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.
Established around the same time as Riverside, the Silvertown neighborhood was a small subsection located right along what was then the western border of Jacksonville.
According to Jacksonville Historical Society, the neighborhood was developed by local grocer and investor August Buesing. And indeed, early maps show what appears to be an “August Street” as part of the neighborhood.
Buesing intended for Silvertown to serve as something of an annex to the mostly-black Brooklyn neighborhood, providing additional residential opportunities for black residents on the outskirts of mostly-white Riverside.
Over the years, however, Riverside kept growing and expanding around Silvertown, eventually enveloping it and effectively making it a small black neighborhood within Riverside. As segregation ended and its original families gradually moved elsewhere, the area has become essentially identical to the rest of Riverside. Its original streets were incorporated into Riverside’s grid; a portion of what’s now King Street runs through what was once Silvertown and, along with what are now known as Myra Street and Dellwood Avenue, offers views of some of the few remaining residential and commercial buildings from that era.
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.