For many years, downtown Jacksonville’s beautiful historic buildings were left to rot away without a purpose. For a variety of reasons, most of them had been vacant since the 1970s.
The ones that weren’t left to wither away either retained their original tenants or were unceremoniously demolished to make room for something new – usually a poorly-designed parking garage.
But within the past few decades, the tide has begun to turn on historic preservation within Jax’s urban core. Several of those long-vacant buildings have been painstakingly restored and revitalized, and they now live on with new purposes that will likely keep them around for decades to come.
To honor the growth of adaptive reuse and historic preservation in downtown Jax, we’ve compiled a giant collection of our existing downtown-centric Jax Evolved pieces.
The St. James Building, located at 117 W. Duval Street in downtown Jacksonville, is one of the country’s most beautiful city halls.
But the building has a much longer history than its relatively short stint as the center of Jacksonville’s city government.
The building sits on a site once occupied by the St. James Hotel – after which the “newer” building was named. The hotel was built shortly after the Civil War, and featured a restaurant, barber shop, and wine room among other amenities. It was a popular spot for out-of-town guests during a period of time in which Jax was a hotspot for traveling northerners.
When the hotel burnt down in the Great Fire of 1901, the property was snatched up by a competitor to ensure whatever was built in its place wouldn’t be another hotel. It was eventually sold to Morris and Jacob Cohen, who planned to open a department store there.
A grand design developed by famed architect Henry J. Klutho was chosen for the building. Klutho’s plans called for a four-story, mixed-use structure. There were street-level shops on the outside, with Cohen Brothers occupying the first two floors of the interior, and two stories of rentable office space on top of the store. The top of the department store featured a giant glass dome as its centerpiece. The interior of the store almost resembled the center court of a shopping mall, decades before the widespread introduction of suburban malls.
Klutho himself rented space in the building for around a decade.
The store opened in 1912 as the largest structure in Jacksonville at the time, and it became an instant hit. It would be a key part of some of downtown Jacksonville’s most successful years.
A remodel in the mid-1920s resulted in the removal of the department store’s glass dome.
The department store operated as Cohen Brothers until May Department Stores bought it in 1958 and turned it into May Cohens. May indicated a desire to invest further in the fast-growing Jacksonville area.
That further investment, however, would eventually spell the end of the downtown store. The company expanded, adding locations at newly-built suburban shopping malls. These malls were rapidly becoming the way of the future, leaving downtown’s department stores to slowly rot away.
May Cohens managed to chug along for 30 more years, closing its doors in 1987. And unfortunately, the brand’s suburban locations didn’t survive long enough to become part of May’s 2006 merger with Macy’s.
The St. James Building sat without a major tenant for less than a decade when in 1993, as part of the River City Renaissance plan, Mayor Ed Austin proposed that the city purchase and restore the building for use as its new City Hall. The project would come at a price tag of $24 million and would involve the reconstruction of Klutho’s glass dome.
Additional upgrades included access for people with disabilities, energy-efficiency upgrades, and reversing many of the renovations made to the building since its original construction.
The building re-opened as Jacksonville City Hall in December 1997. Since then, small upgrades and renovation projects have occurred to keep the building modern enough for its main usage.
Today, it continues to serve as our City Hall building, and ranks among the nation’s most impressive and historic city halls.
The Museum of Contemporary Art has become one of the most important pieces of downtown Jacksonville’s culture since opening in the early 2000s.
However, its historic building has lived long beyond its current use as MOCA’s home.
The history of the building at 333 N. Laura Street begins in 1931, when it first opened as the Western Union Telegraph Building.
Back in those days, telegrams were a popular form of communication – it was like an infinitely less convenient form of texting. The process required that messages be coded, and then decoded, by telegraphers. And in Jacksonville, as well as in most of the country, Western Union was the primary telegraphy company.
The Western Union building was constructed along Hemming Park at the corner of Laura and Duval streets between 1930 and 1931. It was designed in the Art Deco architectural style by Marsh & Saxelbye, who designed several other historical buildings in Jax.
