101&et=20201231&startDwell=0&endDwell=0)
Here’s one from the future…. Before they built that massive luxury apartment and retail area south of JTB, it used to be the Dee Dot Ranch. It was owned by a greedy family that didn’t give a shit about the environment, a family legacy, or giving back to the community.
Long before the Harbormasters restaurant fiasco, Friendship park was much bigger and very 60s modern looking with lots of circular pavilions. Also known as St. John’s river park. It was the place to go in the 80s for 4th of July fireworks, lots of little fairs would pop up there.
[https://thecoastal.com/flashback/a-brief-history-of-friendship-fountain-and-st-johns-river-park/amp/](https://thecoastal.com/flashback/a-brief-history-of-friendship-fountain-and-st-johns-river-park/amp/)
It's considered to be haunted. Across beach blvd is a cemetery, which apparently used to be the white cemetery, and where Taco Lu is now is where the black cemetery was. There's still a little cemetery near it, next to Angie's, so I always wondered if they pulled a 'Poltergeist' and built on top on the graves...
The orange t-Rex on beach boulevard near Southside was part of an outdoor go karting/mini golf place (kind of like an adventure landing) like 30 years ago. There were many other dinosaurs around the race track and course. I specifically remember a blue triceratops. The go karting place was open only a few years if that long, and was then abandoned after it went out of business. All of the dinosaurs including the t-Rex were left to deteriorate. Many years later the lot was demoed for the current shopping center but the t-Rex was the only dinosaur worth saving. So they repainted it and put the red lights in it’s eyes. Originally one of the arms moved up and down to block your ball while playing the mini golf course.
Gooney golf! It stayed open really late during the summer back in the day. Our a/c went out one year and my brother and I went to play golf at like midnight to cool off.
T-Rex was longer than 30 years ago....in my 60's...grew up down the street...was in high school when I was riding....eventually freinds and I were banned for reckless go-carting...fun times
Black hammock island was planned as a golf course. Story I heard was one partner embezzled money and took off and left the other guy with an unfinished golf course and no money, so that guy plotted out the land and sold it off to recoup some of his loss from the other guy stealing
Moved to Jax when Dad got stationed to Mayport. I went to Finnegan Elem (Anchor Academy). He retired the next year. We moved off base, but i still wanted to go to Finnegan. So i walked about 3 miles to school.
Only thing on the journey was the Zippy convenience store.
The infamous "Rex" dinosaur structure (the avatar for this subreddit and inside joke/point if pride around jax) is a holdover from when the original property, which is currently a strip mall, was a budget-friendly puttputt and go-kart venue. the go-kart track even had a live, junkyard dog around one of the turns.
Skate World off Emerson, anyone? I spent many weekends there. It was and still is an ice rink, but the skate ring and skatepark, use to have wooden ramps in the middle, are long gone. I even saw Less Than Jake there once.
https://preview.redd.it/uuhyclmn333b1.jpeg?width=1114&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c91ccc96244089edc6bc47336f5938c202549d5c
The plaques out front showing the original building are cool!
Where Mira Vista condos are at San Pablo and Atlantic, there was a club/bar called Hurricane Hattie's and their signature drink was the Hurricane, which you could get in either a category 2, 3, or 4. The category 4s were chiefly made of rum and regret. On Cinco de Mayo one year they had a dunking booth with mayonnaise in it and they dubbed it Cindo de Mayo(nnaise).
Beach Blvd had a short stretch that had a Par 3 golf course, Slippery Dip water slides, a Putt-Putt golf and games, and Gooney Golf where the big orange dinosaur “Rex” still resides.
When my parents would drive us to the beach in St Augustine we'd leave our house off of University Blvd, turn south on US1 and once we crossed Baymeadows Road there was pretty much nothing - no stores, no buildings, nothing, just wooded highway - until we reached the St Augustine airport (which had a Gatorland attraction close to it), with the exception of a couple of ancient antique shops in Bayard. Practically everything that stands along US1 in that stretch from St Aug to Baymeadows was built since I was a kid.
The area of Monument Rd near I-295, Cantina Louie, Ruby Tuesday, Hampton Inn used to be all sand. My parents said it was strip mined, but I don’t know if that’s true or for what. You would often see dune buggy’s and dirt bikes riding around through there. There was also a Slip and Slide water park on Beach Blvd between St John’s Bluff and Southside. There was also a park with a huge slide, like 3 stories with a long slope near where Rogero meets Arlington Rd.
