(Source of image: Florida State Archives)

In the foreground is the riverfront spot for an enterprise company well-known in Jax history, the Merrill-Stevens Ship Building Company.  The green arrow points to the Maxwell House Coffee factory, an East Bay Street structure with its distinctive "Good to the Last Drop" coffee cup sign.  The Shipyards, a prestigious residential community, will cover the old Merrill-Stevens docks and buildings.  Who would have predicted this when the above photo was snapped on February 10, 1946?  The old docks are giving way to dwellings.  Appropriately, the new development features a large anchor outside the gate to its sales office.

(Source of image: Florida State Archives)

Here's the Merrill-Stevens shipyards looking south, rather than to the north.  The photo dates from December 1941, the month that Japan bombed Pearl Harbor, drawing the U.S. into World War II.  The Allied victory partly depended on an abundance of ships, such as those refitted & repaired at Merrill-Stevens.  When the conflict started, Merrill-Stevens ranked as the largest Atlantic shipyard south of Norfolk, Virginia.  The Jax firm could boast of dry docks capable of lifting 12,000 ton ships in a half-hour.

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