BEAVER STREET

A historic aerial of Beaver Street, the Jacksonville Farmers Market and Honeymoon Yard. Courtesy of the Jacksonville Farmers Market.

Beaver Street is one of the area’s oldest thoroughfares, known to many as US 90. The roadway is an original segment of the Old Spanish Trail, which connected Jacksonville with Tallahassee and Pensacola, and for a while, was named Enterprise Street. After the Great Fire of 1901, this corridor became a critical focal point during Jacksonville’s era of industrial might. Major early 20th century businesses along Beaver Street included the Purity Ice Cream & Dairy Company (dairy products), Interstate Cooperage Company (barrels), Farris & Company (meatpackers), A&P’s Southeastern Headquarters (grocery) and Winn-Lovett’s warehouse (grocery).

Beaver Street is the only road within the district that is considered to be a state highway. As such, it is the widest street in the district. The age of buildings lining it can be literally be defined by their front setbacks. Early 20th century buildings tend to hug the street and newer buildings tend to be set far back from the street to accommodate parking lots and larger loading areas for trucks.

While many local turn-of-the-century urban core industrial and wholesale districts have become obsolete and largely abandoned, Beaver Street continues to live with major operations such as BSF, Load King, Main Metal Recycling, Preferred Freezer Services, White Wave Foods and others that significantly contribute to the city’s tax base and economic might.

  1. Beaver Street Enterprise Center

The Beaver Street Enterprise Center, Jacksonville’s first full-service business incubator, opened at Beaver and Blanche Streets in 2003.

  1. Load King

Now the headquarters of Load King Manufacturing, this building originally constructed in 1919 for the Winn & Lovett Grocery Company. Winn & Lovett eventually grew to become Winn-Dixie and a Fortune 500 company.

  1. Rethreaded

Rethreaded recently opened in a former Winn & Lovett building just north of Beaver Street on Barnett Street. This business is an excellent example of a mid-20th century structure being filled with a creative 21st century use. Rethreaded is a social entrepreneurship that is breaking the cycle of the sex trade by offering viable and creative work to those affected by the sex trade (i.e. prostitution, drug addiction and human trafficking.)

Rethreaded started with a simple idea, and a strong passion from it’s founder Kristin Keen. Beginning by forming relationships with women on the street and making prison visits, she knew the biggest need was for a safe, supportive work environment where these women could earn money while learning a skill and experiencing continued healing through community. Working in partnership with the City Rescue Mission, Rethreaded hired its first full-time employee in November 2012.

  1. Main Metal

Family owned and operated, the Main Metal Recycling Company has been in business since the 1960s. The ferrous scrap metal recycling company occupies the former Florida Machine & Foundry plant on West Church Street.

  1. William Boone warehouses

The William E. Boone warehouses were built in 1914 along the S-Line. For many years, Security Mills, Inc. operated a feed mill out of this complex.

  1. TTX

After the closure of the Jacksonville Terminal Yard, its facilities were redeveloped as a railcar repair shop and fabrication facility operated by the TTX Company’s Southeastern Repair Division (SRD). TTX Company is a leading provider of railcars and related freight car management services to the North American rail industry.

  1. Honeymoon Yard

Although, no longer a major yard for passenger rail cars, Honeymoon Yard remains an important junction point. Here, the CSX, FEC, and NS railroads converge.

  1. Beaver Street Fisheries

What started off as a small retail fish market near Honeymoon Yard in 1950 has grown into a major importer, manufacturer, and distributor of frozen seafood, meat, and other food products. With a workforce of 300, Beaver Street Fisheries, Inc. (BSF), has occupied the former Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Company’s (A&P) Southeastern headquarters since 19xx. BSF’s collection of buildings include a cold storage warehouse dating back to 1924. Of interesting note, A&P’s use of the BSF complex included a bakery and coffee plant. For six decades, A&P roasted its famed “8 O’clock” brand in Honeymoon Yard before ceasing production in 1990.

  1. Jacksonville Farmers Market

The Jacksonville Farmers Market, Florida’s oldest farmers market, at 1810 West Beaver Street (U.S. 90), provides a forum in which customers can buy directly from over 200 farmers and year-round vendors retailing and wholesaling the widest and freshest selection of produce in North Florida.

  1. Condaxis Coffee

Condaxis Coffee & Tea, Inc. is located directly across the street from the Jacksonville Farmer’s Market. The wholesale coffee, tea, and spices company has operated out of what was a former gas station on West Beaver Street for 50 years.

  1. Farris & Company

Prior to World War II, much of the area near Honeymoon Yard was dedicated to the meatpacking industry. In addition to stockyards, nearby meatpacking plants were operated by Jones Chambliss, Henry’s Hickory House, Armour & Company and Farris & Company. Farris & Company opened its 4-story slaughterhouse on Beaver Street in 1921. Products produced and sold by Farris & Company included neck-bones, beef liver, pig tails, baloney, ribs, white bacon and Florida smoke bacon. The company closed in the mid-1960s due to not being able to fulfill contracts with Armour and Hormel after a building fire ruined its inventory. After its closure, the building was used as a cold storage warehouse for the N.G. Wade Investment Company. Since 2001, the site has been used by Lockwood Quality Demolition, Inc.

  1. WhiteWave Foods

WhiteWave Foods’ plant on Beaver Street processes, packages, and distributes Silk Soymilk and Land O’ Lakes Whipping Cream throughout the Southeast. This location recently underwent a $7 million expansion to increase its processing and distribution capacity. WhiteWave owned the first company to nationally supply organic milk, Horizon. WhiteWave Foods is a company that manufactures and distributes plant-based foods and beverages.

WhiteWave is known for their production of the popular milk replacement “Silk.” They also are responsible for the production of large company brands such as “International Delight” and “Land O’Lakes.” Another interesting nugget concerning WhiteWave’s Beaver Street is its history. In 1948, Aaron Block, co-founder of Reddi Whip whip cream, established the manufacturing plant to produce his products. For years, the Jacksonville facility was known as Long Life Dairy Products, Inc. Now a national household name, Reddi-wip was invented in 1948 by Block’s co-founder Aaron S. “Bunny” Lapin.