The five-story building featured a basement as well as four ground-floor retail spaces. In one of those spaces, La Rose Footwear would open in 1949 and became widely renowned as one of the country’s best shoe stores.
As time marched on and telegrams decreased in popularity, Western Union no longer had a need for its Laura Street location. The building was rebranded as The Galleria, still featuring ground-floor shops that complemented the retail-heavy landscape of downtown Jax at the time.
In the late ’70s, the University of North Florida took over the building’s top floor and converted it into a downtown mini-campus to better accommodate students that didn’t live on the Southside. UNF would utilize this mini-campus for just under a decade before deciding it wasn’t a worthwhile financial venture.
By the late ’80s, UNF had left, La Rose had moved down the street, and The Galleria began to suffer from the same issues of aging and lack of interest that plague many similar historic downtown properties.
However, the building gained renewed hope when the Jacksonville Museum of Modern Art arranged to purchase the building in 1999. JMoMA, as the organization was known at the time, had been exploring a move into downtown for a while and finally decided that their previous space on Art Museum Drive was insufficient.
The museum set about renovating the whole building, with extra care being taken to preserve the building’s historic features and to integrate the museum’s design with the building’s history.
The museum celebrated its grand re-opening in May 2003, with 14,000 square feet of gallery space, an auditorium, a gift shop, and Cafe NoLa.
In 2006, the museum rebranded itself as the Museum of Contemporary Art. It was acquired in 2009 by UNF, marking the second time the university would become affiliated with the building.
Today, MOCA’s building stands not only as an example of Jacksonville’s great local art culture, but also as an excellent example of reusing historic space in downtown Jax.
Sweet Pete’s location just north of Hemming Park is a fantastic spot, but up until a few years ago, its building laid empty and out of use.
The building, which Sweet Pete’s took over in 2014, had previously sat vacant since 2004.
Its longest-running tenant, the Seminole Club last made an unsuccessful attempt at a revival in 1998. The club had previously shut down in 1989.
In its heyday, the Seminole Club operated as an elite social club for Jacksonville men; it was described by members as being like a fraternity. The club was formed in 1887 and opened in its building at 400 N. Hogan Street in 1903. The building was constructed at a cost of $25,000.
They later renovated the building to add a third floor with “bachelor” rooms.
Membership was exclusive but still numbered in the hundreds. It was all men; women weren’t allowed to join until about a year before it shut down. The interior featured a full bar and a basketball court. Presidents Roosevelt and Kennedy spoke from the building’s balcony on campaign stops.
After years of thriving the club eventually shut down for good in 1989, with the exception of that one comeback attempt. The building was designated by the city to be preserved as a historic structure around a decade ago as it sat vacant.
In 2014, Marcus Lemonis of CNBC’s “The Profit” partnered with Sweet Pete’s to purchase and renovate the historic building into a massive confectionary shop. The design for the store was created by New York-based Maximum Impact and also included restaurant space which has been occupied by The Candy Apple Café, MLG, and most recently 10/Six Grille.
The renovation cost $2.3 million and included about 23,000 square feet of space. The finished product is one of the largest candy stores you’ll ever see, right in the heart of downtown Jax.
Lemonis has since sold the building to locally-based JWB Real Estate Capital. Today, Sweet Pete’s continues to serve up local sweets from its historic location.
Towering over Adams Street near Farah & Farah’s main offices, The Carling has been home to 100 upscale apartment units since its most recent overhaul in 2005.
The building originally was constructed in 1925. It was designed by New York-based Thompson, Holmes, & Converse, an architecture firm that also collaborated on the design for the original Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital among other projects.
It opened in September 1926 as The Carling Hotel, a 335-room luxury hotel that would become a premier destination for visitors to the city for the next few decades.
It was named in honor of Carling Dinkler; his Dinkler Hotels had acquired the building prior to its completion. Ten years after opening, however, the hotel rebranded itself as Hotel Roosevelt as the result of a naming contest by the new owner, the Robert Meyers hotel chain.
