STOCKTON STREET

The Baker and Holmes warehouse shortly after completion. (State Archives of Florida/Spottswood)

Unlike Dennis Street, Stockton Street developed out as an industrial corridor before World War II. A vital connection between Riverside and Beaver Street, early warehouses and factories on Stockton Street included Southern Dairies, Inc. (ice cream), Fram Florida, Inc. (canning), Vita Foods (Jelly) and Linde Air Products (Liquid Oxygen and Acetylene Acid Gas). Like Myrtle Avenue, the buildings range in size and architectural styles.

  1. Conrad Yelvington Distributors (CYDI)

A view of the portion of Honeymoon Yard that has been converted into an aggregate transfer facility. (CYDI)

In the 1980s, a portion of the Honeymoon rail yard was converted into an aggregate transfer facility for Conrad Yelvington Distributors (CYDI).

  1. Eco Relics

Opening its doors in 2013, Eco Relics is the largest architectural salvage company within a five-state area. Unlike other big box home improvement stores, Eco Relics reuses, recycles, and re-purposes building supplies, construction tools, and architectural salvage inventory. They then sell these materials at discount prices to contractors, interior decorators and the general public as opposed to them being sent to landfills across the country.

Eco occupies a warehouse built by the Baker & Holmes Company in 1927. At the time, Baker & Holmes specialized in wholesale grain, hay, flour, grits, meal, fertilizers, cottonseed meal, and building material. During the mid-20th century, Sears Roebuck & Company used the space as an appliance warehouse.

  1. Praxair

PRAXAIR Distribution Southeast operates a site initially built for the Linde Air Products Company in the early 1950s. Linde manufactured Liquid Oxygen and Acetylene Acid gas at this location.

DENNIS STREET

Dennis Street’s B.F. Goodrich Tire Company employees in 1949. (State Archives of Florida)

For the first half of the 20th Century, the Dennis Street corridor remained rural consisting of planing mills, turpentine industry related factories, unpaved streets and small frame shotgun houses for the black working class. Over a twenty year period immediately following the end of World War II, it rapidly developed into a major warehouse district benefiting from the rail yards and terminals in LaVilla and the redevelopment of downtown’s wharfs. It was served by the Seaboard Air Line Railroad and included rail spurs running in the center of streets. Like Myrtle Avenue, buildings on Dennis Street can be characterized by their limited front setbacks. However, unlike Myrtle Avenue, the architecture can be described as being less impressive and diverse than its early 20th century counterpart.

  1. Caribbean Shipping & Cold Storage

Caribbean Cold Storage, Inc. is the largest refrigerated transporter serving the Caribbean market out of JACPORT. Its 85,000 square-foot Dennis Street complex is one of Honeymoon Yard’s oldest continuing operating industrial sites. It opened as the Florida Ice Manufacturing Company during the late 1890s with a daily capacity of 200 tons. In 1910, the company merged with Atlanta-based Atlantic Ice & Coal Corporation. The merger was arranged by Ernest Woodruff. Woodruff was one of Atlanta’s most influential figures of the early 20th century. There he founded one of the city’s earliest electric trolley lines, restructured the Atlantic Steel Company (now the site of Atlantic Station) and took over the Coca-Cola Company in 1919. At Honeymoon Yard, this facility manufactured ice for household and railcar use. Evolving with the times, as the need for ice manufacturing declined, the plant’s focus changed to cold storage. In 1994, Caribbean Shipping & Cold Storage was founded with the $2 million acquisition of this historic Honeymoon Yard site.

  1. Liberty Steel

Recently closed Liberty Steel fabricated mild steel, hard plate, weathering steel, aluminum and stainless steel at this Honeymoon Yard plant. It’s major customers were paper mills, chemical plants, power plants and breweries. The now vacant property was originally built in 1945 for the Jacksonville Steel Company.

  1. Cain & Bultman

Cain & Bultman, Inc. provides sales, marketing and logistical services for the flooring industries top brand manufacturers. Their operation is located on the former site of the late 19th century Florida Cotton Oil Company.

  1. Dennis Street Industrial Lead

After World War II, the land between Dennis Street and McCoy’s Creek, between Stockton Street and the Atlantic Coast Line (now CSX) was developed to accommodate a need for more warehousing capacity at Honeymoon Yard.

As a result, rail spurs were built down the center of Harper and Swan Streets to serve rows of new buildings. Known as the Dennis Street Industrial Lead, active trains ran down these streets until the 1980s. Today, only a portion of the Swan Street track is used to serve Cash Building Supply.

  1. Kelly’s Food Service

Historically, the Honeymoon Yard area has always been home to several food related businesses. Kelly’s Foods is the largest independent poultry and food distributor in the southeast. Kelly’s customers include theme parks, KFC, Pollo Tropical, and Popeyes. Kelly’s Jacksonville operation occupies a warehouse along the Dennis Street industrial lead that was built in 1949.

  1. A Potential Walkable Neighborhood?

A collection of small Dennis Street warehouses built between 1946 and 1960. Despite the area’s industrial and wholesaling heritage, its street grid and compact amount of structures abutting sidewalks promote the basic concepts of a walkable neighborhood.

  1. The Oscar G. Carlstead Company and the Battalion Airsoft Arena

Honeymoon Yard was once the epicenter of Florida’s Foral industry. The Oscar G. Carlstedt Company is one of a few wholesale floral companies still operating in the district. Carlsteadt operates in a former tire warehouse built in 1948 for BF Goodrich.

Across the street, the Battalion Airsoft Arena is one of the Southeast’s largest Indoor AirSoft Arenas and another example of converting a former warehouse into an innovative use. Established in 2012, Battalion features a 40,000 square foot indoor field, an Airsoft Store, Gun Tech Department and a 6,700 square foot Players Lounge.

  1. Sunshine Peanut Company

With 18 employees, the Sunshine Peanut Company is the smallest Jacksonville business on this list. However, Sunshine deserves a little exposure because it’s plant, just west of Downtown Jacksonville, is the only peanut-butter maker in Florida. Currently, the company produces peanut butter for the Florida Department of Corrections prison system.

  1. Drummond Press

The Drummond Press was founded by John and Alberta Drummond in 1939. Today it is the largest printing company ever headquartered in Northeast Florida, one of the largest in the southeast, ranked in the top ten women owned business in the State of Florida and one of the top 100 fastest growing printing companies in the Nation. Currently, Drummond has clients throughout the Nation and employs over 100 professionals with total revenues of approximately $20 million.

  1. 19th Century Infrastructure Leads to 21st Century Economic Development

Time and change has brought a new industry to Honeymoon Yard. Always a major railroad junction, Honeymoon Yard may also be the internet backbone of Jacksonville. Here, major internet and communication fiber optic lines installed along those century old rail lines also converge. Today, several telecom data centers operated by companies like Worldcom Network Services (left) can be found along Dennis Street.

Article by Ennis Davis, AICP. Contact Ennis at edavis@moderncities.com