Mount Zion African Methodist Episcopal Church was founded by a group of formerly enslaved men in 1866, and the present church in Jacksonville, Florida was completed in 1905. Originally, the group met as a secret “hush harbor, before building their first church at the present site in 1870. The congregation built a second, larger building in 1890, but it was lost in Jacksonville's Great Fire of 1901, thus leading to the construction of this building. In 1992, the church edifice was listed on both the Florida Black Heritage Trail and the National Register of Historic Places.
St. John’s Cathedral is the site of the first Episcopal parish in Florida, with outdoor meetings held in the location eight years before the first church was officially built. It was several hundred years before that when the first inklings of the Anglican community began nearby on the St. Johns River, thus giving the church its name. However, after nearly 10 years of underfunding while the first church was built, the building came under fire several times before its fire construction. Once, it was burned during the Civil War, when Federal and Union troops alike where burning parts of the city, and again, in the Great Fire of 1901 that destroyed most of Jacksonville. Today, however, the church is thriving, with several outreach programs and a limestone cathedral built in its original location on the foundation of the churches that had burned down.
Six different versions of Jacksonville's First United Methodist Church have been located here since the early 1800s, with the current church being completed in 1968. In the century and a half prior to the completion of this structure, the congregation erected several sanctuaries that were replaced as the congregation grew or in response to two different fires. One of those configurations occurred during the Great Fire of 1901 which destroyed most of the city. The church was originally founded four blocks away in 1823 when members of the small congregation attended services on the second floor of a dry goods store. In 2018, the church suffered from financial trouble due to a declining congregation and increasing maintenance costs. The nearby Simpson Memorial United Methodist Church, a historically African American congregation, was facing similar issues. After a series of meetings and with the support of the members of both two churches, the two congregations formed a partnership with both operating out of the First United Methodist Church building to reduce costs. The two congregations held a joint worship service to celebrate their partnership on April 8.
The Basilica of the Immaculate Conception was dedicated as such by Pope Francis in 2013, making it one of only 77 minor basilicas in the United States. The church began as a Catholic community in 1829, when priests traveled from Georgia via horse to lead prayers in people’s private homes. In 1854, the church was constructed, making it the first Catholic church in Jacksonville, Florida. However, the wooden building was soon burned down by Union soldiers during the Civil War, and later rebuilt. The second building was again lost to fire in the Great Jacksonville Fire of 1901, which burned down a majority of the city. Finally, a third, magnificent church was constructed, which still stands today, serving 800 registered families.
With more than 1,000 pieces in its permanent collection, MOCA Jacksonville encompasses one of the largest collections of modern and contemporary art in the Southeast. Its collection includes paintings, installations, prints, sculpture, and photography. Artists represented include Hans Hofmann, Alexander Calder, Alex Katz, Robert Longo, and Helen Frankenthaler. The museum is located in the former Western Union Telegraph Building.
In just over eight hours on May 3, 1901, a small fire starting in a LaVilla mattress factory swept through 146 city blocks of Jacksonville. The fire destroyed over 2,000 buildings and claimed seven lives, leaving almost 9,000 people homeless in the process. This tragic event would eventually be known as the Great Fire of 1901, the third largest urban fire in American history, behind the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Chicago Fire of 1871.
Jacksonville City Hall is currently located in the St. James building at 117 W. Duval Street, which was originally the site of the city’s largest hotel, largest building at the time, and home to the city’s first park across the street. However, the Great Fire of 1901 that burned most of the city also destroyed the hotel. It was rebuilt by Henry J. Klutho in 1912 and turned into a store, before ultimately becoming the location of City Hall operations in 2012, when City Hall was moved from its former location. Prior to the site of the St. James, City Hall was located on E. Bay Street in a 15-story building designed in 1960. After standing for 59 years, city officials made the decision to move government buildings elsewhere to open the riverfront for private developments. On January 20, 2019, explosives were used to demolish the structure.
Home to Jacksonville’s Seminole Club for many years, this building was designed in Prairie School Style and completed in 1902, one year before the club purchased the property to be used as their headquarters. The building was originally meant to be a two-story structure with a rooftop garden, but in 1907, a third floor was added as rooms for club members who were unmarried. Before the club’s closing in 1989, it was Jacksonville’s oldest social club for men and seventh oldest in the country. The restriction against female members joining the club ended just eleven years prior to the sale of the building when the club’s former president’s daughter joined. The club faced declining membership that reflected changes in society that were reflected in the decline of other men's clubs, and the organization closed and sold the budling around 1990. In 2006, the building was designated as a historic structure by the city, and in 2014, the space was renovated to become the location of Sweet Pete’s, which remains there today.
On August 27, 1960, a group of 40 Youth Council demonstrators from the Jacksonville Branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) conducted a sit-in at the W.T. Grant Department Store, as well as Woolworth’s Five and Ten Cent Store, located on Hogan Street. The demonstrators were met with violence, attacked by 150 white men with bats and axe handles. This demonstration was a turning point for the city’s race relations, making the public more aware of the severity of the civil rights struggle in the United States. Within ten years of this demonstration, lunch counters were integrated, and Duval County Schools began the process of desegregation. The W.T. Grant and Woolworth’s sit-ins serve as reminders to the dangerous struggle African Americans faced when seeking democratic freedom in the United States.
Stanton High School was named after Edwin McMasters Stanton, One of Abraham Lincoln's Secretary of War. Mr. Stanton was a staunch anti-slavery advocate and championed free formal education for African American children. The school opened on February 8, 1868, in Duval County in Jacksonville Florida, for African American Students.
The Clara White Mission is a nonprofit organization that was founded and started by a former Slave named Clara English White in 1904. It was then later ran by her daughter Eartha M.M. White, a true humanitarian. Eartha was so dedicated to the lives of others that she lived and ate in the mission where she helped the poor. The organization has been around for over a 100 hundred years and is stronger than ever.
The Ritz Theater is in a traditionally Black commercial district in the La Villa neighborhood. This Art Deco style building built in 1929 housed a cinema, shops and offices. The Black community made the Ritz and the surrounding buildings into an arts, entertainment, and shopping area. The original Ritz Theater structure was demolished but, the decorative corner and sign were incorporated into the new Ritz Theatre and La Villa Museum. Inside the La Villa Museum, the African American history exhibit tells the story of everyday life in northeast Florida. The theater presents African American shows and educational performances.
This Tour is a Driving or Biking Tour.
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On this short driving tour, see a variety of monuments, museums, churches, and buildings that were crucial to Jacksonville's history. This tour allows for stops to enter those museums, churches, and parks where the monuments are placed.