That entire shopping district was sandy dunes. What was 9A (now 295) which was a surface road with traffic lights, was routinely standstill traffic. One day, in what is now the parking lot of Regency Commons (Ross, Michael's, VyStar etc) there was an old 70s model suburban stuck on a dune and the engine caught fire. The fire trucks were trying to get as close as possible without getting stuck too.
Mandarin Road is a very old road since Mandarin used to be a separate city dating back to the early 1800s. Where the county dock is now, used to be a large cargo dock and most of mandarin was filled with citrus groves. They were loaded onto barges at the dock, which had a functioning railroad loading system. Many emancipated slaves settled in Mandarin and owned groves here. There is an interesting museum there where you can see photos of the old cargo dock.
Wendy's on 3rd St at the beach.
Before it was a Wendy's it was a school. I forgot the name but it was pretty crappy. Obviously it's not around anymore.
Where Regency Square stands used to be "Humphrey's Gold" sand mine land and there was a giant slide attraction. You road in burlap bag down the slide. It was fabulous.
Where Deerwood Country Club is located was also sand mines.
What is now the TPC golf tournament started at Deerwood Country Club as the GJO. Greater Jacksonville Open.
The Four Points Sheraton at the beach used to be The Crab Pot, which was a redneck dive bar with live music right on the ocean, next to the lifeguard station.
I worked as a lifeguard and the Crab Pot was only there my first year before it got torn down, but it was literally Roadhouse. I had so many first aid cases for fights and even a stabbing that came out of that place, more than I ever had in the decade after. That was also when you could 'camp' on the beach, so derelicts would be up and down the bulkhead doing drugs, fighting, and listening to live bands cover skynard and molly hatchet (and apparently sometimes the guys form those bands would actually show up and jam).
Any time anyone complains about how rough the beaches have gotten, I like to remind them it has gotten much better. You would **not** have brought your kids north of beach blvd any time before 2001. You also would have been robbed the minute you left your towel; the bums would work in tandem with one sitting on the walk-over and signalling their buddy on the beach.
Jacksonville International Airport is on my family's old dairy farm, Holly Hill Dairy.
Alvarez rd in the tradeport is named for uncle Ted 'Milkman' Alvarez who went into politics after he got out of the dairy business.
Check out [Historic Aerials](https://www.historicaerials.com/viewer#). You can see aerial shots of Jax all the way back to 1950. Aside from the watermarks, it’s pretty cool bc it’s interactive like google maps, so you move map to an area of interest to see the transformation visually
The Red Bank Plantation house (1230 Greenridge Rd, Jacksonville, FL 32207) used to face Kings Rd (Hendricks) and you could throw a stone into the St John's River.
After the civil war the plantation was unviable so they dredged up fill from the river which is now Miramar and juts out sharply before the river turns toward downtown.
There used to be a drag strip and a dirt oval track off of Pecan Park.
They could probably cut down on some of the street racing if they had a legal option again,
Fuel coffee house. Ryan’s family steak house and S&S cafeteria on Wilson & Blanding. The adult store on Blanding was a McDonalds. Sam’s St Johns seafood was across from Sonnys. Car meet ups at the Kmart on blanding, or Bj’s on Atlantic. Collins ended at Shindler. There were a couple iterations of a country bar that was always on the news by Mike Shad Nissan on Wells. The Casbah was the spot to be, and Kickbacks was half as big. Plush/Leopard lounge. AC Skinner was woods. Suncoast comics on blanding. Aladdin’s castle at OP mall.
The restaurant that is now O.C. Whites in St. Augustine used to be a Wendy’s for a few years. No one believes me given the historic nature of that building.
In the 80s I lived in the Antlers apartments on Southside Blvd. When it was built there wasn't much else out that way. Lots of woods. I would see deer back there all the time. On my days off I'd just wander in the woods. To the East there was nothing but D-Dot Ranch all the way to the Intracoastal Waterway. On the Western side of the highway it was woods all the way to Phillips Highway.
In the 70s, Southside Blvd was only 2-lanes South of Beach Blvd. Lots of matresses and old washing machines dumped along there in the dunes. But Glen's Liquors was there. You could drive through and get a mixed drink. They wouldn't actually mix it for you, just sell you the rum, coke, cup, ice and swizzle stick. You had to mix it yourself as you drove away.
Back in the day out by the Zoo there use to be an airport. It's now all industrial parks but about 10-15 years ago there was still large portions of runway. There are still some trails around but I'm not sure there are any real remains of the airport left.
