5 Examples of Marsh & Saxelbye Architecture in Jacksonville

During the early 1900s, few Jacksonville architecture firms were in higher demand than Marsh & Saxelbye.

The creative team of William M. Marsh, a Jax native, and Harold F. Saxelbye, a native of England who also worked in New York, designed a massive collection of buildings throughout Jacksonville over a span of more than twenty years. In some sense, they inherited the throne of great local architecture from Henry J. Klutho.

Their work was featured in both the urban core and the city’s suburbs, which at the time were mostly separate municipalities. They were critical in defining the residential styles of Riverside, Avondale, San Jose, and more. Many of their buildings still stand today, though some have evolved past their original purpose. Over three dozen Marsh & Saxelbye designs are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

There’s a good chance you’ve admired a Marsh & Saxelbye-designed building before without even realizing it. To highlight and honor their work, we’ve compiled a small collection of the best buildings designed by the firm – all of one of which are still standing.

GREENLEAF & CROSBY BUILDING

In the mid-1920s, local jewelry company Greenleaf & Crosby commissioned Marsh & Saxelbye to design a new, larger headquarters building for its operations at 204 N. Laura Street in downtown Jacksonville.

The building, designed with strong Art Deco elements including elaborate terra-cotta cornices and plaques, opened in 1927. Its unique configuration features one span rising twelve stories and another with just two stories. The company’s antique street clock was placed at the corner of Laura and Adams streets.

Greenleaf & Crosby rebranded as Jacob’s Jewelers just a few years after opening its new building, and it has survived decades of ups and downs in downtown Jax to still operate from the same building today. The remainder of the building is utilized for office space; the Law Offices of Phillips and Hunt recently claimed the building’s third floor and is turning the roof of the two-story span into a rooftop deck.

KARPELES MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY (FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST, SCIENTIST)

The Karpeles Manuscript Library building at 101 W. 1^st Street in Springfield was originally a Marsh & Saxelbye design commissioned by the First Church of Christ, Scientist.

The church, founded in 1897, moved into its new building in 1921. It utilized the Classical Revival-style building for its services for several decades before disbanding in the 1990s.

The church sold its building to David Karpeles, a manuscript collector who had already founded multiple manuscript museums throughout the country. Karpeles opened a new manuscript library in the building, where it has operated ever since. Aside from the addition of signage for the museum, very little about the building’s exterior design has been modified.

While the building itself is not individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places, it’s considered a contributing property to the Springfield Historic District.

MOCA JACKSONVILLE (WESTERN UNION TELEGRAPH BUILDING)

MOCA Jacksonville’s building at 333 N. Laura Street was originally built between 1930 and 1931 for Western Union Telegraph Co. The Art Deco-style design was helmed by Marsh & Saxelbye.

The five-story building included a basement and several ground-floor retail units. One of those units was later home to the renowned La Rose Footwear shop.

When Western Union vacated the building, it was rebranded as The Galleria. In the 1970s, the University of North Florida began renting space on the building’s top floor; the school left after just under a decade.

The building entered a period of decline until the Jacksonville Museum of Modern Art purchased it in 1999 and began renovations to make it the museum’s new home. The museum, which later rebranded as the Museum of Contemporary Art, opened in 2003.

Today, the museum continues to operate from its Marsh & Saxelbye-designed building.

HOTEL GEORGE WASHINGTON

Hotelier Robert Kloeppel hired Marsh & Saxelbye to design his new 15-story Hotel George Washington.

The $1.5 million luxury hotel opened in 1926 at the corner of Adams and Julia streets in downtown Jax. In addition to over 300 guest rooms with working radios, the hotel featured an upscale steakhouse and cocktail lounge, a dance hall, and multiple ground-floor retail units.

The building’s design employed elements of Renaissance Revival style and housed one of the city’s first neon-lit signs atop its roof.

For many years, the George Washington was a lively center of downtown cultural activity. 1940s-era renovations added an auditorium, prompting the hotel to become something of a de-facto performing arts center prior to the construction of the Times-Union Center for the Performing Arts.

Unfortunately, the hotel entered a period of decline in the 1960s and would soon shut down entirely. The building was demolished in 1973; the property on which it stood is currently vacant, with a new JEA headquarters building proposed for the site.

THE BOLLES SCHOOL (SAN JOSE HOTEL)

The San Jose Hotel at 7400 San Jose Boulevard was one of several structures designed by Marsh & Saxelbye for San Jose Estates Co., an ill-fated development group that had grand plans for what’s now the San Jose neighborhood.

The building was constructed between 1925 and 1926 and was to serve as the riverfront focal point for the master-planned San Jose Estates development. Marsh & Saxelbye’s design was heavily influenced by Mediterranean Revival style.

The grand hotel featured over 100 rooms, a spacious lobby and courtyard complete with a fountain, and a scenic hilltop view of the St. Johns River.

Unfortunately, San Jose Estates Co. went bankrupt just a year after the hotel opened, which led it to close its doors after only a couple of years in operation.

The building was purchased by the estate of Richard J. Bolles, led by his longtime secretary Agnes Painter. Under Painter’s leadership, the building was first leased to Florida Military Academy. When the academy vacated, Painter and her husband opted to start a private school of its own.

Today, that school – The Bolles School – still occupies the grand Marsh & Saxelbye-designed San Jose Hotel, as well as multiple other structures designed by the firm which have since been incorporated into the school’s campus.