Jacksonville Architecture

Isaiah D. Hart's 1857 survey of Jacksonville called for this site to be used as a public square. But it was not until 1866 -- five years after his death -- that the land was sold to the city by the executors of Hart's estate for a mere $10. During the tourist boom in the 1870's and 1880's, two of Jacksonville's largest hotels, the Windsor and the St. James, overlooked this block. It was originally known simply as "City Park" and later as "St. James Park." In 1874 the famed poet Sidney Lanier described an evening in Jacksonville during the tourist season in which "many people are promenading in the pleasant evening air." He further noted that situated among fine oaks which border a newly-planted open square, is the St. James Hotel where the chances are strong that as one peeps through the drawing room windows on the way to one's room, one will find so many New York faces and Boston faces and Chicago faces that one does not feel very far away from home after all.

Contrasting with this pleasant image was an 1887 newspaper account that described the park as overgrown with weeds, habituated by stray pigs and cows, and a gathering place for "bunko men" and prostitutes. An earlier newspaper editor had a suggestion to improve the ill-maintained park by turning it "into a cemetery, for by this means in the course of time we may have a few handsome monuments and sorrowing relatives will plant around them a few flowers." In 1887 the first city-financed improvements were undertaken, including sidewalks, a fountain, and landscaping. The park has undergone numerous other changes over the years. The 1901 Fire destroyed all of the trees in the park. Nearly a half-century later the huge oak trees had re-grown but were then chopped down by city workmen to get rid of birds. Each evening at sunset hundreds of thousands of starlings would roost in the trees, making it unsafe for anyone to walk or sit under them. In 1978 the grass was removed, and the park was redesigned as a plaza. Over the last hundred years, several bandstands and other utility buildings were built in the park and then later removed.

The most unchanged feature of the park is the Confederate Monument in the center. It was unveiled on June 16, 1898, during the reunion of the United Confederate Veterans. In 1899 the City Council officially changed the name to Hemming Park, as a memorial to Civil War veteran Charles C. Hemming, who had donated the monument to the city. Historian T. Frederick Davis reported that, during the 1901 Fire, the residents of Downtown piled their household goods at the base of the monument in hopes that they would escape the blaze. Unfortunately, these caught fire and "the cement at the base of the monument showed a reddened glow. The bronze soldier at the top stood firm amidst the withering torrent of fire about him." The monument stands today as one of the few remaining survivors of the Great Fire.