Jacksonville Architecture

The Independent Life Building, which is one of Jacksonville's most imposing modern landmarks, occupies the space where other older buildings, former landmarks, once stood. The McConihe Building was designed by J. H. W. Hawkins and was constructed in the middle of this block on Bay Street one year after the 1901 Fire. It was a landmark of which a city emerging from destruction could be proud. Its original owner, former mayor Luther McConihe, sold it in 1921 to the H. & W. B. Drew Company (see D-29), which occupied the building for nearly half a century. In 1971 when this building was demolished to make way for Florida's tallest skyscraper, Independent Life president Jacob F. Bryan III, rescued two cast-stone ornaments featuring lions' heads and the monogram "M" (for McConihe). These eight-foot-tall ornaments were made into a freestanding column that was erected beside the new building.