The hotel thrived for many years but began to slow down a bit in the ‘50s. As a result, Robert Meyers Hotels opted to construct a newer hotel (which has since been demolished) and left The Roosevelt behind in 1957.
However, the hotel continued to live on. It remained one of only two or three luxury hotels in downtown Jacksonville and featured active ground-floor restaurants and businesses.
Unfortunately, tragedy would strike soon. In the early morning hours of December 29, 1963, with the hotel packed due to Gator Bowl weekend, a fire broke out. It started in the ceiling of the downstairs ballroom, caused by faulty electrical wiring and accelerated by flammable ceiling materials.
Jacksonville Fire Department was called at 7:30 AM; rescue efforts would include U.S. Navy helicopters being landed on the roof to escort people to safety. Prior to their arrival, patrons had been attempting to shimmy down the building to safety using tied-together bed sheets.
Two hours after the first call to JFD, the fire was put out. Estimates of the number of people saved from the burning building range from 400 to 500.
Unfortunately, 22 people didn’t make it, including one of the rescue workers. It was, and still is, the deadliest single event in Jacksonville history. Most of the deaths were caused by carbon monoxide poisoning.
The hotel sustained massive fire damage and shut its doors for good at the start of the following year. Workers moved to the competing Hotel Washington, which would shut down by the end of the decade as well.
The building remained in various states of remodeling throughout that decade, eventually being purchased by a church group and turned into a retirement home.
Jacksonville Regency House, as it was named, provided apartment living for retirees. However, it never really gained a lot of traction with this usage. The retirement home operation shuttered in 1989.
The building was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places in February 1991, giving it some degree of safety from any attempts at demolition. However, it remained vacant, and the clock kept ticking on the already-crumbling internal infrastructure.
Finally, in the early 2000s, the City of Jacksonville granted local development company Vestcor a massive 20-year, $16.5 million loan to restore the historic building and convert it into luxury apartments.
Vestcor worked to restore the building’s original features while also modernizing its amenities, adding a fitness center and clubhouse. The project also required massive repairs of parts of the building that were falling apart at the time. It ended up costing $29 million and taking nearly two years to complete the project. A new parking garage was constructed next to the building to accommodate tenants.
The building, newly renamed The Carling, opened its doors to tenants in July 2005 with a collection of 100 brand new one- and two-bedroom units. Its sister property, 11 East Forsyth, is also an historic building restored by Vestcor.
In 2009, the city and Vestcor agreed to re-work the terms of the loan that funded the project, with Vestcor citing three years of losses between their two historic projects.
Today, the building continues to stand and operate as The Carling. It continues to host occasional memorials for the tragic events of 1963 as well.
In the aftermath of the Great Fire of 1901, many of Jacksonville’s most important buildings were damaged or even destroyed.
One of the buildings ruined by the fire was the city’s library, which had been formed only a couple of decades earlier.
A local lawyer wrote to Andrew Carnegie, steel industry magnate and the father of the modern philanthropy movement, in an attempt to secure funds to have a new library built. Libraries were one of Carnegie’s favorite philanthropic ventures; over the course of his lifetime, he donated the funds for the construction of over 2,500 libraries across the globe.
Carnegie offered $50,000 of funding for a new library in Jax, with a few conditions. The city had to commit to supporting the library financially and had to find the property for it. He also required that the library be free and open to all city residents. This meant that in the days of segregation, black and white residents would be given equal access to the library.
Plans were set into motion to construct the limestone building at the corner of Ocean and Adams streets. It was designed by architect Henry Klutho.
The library opened in the summer of 1905, with a collection of over 8,000 books. It was the first tax-supported library in the state of Florida. The building became the centerpiece of the newly-formed Jacksonville Public Library system, which soon branched out across the city.
Eventually the building’s size became an issue as the city’s population expanded. In 1960, the city initiated plans to build a new Main Library building.
By 1965, the Haydon Burns building opened down the street at 122 N. Ocean Street. The Carnegie building was left behind.
In 1982, then-Mayor Jake Godbold announced that the building was up for sale, along with several other city-owned buildings. Bedell Law Firm bought the building for $314,000 to restore it and convert it to law offices.