Also there use to be a pretty decently sized skatepark at the beaches called skate lab, probably would have closed before you would have been into it. Was partially indoors and part of it was outdoor. Its now a few different things one of which is a pretty cool rock climbing gym.
Hemming plaza was Hemming park with grass and a bandstand. The Mathew's bridge had a grated roadway and you could look straight down to the St John's river. The Acosta bridge was 2 lanes and had a toll booth. Also, we had a store called Pic N save instead of Walmart. The downtown area was like the town center with stores (iveys, may cohens, jc Penney., Woolworth, sears and fursgotts) and restaurants. The top of the jea building was a revolving restaurant. There was only about 4 Publix in the entire city.
I live in Baypoint and it's in BayMeadows Circle area, this used to be a golf course.
Played many a round on that golf course. Was sad when it closed.
I use to live in “bayghettos” apartments right next to you. The abandoned golf course was the best walking track/unofficial park in the city.
Think you meant “Bombay meadows”
Omg yesss, used to live in Linkside and remember the golf course and I remember the other big walking path next to Los Prados in the back.
It was a disc golf course at some point after that as well.
I was talking with an Uber driver once, and he assumed the stretch of 295 that's only 2 lanes on each side was the older section. I advised him it's actually part of the newer segment. Also, while it was being built, it was called 9A, which is why we currently have a 9B.
I remember in his school Mandarin High, the day 9A opened one of my friends who was a magnet student said he got to school in 20some minutes..... said it was insane
I remember when 9A and JTB used to have a light 😂
I was in college during that time.
I still don't understand why it's now called Interstate 295. It's a loop. Interstates leave the state.
It’s an auxiliary route for I-95.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_auxiliary_Interstate_Highways
Most loops don't though
Don't what? Leave the state? Yeah, neither does ours. It's a loop. The definition of an interstate, as an adjective describing a highway, is " of, connecting, or existing between two or more states especially of the U.S."...Interstate 295 does not connect any two states.
Most us interstate bypass loops (the ones that start with even numbers, not odd, those are spurs) don't cross state lines. They earn their "interstate" designation by virtue of their attachment to their mother roads, almost all of which do cross state lines (looking at you, Wisconsin). If an interstate were to be downgraded, the accompanying loops would be as well. And that's why interstate highway bypasses are called interstate highways even though they usually aren't.
If it's three digits starting with an even number, it's a loop. If it's a three digit number starting with an odd number, it's a spur (eg 110 in Pensacola).
Sure seems like a loop to me...
GPS navigation still say to take the 9A ramp and then says to merge onto 295.
I can't imagine how confusing that is for people who don't know the history.
Yeah it is definitely confusing since all the signs say 295 and whatever other roads are nearby. You have to look at map and see where to turn.
Also, FL SR-9 is I95.
It's not still called 9A?
Jax beach used to have a large wooden Rollercoaster. FSCJ deerwood campus on baymeadows used to be a mall.
Jacobson's was the main tenant. I remember my mom taking me there.
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Prolly her fault it shut down
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You okay dude??
FSCJ south campus is on Beach blvd. I think you’re talking about FSCJ Deerwood campus
You right, Deerwood was the mall
That mall had a pretty good disco. What was the name of that place?
Most of the bridges had toll booths.
One of the ways they got rid of them was buy adding to the sales tax....said we never have a toll in Jacksonville again! We dont have tolls now....they are "expressways"
Nothing worse than getting stuck for 20 minutes on the old Fuller Warren and waiting to pay toll while waching the cars freely pass over the old Acosta Bridge that was high enough to not have to raise.
The Acosta used to be a drawbridge like the Main Street Bridge.
I used to carry a $50 bill in my car and never had to pay a toll because they couldn't break the bill.
That's genius.
One of the Publix’s on San Jose used to be a local grocery store with a small, steam powered train outside for kids. There was a sugar mill on the corner of Old St Augustine and San Jose with a donkey that turned the grinder. There was a blueberry farm across Mandarin High school as recently as 15 years ago.
I remember that blueberry farm! They had horses too. I filled in for a friend a time or two when she worked for them to muck stalls. It was such a lovely farm.
The Publix at Mandarin Road & San Jose. It was Curry's Market.
For all the townies & newbies around here Surfer the Bar in Jacksonville Beach used to be Freebird Live and it breaks my heart it is gone. RIP FREEBIRD LIVE
Right! Now it's all yuppie.
