Jacksonville is a city that’s always growing – but sometimes it’s easy to lose track of how far we’ve come. To help add some perspective, we’ve compiled a list of 15 things that Jacksonville didn’t have just 15 years ago – but that we do have now!
Fifteen years ago, the city was in desperate need of a new county courthouse. The previous courthouse building had opened in the late 1950s, at a time when technological needs were much different and the county was much, much smaller. The building was also entering physical decline.
As a result, money was budgeted into the Better Jacksonville Plan for the construction of a new, much larger county courthouse. After a few redesigns, the new courthouse was constructed and opened in 2012.
It was one of the more controversial elements of the Better Jacksonville Plan, due to its high price tag ($350 million) and design that sticks out among its LaVilla neighbors. But nonetheless, it was an improvement that needed to happen and that was in high demand 15 years ago.