It makes sense that Bedell would be the ones to purchase the historic property. The firm itself has been around since 1865, earning it the title of oldest law firm in Florida.
The $1 million restoration was designed by Jacksonville architect Ted Pappas. It took around three years to complete, and in January 1987 it was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.
The Carnegie-Bedell building – now officially referred to as the Bedell Building – has served as the headquarters for the Bedell Law Firm ever since, providing continued life to a property with over 100 years of history.
The 11 East Forsyth building is one of downtown Jacksonville’s primary apartment complexes, but it didn’t always serve that purpose.
Originally constructed in 1926, the building began its life as the Lynch Building. It was named in honor of Stephen Andrew Lynch, an entrepreneur who’d previously played a key role in the early days of the motion picture industry.
Lynch spearheaded the project, which called for a 17-story commercial office building with ground-floor retail space in the heart of downtown.
The building was designed by architectural firm Pringle and Smith. The firm designed similar buildings across the Southeast around this time, many of which have since found new uses. Downtown Atlanta’s Hotel Indigo and Courtyard Marriott were both originally office buildings designed by Pringle and Smith.
The Lynch Building was the second-tallest structure in Jacksonville at the time, bested only by the Barnett Bank building which opened the same year and was 18 stories tall.
The building would remain mostly unmodified until 1962, when American Heritage Life Insurance Company took control of it. The company invested in remodeling the building and renamed it the American Heritage Life Building.
Unfortunately, despite investing in renovations, the company didn’t stick around for very long. After just over two decades at the former Lynch Building, AHLIC packed its bags for a larger campus near Butler Boulevard.
Meanwhile, the building at 11 E. Forsyth Street joined the ever-growing list of historic buildings in downtown Jacksonville without any occupants.
Finally, in the early 2000s, hope was renewed for the aging structure.
Local real-estate development company Vestcor, with the help of huge loans from the city, purchased both the former Lynch Building and a former luxury hotel building just down the street known as The Carling.
Vestcor received over $17 million in loans from the city to redevelop the building as an apartment complex, with the goal of bringing new living options to the downtown area. The project included both extensive renovations to the aging building and construction of a new six-story parking garage to accommodate its residents.
The renovated building was renamed 11 East Forsyth and opened in 2003 with over 120 apartment units and a ground-level Starbucks coffee shop. Around this time, it was also added to the National Register of Historic Places.
Starbucks closed after a few years – the spot is now held by Super Food and Brew.
With development ramping up once again in the downtown area, 11 East Forsyth will play a key role in providing affordable downtown living.
10 West Adams Street has served as the home for Farah & Farah’s downtown Jacksonville operations for nearly two decades, but like many downtown buildings, it had a long life before its current tenants showed up.
The building at 10 West Adams began its life way back in 1912, when it opened its doors as S.H. Kress & Co.’s downtown Jax location.
S.H. Kress & Co. was one of the most popular “five and dime” stores. Five and dimes were kind of like upscale dollar stores and were extremely popular back in the day.
Kress stores were known for generally being located along Main Street in various cities, and for their grand architecture. At the time it was built, Jacksonville’s Kress was supposedly the biggest one in the country – although it was quickly outdone by future locations. The two-level store featured a lunch counter and a tea-room in addition to its retail space.
The Kress store thrived in Jacksonville for decades – as did several five and dimes in the heart of downtown.
However, their image would be forever tarnished during the civil rights era when conflict arose over denying Black customers access to their lunch counters.
Rival five and dime Woolworth’s was the site of a sit-in protest in Jacksonville. While Kress was spared in Jax, the store was met with protests in other major cities, with one even resulting in a court case.
By the mid-’60s, the brand was bought out by Genesco, Inc., parent company of modern brands such as Lids and Johnston & Murphy. Under Genesco, Kress began to focus more on shopping malls, which were quickly becoming the new standard in retail.
The Kress building was sold off in 1980 to a financial company and renovated. The ground-level exterior was modified extensively to hide the building’s former use, and an additional floor was added between the first and second stories to create a three-story office building. An elevator was added as well.