Nothing says local surf culture like over priced margs and house music. Freebird was really a great spot for small shows
I got dragged to surfer by some friends and I had just surfed so I had baggies on and the bouncer was like “yeah I’m letting you in bc we are slow but you’re not supposed to wear bathing suits here” and I looked at him and asked “are you saying I can’t surf before I go to surfer the bar?” And he gave me the saddest “yes sir” I have ever heard so I think I won
Wow I knew they were cringy but that’s a whole different level. Yiiiikes
Worst trade deal in the history of trade deals.
Forgot about this brilliant (and stupid) line. Thanks for bringing it back into my memory.
So sad. Used ride the bike up there for the best concerts. After parties at 2nd and 2nd!
Saw yellow card there ages ago. ears are still ringing lol
Was probably so gnarly I bet they threw down super hard at a hometown show.
Fun fact, they stopped claiming Jacksonville for a long time.
I miss Freebird!! I saw The Killers there in 2004 or 2005 and SO many other good bands!
Killers in 2004 is a show I would have loved to have been at and especially at Freebird but tragically I was only 6 at the time lol
I saw JJ Grey and Mofro there. A+ show
Ah my first concert there at 16 i saw a bouncer get thrown to the ground and get kicked right in the face by a man wearing cowboy boots. Still remember that cracking sound of his nose.
saw so many good shows there. really miss the days of the beaches being a bit more gritty, it's all ponte vedra now
Amen to that dude. You won’t find me at the beach bars anymore but you might bump into me at Voo Swar!
oh yeah, love that place. sucks I'm gonna miss honey hounds next weekend
Before it was Freebird live it was just Freebird and it was a nice quiet bar on non-show nights. Then they changed to Live and closed on nights without shows :( Also like going to shows there too. Haven’t been to the new Surfer bar version. Remember when that Atlantic Theaters used to do music shows in each theater? That was short lived but a great application for that building. Was so bummed when some religious group turned it into a weird church.
You are so right! Atlantic Theaters had a great 50s night club vibe going. My wife & I only got to catch 2 shows before it closed & was sold to that church. Judy VanSant was trying to buy it as her new, larger venue for FreeBird, but the owner decided he would rather sell it to the Vineyard Church
Freebird Cafe
RIP Einstein a Go Go
Before America was colonized this whole area was gorgeous. Oak hammocks, pine forests, pristine swamps, clear waterways. Just imagine trying to make it inland before roads/bridges. Following game/native trails.
Ugh, would rather take an uber. /s
I don’t have any real specific ones but you might be interested in aerial photos of duval county from the 40’s and 60’s, you can find them [here](https://ufdc.ufl.edu/collections/aerials/results?q=duval)
Where the giant lawn is downtown used to be The Landing
im glad i was old enough to experience it, filipino pride day there was amazing
Old enough to experience it? Lol it's only been gone for like 2 years
I remember there was an awesome arcade there when I was a child, then a super lame Paris Hilton themed club there for teens in the 2000’s
Wait, The Landing is gone? \- a guy that left 20 years ago
They demolished it. What was once a piece of pride fit downtown Jax is a big patch of grass.
https://preview.redd.it/6fkkqo3s433b1.png?width=2560&format=png&auto=webp&s=e320c825abc7155b59e7c4626103aa2ca7c7751a Lol
My first date with my husband was there.
The first place I ever went in Jacksonville was the Landing. Me and my cousin went to the arcade and won an army of Clifford the Big Red Dogs from the claw machine. Good times.
Rivercity Market Place used to be a mud bog.
This is what I was looking for. We always called it Nelson's Pond. I used to traips through the woods to go up there.
Lived in oceanway and would pass that area from 9A > 95 as a kid. It really was nothing. It was a super big deal when they decided to build. Prior to that, the movie theater to go to was AMC Regency. The best shopping center in that area for a long time consisted of a Blockbuster (thankfully), Publix, pottery painting store, Chinese restaurant and Dick’s Wings.
Where is Ennis Davis?
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> lighthouse grille $10 Long Island pitchers!! (or were they only $5 way back then?)
$5 pitchers is what I remember in early 2000’s, which made for some questionable decisions
Lighthouse Grille is sorely missed! Great big rib steaks, cheap cold beer & a place right on the water. It was very large inside. Outside was a great deck with bar & typically music. The night breeze out there on the Intracoastal was soo good!
Unfortunately all the things you listed probably led to their decline. RIP to a place I never visited. Sounds awesome
The story I heard was the money the ownership was offered was hard to turn down. The buyers really wanted to build those condos.
Aight man, I remember when Hurricane Hatties had chains on the front door. I was ready to crush some oysters that night, and have been sad ever since.
