Jacksonville Architecture

This is not historic preservation. In 1981-1982, the Barnett Bank demolished three of Downtown's most interesting buildings: the G. D. Jackson Building, a Prairie School gem by H. J. Klutho (1914); the Ritz-Woller Building, Downtown's oldest building (1876); and the Heard National Bank Building. During the final phase of demolishing the Heard Building, a decision was made to retain the monumental columns that marked the entrance to the building. Although this remnant is as much a reminder of the building's demolition as it is a memorial of the building's existence, it is nonetheless a beautiful free-standing work of architectural art.

When completed in April, 1913, the Heard Building was the tallest building in Florida and remained Jacksonville's tallest structure until 1926 (see D-8). It was built for John Joseph Heard, a financier from Arcadia, Florida. This fifteen-story bank and office building, which cost over $1,000,000 dollars to build, was faced with ornate terra-cotta, brick, and marble. When the bank was forced to close in 1917, Mr. Heard drew on his personal fortune to repay one hundred percent of the money owed to each depositor. Historian T. F. Davis noted that this repayment was "a circumstance unique in the history of banking in the United States" at that time.