The Kress brand dissolved soon after.
In 1994, prominent local attorney Eddie Farah had purchased the property through a holding company.
By the turn of the century, Farah had moved his practice into the building, making it his firm’s main office. The firm would continue to rent out extra space up until its most recent remodel.
As the firm expanded, Eddie added his brother Chuck as a partner, creating Farah & Farah.
In 2010, the firm set into motion a major remodel of the Kress building, adding new awnings, signage, and a courtyard area. The interior was given a modern makeover as well. The sideways Farah & Farah signage on the building’s corner harkens back to a similar Kress banner seen on the building before its 1980 remodel.
Today, Farah & Farah occupies the entirety of the old Kress building, and ranks as one of Jacksonville’s most trusted – and certainly most advertised – local law firms.
Before the Jessie Ball duPont Fund took over the building at 40 East Adams Street and turned it into a center for nonprofit organizations, it first served for several decades as the city’s main public library.
The building was commissioned in 1960 to replace the aging Carnegie Library. It was to be built on the site of an old city hall building.
Architect Taylor Hardwick created a unique design aimed at brightening up the monotonous urban environment in downtown Jax. His mid-century modern design featured vibrant colors and big glass walls, with large, wavy panels creating a funky, artsy aesthetic previously unseen in the area.
The project took five years from commissioning to completion, costing $3.7 million to build.
The three-story, 126,000 square foot library was dedicated on November 28, 1965. It was named in honor of Haydon Burns, who was the city’s mayor at the time and had also recently become Florida’s governor-elect.
The state-of-the-art facility served as the city’s main library for four decades. But by the ‘90s, upgrades were desperately needed, and the building’s technological infrastructure increasingly became too outdated.
In the early ‘00s, a new main library was commissioned as part of the Better Jacksonville Plan. The city then started taking bids from developers to take over the Haydon Burns Library building, which would officially close its doors in 2005.
The city sold the building to a group of investors operating under the name Main Branch LLC in 2007 for $3.25 million. The building was renamed 122 Ocean, and plans emerged for a revitalization that would include a grocery store, bar and restaurant space, and a movie theater among other amenities. Those plans fell through, largely as a result of the major economic recession that was taking place.
In 2012, the Jessie Ball duPont Fund took an interest in the building. A year later, it purchased the building from Main Branch LLC for $2.2 million – a $1 million discount from its pre-recession price tag.
JBDF then initiated a $25 million renovation project, led by KBJ Architects, with the goal of establishing a center for nonprofit organizations in Jacksonville.
The Jessie Ball duPont Center opened its doors in 2015, with JBDF moving into the building’s third floor. Since then, a few dozen nonprofit organizations have joined them in the building.
Today, the center is thriving, with tenants including Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northeast Florida, Delores Barr Weaver Policy Center, First Coast YMCA, and many other local nonprofits.
After years of neglect, what was once a depleted former bank building on a high-visibility downtown street corner is now the upscale, state-of-the-art Cowford Chophouse.
The Bostwick Building, as it was previously known, was one of the first new structures to open after the Great Fire of 1901 ripped through downtown Jax. It was, in fact, the first project to receive a permit after the fire.
It was designed by New York architect J.H.W. Hawkins and built to house the operations of First National Bank – whose branch location at that same site had burnt to the ground in the fire.
It was finished in 1902. Unfortunately, First National Bank failed just a year after the new building was completed.
Guaranty Trust and Savings Bank stepped in and purchased the building, and even had it expanded in 1919, almost doubling its size.
But by 1922, it too had failed. A third bank jumped in afterward, but it didn’t fare well either. By the early ‘30s the building was abandoned, and the bank had folded.
William Bostwick Jr., who had served as vice president at Guaranty Trust & Savings, paid off the bank’s creditors to take control of the property. Under Bostwick, it became an office building, serving that purpose for decades.
But with newer, nicer office buildings being constructed around downtown – and the rest of the city – it became unrealistic for the Bostwick Building to compete. By the early 1980s, the building had been abandoned.