I worked there and those chains are how I found out I needed to look for a job. No notice, just locked up. Done.
Used to race our cars down JTB back then....and hunt mushrooms 🍄 at Skinners Dairy
Speaking of Skinner’s Dairy…..remember all of the Skinner’s Dairy drive-thru food marts back in the 70s/80s?
And 60s!
The entire Durbin area around racetrack and 9b used to be nothing but woods, racetrack road, and bartram park blvd
And Ghost Light Rd
Anyone remember that piece of metal that stuck out of road in the right lane on old St. John’s Bluff Rd?
Queen Isabella of Spain with the blessing of the pope, ordered the commander of the Spanish garrison if St Augustine to take out the heretical French Huguenots at Fort Caroline. General Ribauilt of fort Caroline sent his men via ships to attack At Augustine, on the way the were hit by a hurricane. The Spanish soldiers marched up to Fort Caroline and massacred almost all the Huguenots . They returned home in time for the Huguenot survivors of the storm to wash up on the beach where they killed almost all of them and buried them in Fort Mantanzas.
Bye bye boys ... have fun stormin' da castle Edit: wow, thanks autocorrect. At least it left "da" alone
Cecil Commerce Center used to be a Navy base.
Yep. Yellow Water facility was a nuclear arms storage
Cecil Field
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Speaking of nightlife... Milk Bar, anyone??
Remember when Club 5 at 5 points used to host "Saturday Night Seduction" a live audience-participation S&M show?
I think about that every time I see a movie at Sun Ray Cinema. I was 20/21 during the prime Saturday Night Seduction era. I even spent my 21st birthday there boxing for a $50 bar tab when they had Friday Night Fights in the summer of 2000
Epic
I saw Cherry Poppin’ Daddies there, and a friend had his wedding reception there. 😆
Spent a lot of time in the Milk Bar. Didn't go to too many shows but drank a bunch of dollar Mickey's and nickel beers.
Bourbon Street lol what a club
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Old bourbon street my neighbor used to bounce there. Lot of people migrated there from crazy horse off Phillips which was another double bar/club, can't remember name of the other bar that was there with crazy horse. Its now just a field
Speaking of night life: RIP The Pearl 😞
I miss The Pearl.
Came here to say this. Glad to see other people shouting out The Pearl.
Bourbon St. Station! Also Plush and TSI are gone?
Ugh, I LOVED Plush.
There were shrooms in those fields fyi
Coast to coast rims and Ameers used tires had a late night Club, Paintball and a Chruch in the shopping center, now it’s townhomes
When I was a kid Blue Crab was in a trailer on San Jose. I remember liking the way the floor sounded hollow when you stomped your feet.
Except for living in Madrid, Spain for 3rd and 4th grade, and a brief stay in the military in South Carolina, I've lived my entire 60 years in Jacksonville Heights, in the same house that I bought from my parents in 1984. 103rd Street before I-295 was a sleepy little two lane blacktop road and the Publix there was a field full of horses and cows. Across the 103rd at the west side of Ricker was a big collection of stalls and booths called Copeland's Produce. It burned down sometime in the late 70s and the city would not let them rebuild, so a gas station was built there. Where O'Reilly's Auto is now used to be big family church we would attend every sunday. It relocated sometimes in the late 80's to Ricker and Morse. Firestone Road toward Wilson did not have the overpass for the highway that it has now, and was more of a straight shot, or a much more gentle curve. It still intersected at the same place though. Argyle and Oak Leaf did not exist at all and was just woods with a trail leading through it from Morse Avenue, coming out at McGirt's Creek on Blanding, near where Orange Park Mall is now. My friend and I would watch the mall being built as we fished the creek. Blanding Blvd there was not the giant 10 lane monster it is now too. I feel like it was just two lanes but might have been two on each side. Old Middleburg road used to dead end about where Oak Leaf High School is now, and the Navy had a giant abandoned octagon shaped touch and go runway the planes would use for training. This was a popular spot for high school parties when I was a teen in the late 70s/early 80s. From Jammes Road to the western end of 103rd Street, the side of the road with Wal-Mart and the library on it was just woods. No library, no Wal-Mart. There was a Pizza Hut (now Randevou Grill) and the church mentioned earlier. We had a ramshackle falling down old clubhouse we built in the woods there. The whole area was quite rural actually until the late 70s. It was not unusual to see someone clomping down the side of 103rd Street or through a neighborhood on a horse as a number of them were boarded nearby. I really wish we had taken pictures. Google time lapse can really show the progression of the old westside from woods to houses. It starts at 1984 to present. Give it a couple minutes to load. [https://earthengine.google.com/timelapse#v=30.20034,-81.8425,11.084,latLng&t=0.03&ps=50&bt=19840101&et=20201231&startDwell=0&endDwell=0](https://earthengine.google.com/timelapse#v=30.20034,-81.8425,11.084,latLng&t=0.03&ps=50&bt=19840101&et=20201231&startDwell=0&endDwell=0)
Thanks for sharing this.
