Jacksonville is blessed with a number of noteworthy historic neighborhoods – Springfield, Riverside, Murray Hill, Mandarin, and LaVilla are just a few standouts.
The city has gotten much better at honoring its history in recent years, with placards and monuments explaining the history and context of certain neighborhoods or properties. But there are still parts of the city whose pasts are a lot less celebrated.
And some of its historic neighborhoods haven’t even survived to be part of today’s narrative.
Few remnants remain today of certain historic neighborhoods that were lost to redevelopment or some other fate, putting them at risk of being permanently forgotten.
Here are a few of those old neighborhoods and the details still remembered about them today.
Yukon, or Youkon as it’s sometimes spelled in old city records, was a small town of around 1,000 residents developed along the Ortega River just south of Ortega.
Unlike the other entries, it was never officially a Jacksonville neighborhood. But it likely would have become part of Jax had it survived through consolidation.
Instead, Yukon was essentially told to stop being a town by the U.S. military, which was nervous about the town’s proximity to NAS Jacksonville which was established on the opposite side of Roosevelt Boulevard in the 1940s.
Residents were forced to move from the town’s main subdivision, which became property of the federal government. Much of that former subdivision is now a foliage-covered part of Tillie K. Fowler Regional Park, which opened on the land in the ‘80s.
Some of Yukon’s old buildings are still around, like Yukon Baptist Church and Murray’s Tavern. The old Yukon post office building is still standing at 120th Street and Yukon Road – it was even still in operation until the turn of the millennium.
But the remnants seen today are a far cry from the small town’s peak.
Enjoyed this post very much. Have you covered Fairfield? My Mother and her six brothers grew up on Parker Street. Also the history of Lake Forest. Been here since 1947. Thanks.
I lived in Florida when I was a lil girl we lived on first and Iona st in the 60s and I went to madavruther school. I sure miss those days.
That probably was Mattie V. Rutherford school.