Building an Industrial Park from the Ground Up
Samples of newspaper articles highlighting industrial projects proposed for Dennis Street during the 1940s and 50s. | Florida Times-Union
In the early 1940s, Dennis Street looked nothing like it does today.
When developer John E. Price acquired property along the west side of Dennis Street near Stockton Street just before World War II, only three industrial facilities lined the roadway: Atlantic Ice & Coal Company, Swift & Company, and an aging mattress factory.
The surrounding land consisted largely of low-lying property interrupted by a creek gully, making large-scale industrial development difficult. But Price saw something others did not, a location served by rail, close to downtown Jacksonville, and ideally positioned for postwar industrial expansion.
Following the war, Price began turning his vision into reality.
In 1946, bulldozers moved onto the property as crews filled marsh along McCoys Creek, graded the land, laid out new streets, and installed Atlantic Coast Line Railroad sidings down the middle of Harper and Swan Streets. Price invested approximately $75,000, a substantial sum at the time, to prepare nearly 600,000 square feet of industrial property for development.
The investment immediately attracted manufacturers and distributors looking for modern warehouse facilities connected directly to rail transportation.
Within three years, twenty-five companies had established operations in the emerging Dennis Street Industrial District. Price’s first major success came in 1947 when Turpentine Rosin Factors, Inc. signed a contract for a new $100,000 warehouse serving the company’s commissary operations.
The project demonstrated that Dennis Street could accommodate large industrial users while offering modern facilities unavailable elsewhere in Jacksonville. The warehouse quickly became the catalyst for additional investment.
National Companies Arrive
Kelly’s Foods was founded in 1981 by Ken and Sharon Kelly and Robert Roman. Today, Kelly’s Foods is the largest independent poultry and food distributor in the southeast, employing 250 people with facilities in Jacksonville, Tampa, Sunrise, Winter Garden and Atlanta. The Dennis Street warehouse was originally built for Kraft Foods Company in 1950.
As word spread, nationally recognized companies began selecting Dennis Street for regional distribution operations. Jewel Tea Company, an Illinois-based door-to-door grocery and housewares business, established operations in 1948.
That same year, H.J. Heinz Company constructed a new 13,000-square-foot warehouse, office, and shipping facility at the southeast corner of Dennis and Cantee Streets. Designed by Marsh & Saxelbye and built by Gillespie Construction Company, the facility served virtually the entire state of Florida outside Miami, replacing Heinz’s earlier Jacksonville warehouse at the intersection of West Ashley and Broad Streets in LaVilla.
The arrival of nationally recognized brands validated Price’s vision and established Dennis Street as one of Florida’s premier industrial addresses. By 1949, development accelerated dramatically.
B.F. Goodrich relocated from downtown Jacksonville to a modern 18,800-square-foot warehouse at Dennis and Watts Streets. Designed through a collaboration between Marsh & Saxelbye and B.F. Goodrich’s engineering department, the facility included district offices, extensive warehouse space, and multiple truck loading docks that improved shipping efficiency across Northeast Florida.
That same year, Price announced construction of four additional warehouses for Bethlehem Steel Company, Kraft Foods Company, Acousti Engineering Company of Florida, and Jacksonville’s own Cohen Brothers department store.
Just three years after development began, nearly two-thirds of Price’s original industrial tract had been sold or committed to new construction. Of the 600,000 square feet originally purchased for only $40,000, roughly 225,000 square feet remained available by the close of 1949.
The District Continues to Grow
Carlstedt’s was founded in 1926 by Mr. Oscar G. Carlstedt in Louisville, KY. In 1936, he relocated the business to Jacksonville. Today, the wholesale florist business operates 13 locations across the southeast and is a preferred vendor for a variety of “big box” stores such as Whole Foods, Winn Dixie, Wal-Mart and Amazon. Headquartered at 2252 Dennis Street, it occupies a warehouse originally developed by John E. Price for B.F. Goodrich in 1949.
Other developers quickly followed Price’s lead. Amica-Burnett Chemical & Supply Company built a new facility alongside Price’s development in 1947. Chitty & Company, one of Jacksonville’s oldest wholesale grocery firms, opened its new warehouse at 2225 Dennis Street the same year. Clark & Lewis Company relocated its wholesale grocery operations to 2421 Dennis Street, bringing additional food distribution businesses to the district.