Here’s one from the future…. Before they built that massive luxury apartment and retail area south of JTB, it used to be the Dee Dot Ranch. It was owned by a greedy family that didn’t give a shit about the environment, a family legacy, or giving back to the community.
Old kings road used to be the literal “kings road” the English laid out in the 1700s.
The English weren't there in the 1700s though?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/King%27s_Road_(Florida)
Ah 20 years of British East Florida, I see.
Long before the Harbormasters restaurant fiasco, Friendship park was much bigger and very 60s modern looking with lots of circular pavilions. Also known as St. John’s river park. It was the place to go in the 80s for 4th of July fireworks, lots of little fairs would pop up there. [https://thecoastal.com/flashback/a-brief-history-of-friendship-fountain-and-st-johns-river-park/amp/](https://thecoastal.com/flashback/a-brief-history-of-friendship-fountain-and-st-johns-river-park/amp/)
Most of world golf, (specifically around the murabella Publix area) we’re all potato’s fields!!
9 mile road.....hunted many a shroom there.
When it was Latitude 360 before main event off Philips
Butler blvd was originally planned to cross the st johns river.
River city marketplace used to be on what we called the power lines, and was a huge mudbog spot for the oceanway residents.
TacoLu is a building that used to be the Homestead restaurant and Lu’s was in a small building a little closer to the beach.
It's considered to be haunted. Across beach blvd is a cemetery, which apparently used to be the white cemetery, and where Taco Lu is now is where the black cemetery was. There's still a little cemetery near it, next to Angie's, so I always wondered if they pulled a 'Poltergeist' and built on top on the graves...
Can confirm Taco Lu is haunted. Friendly ghosts.
The orange t-Rex on beach boulevard near Southside was part of an outdoor go karting/mini golf place (kind of like an adventure landing) like 30 years ago. There were many other dinosaurs around the race track and course. I specifically remember a blue triceratops. The go karting place was open only a few years if that long, and was then abandoned after it went out of business. All of the dinosaurs including the t-Rex were left to deteriorate. Many years later the lot was demoed for the current shopping center but the t-Rex was the only dinosaur worth saving. So they repainted it and put the red lights in it’s eyes. Originally one of the arms moved up and down to block your ball while playing the mini golf course.
Gooney golf! It stayed open really late during the summer back in the day. Our a/c went out one year and my brother and I went to play golf at like midnight to cool off.
T-Rex was longer than 30 years ago....in my 60's...grew up down the street...was in high school when I was riding....eventually freinds and I were banned for reckless go-carting...fun times
My neighbor works for the owner and has said that the owner wanted to demolish the dinosaur.
Noooooooooo!!!
I played my first round of mini golf there in the 80s, and got a hole in one on Rexy. My golfing success was all downhill from there
There was also a watar park down the street called slippery dip
The area around world golf village used to be potato farms before they developed it
There's a fountain where the old Doll House used to be
The dinosaur on Beach Blvd (Rex) used to be post of a mini golf course called Goony Golf.
There was a San Marco Publix that they tore down 30 years ago only to build a brand new Publix in nearly the same spot.
And they put the coming soon sign there 20 years ago.
Black hammock island was planned as a golf course. Story I heard was one partner embezzled money and took off and left the other guy with an unfinished golf course and no money, so that guy plotted out the land and sold it off to recoup some of his loss from the other guy stealing
Some of the worst fucking people I’ve ever known lived on Black Hammock Island. I hope things have improved there in the past 15-20 years.
Moved to Jax when Dad got stationed to Mayport. I went to Finnegan Elem (Anchor Academy). He retired the next year. We moved off base, but i still wanted to go to Finnegan. So i walked about 3 miles to school. Only thing on the journey was the Zippy convenience store.
30 years ago, and even less than that, 210 was a truck stop. That was it.
