(Source of image: Florida State Archives)

Have you ever visited San Marco Square, with its upscale shops and the Fountain of Lions?  This was the locale of the Setzer's Supermarket pictured above.  Later occupied by a Pic 'N Save, the old structure now houses several canopied antique shops. 

This Great Depression photo was snapped on April 19, 1939, at the intersection of Naldo and San Marco.  In the middle of the photo is the distinctive square tower of the San Marco Building, completed in 1927 when its neighborhood was new.  A picture from that year shows the San Marco Building standing alone, except for what has become the Fountain of Lions.

SPRINGFIELD SETZER'S -- A number of Setzer's used to dot Jacksonville.  A longtime Jax resident, who wishes to remain anonymous, remembers a Setzer's near the intersection of 8th & Main in Springfield.  During the Thirties & Forties, this locale served as something of a mini-downtown for its surrounding area.  According to the Jax resident, its establishments included an A & P Supermarket, Alan's Dime Store, Woolworth's Department Store, Akra's Department Store, and the Capital Theater.  After she got married, moreover, the long-time resident recalls buying her family's first radio and black & white TV at a Western Auto Store near 8th & Main. 

During the 1930s, the Capital Theater ran Saturday double features that could be attended for ten cents. (This translates into roughly $1.35 in today's currency -- Still a bargain!)  Along with feature flicks, the dime also bought serials, newsreels, short comedy films, and coming attractions.  The serials, the resident says, were often westerns that always seemed to end with a house blowing up or a horse falling off a cliff, followed by the cliffhanging message, "CONTINUED NEXT WEEK!"  At times, the theater even provided a live emcee for the Saturday matinees.

DEPRESSING TIMES -- As the Great Depression wore on, money and provisions grew very tight.  As the resident reminisced, her mother didn't have enough food sometimes to prepare her husband's breakfast.  She would send her offspring into their North Jacksonville neighborhood to fetch whatever was needed.  One child would get eggs from a neighbor, another would obtain bread from another neighbor, and yet a third kid would retrieve two tablespoons of Maxwell House Coffee (her father's favorite) from a third neighbor.  This family wasn't sponging off of their friends, however.  Whenever the neighbors ran short of supplies, they would borrow from the family if it had recently visited one of the supermarkets near 8th & Main.  The family also picked up food from the small neighborhood grocery stores that frequently extended credit to their regular customers.  In an economically-troubled era with no credit cards and a less extensive use of bank checks, many Americans desperately relied on store tabs. 

The father of the longtime resident was hard hit by the Depression.  A train conductor from South Florida, he had lost his Florida East Coast Railroad position following the stock market crash.  He then packed his family into a Model T and moved to Jax in 1929.  The father tried his hand at running a gas station and a neighborhood sundry store, but he failed due to a lack of business experience.  After he worked for the election of a city councilman, however, the politician rewarded him with a job at the municipal docks.  The father managed a switch engine that pulled railroad cars to the wharves.  Subsequently, his family found it easier to frequent the River City's supermarkets and neighborhood groceries.

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