By 1949, Jacksonville newspapers estimated that more than $1.67 million in industrial construction had either been completed or planned along Dennis Street since the end of World War II.
Among the largest projects were Reid, Murdock Foods’ $250,000 warehouse, Florida Ice Machine Corporation’s $175,000 citrus and frozen foods cold-storage plant at Dennis and Stockton Streets, Atlantic Coatings Company, Wilson Manufacturing Company, Duke Lumber & Supply Company, Jones Chemical Company, Harbor Plywood Corporation, King Concrete Products, Casco Products Company, Jacksonville Steel Company, Jack Yeomans Sea Foods, Apperson Chemical Company, Smith Steel Construction Company, and several other manufacturers that collectively transformed the corridor into one of Jacksonville’s fastest-growing industrial centers.
Located at 2140 Dennis Street, Chill’s Cafe is a new restaurant offering traditional dishes with a southern flare in the heart of the Dennis Street district. | Ennis Davis, AICP
During the early 1950s, Dennis Street increasingly specialized in warehousing and regional distribution. Kraft Foods relocated from North Myrtle Avenue into a new 32,000-square-foot warehouse at 2240 Dennis Street in 1950. The facility included modern freezer storage and served as a major distribution hub for perishable food products.
The following year, National Biscuit Company, better known as Nabisco, opened an 18,500-square-foot warehouse and office building constructed by Gillespie Construction Company and designed by Marsh & Saxelbye. Owned by Okeechobee Construction Company, whose president was John E. Price, the facility doubled the company’s previous Jacksonville warehouse space and distributed products throughout Northeast Florida and Southeast Georgia. The building was designed with room for future expansion and direct Atlantic Coast Line rail service.
As Jacksonville’s transportation network expanded, Dennis Street continued attracting businesses displaced from older parts of the city. In 1959, Cash Building Material Company relocated its operations to Swan Street after the construction of Interstate 10 forced the company from its longtime Stockton Street location in Riverside.
A Site with Deeper Industrial Roots
A rendering of the proposed Cain & Bultman distribution center on Dennis Street in 1978. | Florida Times-Union
The largest industrial property along Dennis Street occupies land whose manufacturing history predates the district itself.
Located at 2124 Dennis Street, today’s Cain & Bultman distribution center traces its industrial heritage to the Florida Cotton Oil Company, established there in 1901. Oklahoma-based Choctaw Cotton Oil acquired the operation in 1920 before a devastating fire led to its closure five years later.
Swift & Company purchased the property in 1928, converting the former cotton oil plant into a modern vegetable shortening refinery. Half a century later, the site entered a new chapter.
The Cain & Bultman warehouse in 2026. | Ennis Davis, AICP
In 1978, Cain & Bultman, one of the Southeast’s largest independent distributors of appliances and floor coverings, constructed a $1.7 million, 142,000-square-foot distribution center on the 6.5-acre property. Designed for future expansion and built by Preston H. Haskell Company, the facility consolidated the company’s Jacksonville operations into what remains the largest industrial building on Dennis Street.
The Legacy of John E. Price
An old Atlantic Coast Line Railroad siding on Swan Street. The red brick warehouse on the left was built by John E. Price for the National Biscuit Company (Nabisco). | Ennis Davis, AICP
The success of the Dennis Street Distribution District did not happen by accident.
It resulted from the foresight of John E. Price, who recognized the area’s location, was strategically positioned for distribution facilities due to its access to West Jacksonville’s rail infrastructure. His willingness to invest in roads, rail sidings, utilities, and site preparation before tenants arrived fostered a model of speculative industrial development that proved remarkably successful.
What began as a corridor with only three factories became one of Jacksonville’s principal manufacturing and distribution districts within a decade.
Now considered to be a part of the Rail Yard District, more than eighty years later, Dennis Street continues to serve the purpose Price envisioned: moving goods, supporting industry, and connecting Jacksonville to markets throughout Florida and the Southeast. While many of the original companies have disappeared or relocated, the warehouses, rail-served sites, and industrial character established during the late 1940s remain a lasting testament to one of the city’s most significant periods of postwar industrial economic development.
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Editorial by Ennis Davis, AICP. Contact Ennis at edavis@moderncities.com.
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