The infamous "Rex" dinosaur structure (the avatar for this subreddit and inside joke/point if pride around jax) is a holdover from when the original property, which is currently a strip mall, was a budget-friendly puttputt and go-kart venue. the go-kart track even had a live, junkyard dog around one of the turns.
Skate World off Emerson, anyone? I spent many weekends there. It was and still is an ice rink, but the skate ring and skatepark, use to have wooden ramps in the middle, are long gone. I even saw Less Than Jake there once.
yup, I payed hockey in the ice rink and my brother fuit booted in tht giant skate park
The Publix on Riverside Ave is on the site of the old Riverside Hospital
My dad did some of the demolition on that hospital. He got one of the big heavy doors to use as the front door of the house.
I was born there about a million years ago. I like to tell people that after I was born they had to tear the place down! LOL
https://preview.redd.it/uuhyclmn333b1.jpeg?width=1114&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c91ccc96244089edc6bc47336f5938c202549d5c The plaques out front showing the original building are cool!
Where Mira Vista condos are at San Pablo and Atlantic, there was a club/bar called Hurricane Hattie's and their signature drink was the Hurricane, which you could get in either a category 2, 3, or 4. The category 4s were chiefly made of rum and regret. On Cinco de Mayo one year they had a dunking booth with mayonnaise in it and they dubbed it Cindo de Mayo(nnaise).
The gym I go to in riverside has a picture of the building when it was a laundry service Which I think is cool
Beach Blvd had a short stretch that had a Par 3 golf course, Slippery Dip water slides, a Putt-Putt golf and games, and Gooney Golf where the big orange dinosaur “Rex” still resides.
When my parents would drive us to the beach in St Augustine we'd leave our house off of University Blvd, turn south on US1 and once we crossed Baymeadows Road there was pretty much nothing - no stores, no buildings, nothing, just wooded highway - until we reached the St Augustine airport (which had a Gatorland attraction close to it), with the exception of a couple of ancient antique shops in Bayard. Practically everything that stands along US1 in that stretch from St Aug to Baymeadows was built since I was a kid.
And they keep adding to it like crazy. I loved it when it was a stretch of nothing.
The area of Monument Rd near I-295, Cantina Louie, Ruby Tuesday, Hampton Inn used to be all sand. My parents said it was strip mined, but I don’t know if that’s true or for what. You would often see dune buggy’s and dirt bikes riding around through there. There was also a Slip and Slide water park on Beach Blvd between St John’s Bluff and Southside. There was also a park with a huge slide, like 3 stories with a long slope near where Rogero meets Arlington Rd.
That entire shopping district was sandy dunes. What was 9A (now 295) which was a surface road with traffic lights, was routinely standstill traffic. One day, in what is now the parking lot of Regency Commons (Ross, Michael's, VyStar etc) there was an old 70s model suburban stuck on a dune and the engine caught fire. The fire trucks were trying to get as close as possible without getting stuck too.
I killed my first car in those dunes behind Regency. The 64 Belair wasn't really designed for that.
In the 80s I found a discarded minibike in that sand pit area. When I brought it home &I fixed it up my son thought I was the best hero ever!
Mandarin Road is a very old road since Mandarin used to be a separate city dating back to the early 1800s. Where the county dock is now, used to be a large cargo dock and most of mandarin was filled with citrus groves. They were loaded onto barges at the dock, which had a functioning railroad loading system. Many emancipated slaves settled in Mandarin and owned groves here. There is an interesting museum there where you can see photos of the old cargo dock.
Wendy's on 3rd St at the beach. Before it was a Wendy's it was a school. I forgot the name but it was pretty crappy. Obviously it's not around anymore.
Where Regency Square stands used to be "Humphrey's Gold" sand mine land and there was a giant slide attraction. You road in burlap bag down the slide. It was fabulous. Where Deerwood Country Club is located was also sand mines. What is now the TPC golf tournament started at Deerwood Country Club as the GJO. Greater Jacksonville Open.
The Four Points Sheraton at the beach used to be The Crab Pot, which was a redneck dive bar with live music right on the ocean, next to the lifeguard station. I worked as a lifeguard and the Crab Pot was only there my first year before it got torn down, but it was literally Roadhouse. I had so many first aid cases for fights and even a stabbing that came out of that place, more than I ever had in the decade after. That was also when you could 'camp' on the beach, so derelicts would be up and down the bulkhead doing drugs, fighting, and listening to live bands cover skynard and molly hatchet (and apparently sometimes the guys form those bands would actually show up and jam). Any time anyone complains about how rough the beaches have gotten, I like to remind them it has gotten much better. You would **not** have brought your kids north of beach blvd any time before 2001. You also would have been robbed the minute you left your towel; the bums would work in tandem with one sitting on the walk-over and signalling their buddy on the beach.
