(Source of images: Florida State Archives)

Nowadays, the Park Lane Apartment Building looks like a riverfront fixture that's forever stood in Riverside.  Hard to imagine it brand new, but here are photos showing the structure as it neared completion.  The top picture dates from November 2, 1926, while the bottom, from December 1, 1926.  Park Lane ranked as Jacksonville's third tallest building for a number of years.

The man who drew up the plans for Park Lane was also the same Riverside Avenue resident who supervised the construction of Memorial Park and co-designed the Florida Theater.  The architect Roy A. Benjamin became known throughout the Southeast as a theater specialist, designing over 200 movie houses.  Mr. Benjamin was born in Atlanta in 1888, but raised mostly in Ocala, Florida.  He and his family moved to Jacksonville in 1902, not long after the Great Fire the year before. 

Mr. Benjamin made his mark on the River City.  During the early to mid 1900s, his local creations included the San Marco Theater in San Marco, the Imperial and Palace theaters downtown (both demolished), the San Marco Theatre in San Marco, the Riverside Theatre at Riverside's Five Points, the Strand Theatre (a long-gone vaudeville & movie house in La Villa for African Americans), the Elks Club Building downtown, the Elephant House at the Jacksonville Zoo (just a memory now), the San Juline Apartments and the Hartmore Apartments on Riverside Avenue in Riverside, the Leon Cheek residence on Riverside's River Boulevard, Fire Station # 14 on Avondale's Herschel Street, the Lauderdale Apartments and Avondale Apartments on East Second Street in Springfield, and Jacksonville's version of the Parthenon, the Brentwood Park Bandstand & Comfort Station, in the northern part of the city.  The prolific Mr. Benjamin also served as an associate architect for Springfield's Scottish Rite Masonic Temple, and he created the plans for the remodeling of the downtown Center (Arcade) Theater, which finally collapsed in 2002. 

Following World War II, Mr. Benjamin sold his practice, and the enterprise has continued in business today as KBJ Architects, Inc., Jacksonville's oldest architecture firm.  Mr. Benjamin passed away in 1963.

CLICK HERE for info & a photo of Roy Benjamin, provided by the website for the Jacksonville Historical Society

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