It sat unused and neglected for years. Structural damage started to accumulate, but little was done to protect the building aside from boarding up its windows. In the early ‘90s, those boarded-up windows were painted by local artist Jim Draper in celebration of the pending addition of the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Eventually, roof damage led to water intrusion, causing damages to both the Bostwick Building and adjacent properties.
Because of all the building’s issues, and hefty fines from the city, the Bostwick family filed for a permit in 2012 to demolish the building. The city, in turn, proposed that the building be designated a historic property.
This set off a back-and-forth battle between the family and the city. The Bostwicks wished to demolish the building and refused offers from several buyers. One of those potential buyers was Jacques Klempf, who offered $325,000 for the property.
By 2013, city council had approved the building’s historic designation, and foreclosed on the property. Klempf then purchased the property via city auction for $165,000 the next year, with the plan of turning the property into a restaurant.
Work began almost immediately – but it wouldn’t be an easy process.
The building’s inside was essentially ruined. Foundation issues had to be addressed. The exterior walls had to be propped up during much of the construction process, while the interior was built up from scratch.
Despite the challenges involved, much of the building’s exterior façade was preserved throughout construction.
Construction, which was led by Danis Construction, took around three years and cost over $6 million. Jax-based Design Cooperative helped with the interior design.
In late 2017, Cowford Chophouse finally opened its doors to much fanfare. The new steakhouse features an elegant, upscale interior design, incorporating local elements such as the St. Johns River. Pieces of wood from the original building are incorporated throughout the interior, and many of the original windows still remain in the walls. It boasts three stories, including a rooftop bar, with seating for around 300 patrons.
So far, the restaurant has been a big hit with locals. And the beautifully-done restoration is already being recognized for innovation and attention to detail, having been featured on American Institute of Architects’ website.
It remains to be seen how the steakhouse will fare years down the line, but no matter what, Klempf and his team have done a great service to the city by restoring and revitalizing this important piece of Jacksonville history.
Located at the corner of Adams and Hogan streets in downtown Jacksonville, the historic Levy Building currently houses two local law firms, a dentistry practice, and an eye care center.
But back in the day, it was home to one of downtown Jax’s most prestigious department stores.
The Levy Building was built in 1927, with its beautiful Chicago school-style frame being designed by noted local architects Marsh & Saxelbye. It was built to host Levy’s Department Store, a department store founded in the 1910s that was known for carrying stylish, upscale apparel.
Levy’s took up all four floors of the building, carrying jewelry, accessories, and men’s and women’s clothing. It hosted Jacksonville’s elite shoppers, who trusted Levy’s to help curate their expensive wardrobes. It operated alongside a large collection of department stores in downtown Jacksonville in the mid-1900s.
Levy’s would later rebrand itself as Levy-Wolf in honor of a key executive. But by the time that rebranding occurred, the mass exodus of department stores from downtown Jax to suburban malls had begun. This led to reduced foot traffic downtown, which would eventually spell the end for Levy-Wolf.
The store closed its doors permanently in 1984. A year later, the building was reconfigured into office space.
One of the main tenants of the new office space was Saxelbye Architects, a spinoff of the same Marsh & Saxelbye that designed the building back in the ‘20s. During their tenure, the building took on the title of the Saxelbye Building.
In 2000, the local law firm Cole, Stone, Stoudemire, Morgan & Dore purchased the building and took over much of its office space. Another local law firm, Boyd & Jenerette, moved into the building in the mid-2000s.
By 2008, Cole Stone and Boyd & Jenerette had reached an agreement to merge into one firm. The firms combined under the Boyd & Jenerette name and occupied two floors of the Levy Building.
Today, Boyd & Jenerette occupies the top three floors of the Levy Building. Jax Vision Care, law firm Plata Schott, and cosmetic dentistry practice Edwards & Cavendish PA share the building’s ground floor.
The historic Dyal-Upchurch Building at 6 E. Bay Street holds two distinctions noteworthy to any Jacksonville history buff. It was the first high-rise building project to emerge following the Great Fire of 1901, and it was also the first building in Jacksonville to be designed by architect Henry J. Klutho.