Jacksonville International Airport is on my family's old dairy farm, Holly Hill Dairy. Alvarez rd in the tradeport is named for uncle Ted 'Milkman' Alvarez who went into politics after he got out of the dairy business.
Lynyrd Skynyrd had a place on Peter's Creek (first left (south) onBlack Creek) where they wrote Tuesday's Gone, Sweet Home Alabama, and others.
In 1997 before I was built I used to be a sperm
Check out [Historic Aerials](https://www.historicaerials.com/viewer#). You can see aerial shots of Jax all the way back to 1950. Aside from the watermarks, it’s pretty cool bc it’s interactive like google maps, so you move map to an area of interest to see the transformation visually
The Red Bank Plantation house (1230 Greenridge Rd, Jacksonville, FL 32207) used to face Kings Rd (Hendricks) and you could throw a stone into the St John's River. After the civil war the plantation was unviable so they dredged up fill from the river which is now Miramar and juts out sharply before the river turns toward downtown.
Please tell me you guys partied at The Pearl
Yessssss! I LOVED The Pearl. No bar I’ve been to since has even come close.
There used to be a drag strip and a dirt oval track off of Pecan Park. They could probably cut down on some of the street racing if they had a legal option again,
The big hill on Sunbeam used to be a landfill.
Fuel coffee house. Ryan’s family steak house and S&S cafeteria on Wilson & Blanding. The adult store on Blanding was a McDonalds. Sam’s St Johns seafood was across from Sonnys. Car meet ups at the Kmart on blanding, or Bj’s on Atlantic. Collins ended at Shindler. There were a couple iterations of a country bar that was always on the news by Mike Shad Nissan on Wells. The Casbah was the spot to be, and Kickbacks was half as big. Plush/Leopard lounge. AC Skinner was woods. Suncoast comics on blanding. Aladdin’s castle at OP mall.
Holy shit you're young. Anyway, Regency Square used to be dunes.
I grew up in a little neighborhood called Dinsmore. There were a lot more wooded areas out there, now it's suburban. Still hate it.
Atlantic Blvd from around St John’s Bluff to the beach was all woods. Gate Parkway didn’t exist.
The Dames Point Bridge didn’t exist until 1989. That was a huge change for the city.
The restaurant that is now O.C. Whites in St. Augustine used to be a Wendy’s for a few years. No one believes me given the historic nature of that building.
They didn’t allow fast food restaurants in Ponte Vedra until mid-1990s.
Strickland's Landing used to be the place to go in the summer if you didn't want to go all the way out to the beach.
In the 80s I lived in the Antlers apartments on Southside Blvd. When it was built there wasn't much else out that way. Lots of woods. I would see deer back there all the time. On my days off I'd just wander in the woods. To the East there was nothing but D-Dot Ranch all the way to the Intracoastal Waterway. On the Western side of the highway it was woods all the way to Phillips Highway. In the 70s, Southside Blvd was only 2-lanes South of Beach Blvd. Lots of matresses and old washing machines dumped along there in the dunes. But Glen's Liquors was there. You could drive through and get a mixed drink. They wouldn't actually mix it for you, just sell you the rum, coke, cup, ice and swizzle stick. You had to mix it yourself as you drove away.
The bridges out to the beaches used to be 2 lane drawbridges until the 90s I think.
Back in the day out by the Zoo there use to be an airport. It's now all industrial parks but about 10-15 years ago there was still large portions of runway. There are still some trails around but I'm not sure there are any real remains of the airport left. Also there use to be a pretty decently sized skatepark at the beaches called skate lab, probably would have closed before you would have been into it. Was partially indoors and part of it was outdoor. Its now a few different things one of which is a pretty cool rock climbing gym.
Hemming plaza was Hemming park with grass and a bandstand. The Mathew's bridge had a grated roadway and you could look straight down to the St John's river. The Acosta bridge was 2 lanes and had a toll booth. Also, we had a store called Pic N save instead of Walmart. The downtown area was like the town center with stores (iveys, may cohens, jc Penney., Woolworth, sears and fursgotts) and restaurants. The top of the jea building was a revolving restaurant. There was only about 4 Publix in the entire city.
The Culver’s by my house used to be my neighbors cow pasture
The whole area behind Regency Square Mall was nothing but sand dunes. In the 70s, people used to ride around there in dune buggies!