JAX CURIOSITIES: COHEN DELIVERY VANS

(Source of picture: Florida State Archives)

These delivery vans ran for one of Jacksonville's best-known businesses, the Cohen Brothers Department Store.  Wouldn't it be fun to drive one downtown today?  The photo probably dates from the 1920s or earlier. 

Cohen Brothers called itself "The Big Store" for good reason.  The enterprise occupied the first two floors of the St. James Building, located on Hemming Plaza downtown.  (This structure now houses Jacksonville's City Hall.)  When completed in 1912, the St. James held the the ninth-largest department store in America.  It also stood as the largest building in Jacksonville, other than a railroad warehouse and the train station (today's Prime Osborn Convention Center).

Cohens became May Cohens in 1959.  The downtown store finally closed in July, 1987, due to poor sales.

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