Klutho designed the building, in collaboration with Atlanta, GA-based architect J.W. Goluche, for Dyal-Upchurch Investment Company. The timber and investments company had previously been based in Georgia but, like Klutho, they saw an opportunity in Jax following the fire.
Construction of the six-story, Renaissance Revival-style building took place between 1901 and 1902. Over four-hundred wood pilings bolted into the riverbed supported its foundation, and according to a city marketing brochure, over a million bricks were utilized during its construction.
Along with Dyal-Upchurch, the building featured offices for the National Weather Service and Atlantic National Bank.
By the end of the decade, Atlantic National Bank had opened its own headquarters building and moved out.
A fire in 1915 damaged some of the design features at the top of the building. It also destroyed NWS’s offices, prompting them to move to a new office on Main Street.
Dyal-Upchurch Investment Co. went out of business in 1924, leaving its building without a primary tenant. Other tenants shuffled in and out, but as newer, nicer office buildings opened in the central business district, the Dyal-Upchurch Building struggled and eventually ended up entirely vacant.
In 1980, the vacant building was added to the National Register of Historic Places. The Haskell Company purchased it and renovated it into workable office space, utilizing tax credits from its new historic designation.
In 1998, local advertising firm Husk Jennings purchased the building for $1.6 million and renovated the top floor to serve as its new offices. Husk Jennings would later put another $1.72 million into rehabbing the building in 2002, becoming one of the first projects to utilize the newly-created Downtown Historic Preservation and Revitalization Trust Fund.
Bold plans to add a restaurant on the ground floor of the building as part of the renovations never panned out, but an art gallery was added to the second floor of the building along with other improvements.
In 2005, Husk Jennings was purchased and became On Ideas. That same year, the company sold its building to Orlando, FL-based developer Cameron Kuhn.
Kuhn defaulted on payments for the building, resulting in it being repossessed by the bank. Another Orlando-area developer, A. Duda & Sons, bought the building for $3.73 million and began another round of renovations aimed at attracting office tenants.
Local auto dealer Jack Hanania purchased the building in 2017 for $2.8 million and is the current property owner.
Today, the Dyal-Upchurch Building lives on with multiple tenants, including On Ideas and its video-production sister company.
Very few of downtown Jacksonville’s historic buildings still have portions of their old-school signage intact.
But sure enough, when you look up toward the top of the Churchwell Lofts building at 301 E. Bay Street, you’ll see the black “J.H. Churchwell Company” banner added to the building in the 1920s.
But the building itself predates its days as home to J.H. Churchwell Co.
Robert Victor Covington commissioned the four-story warehouse building for his wholesale dry goods and notions company in 1905. He and his company operated out of the building until 1923, when Covington decided to retire.
That’s when the Churchwell brothers jumped in and bought the building for their own dry goods and notions company. Within a few years, the Churchwell family company had set up shop in the building.
The family would soon split the company – which was founded in 1911 – off into two branches. J.H. Churchwell became the head of wholesale operations, which would remain within their downtown Jax building.
J.H. Churchwell Company operated for several decades in the building, sticking around even as many other businesses fled the declining downtown area. But it eventually became impractical for the company to keep utilizing so much space, prompting the company to consider redevelopment.
In the mid-2000s, the company’s former office space was stripped down and converted into 21 loft-style residential condominiums, along with ground-floor retail units. The $3.9 million project was led by local architecture firm Fisher Koppenhafer and completed in 2007.
The Churchwell Lofts, as they’re now known, added to the few existing residential options in downtown Jax. The ground-floor retail units have struggled to find suitors, but in 2011, Olio opened in one of its units and has since become among the city’s most popular eateries.
The Churchwell Company, meanwhile, moved to a smaller space in Murray Hill.
The project to convert the Churchwell Building into loft-style condominiums represents one of the earliest efforts to bring a residential element to adaptive reuse projects in the city’s urban core, helping to establish a trend that continues today.
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