1. A community built to support industry
The USG Jacksonville plant today.
In 1896, recognizing the value of Florida’s cypress and timberlands, Wellington Wilson Cummer established the Cummer Lumber Company at Sandfly Point. The sawmill quickly grew into the Jacksonville area’s largest employer. With business thriving, the adjacent area developed into a community providing housing, shops and other amenities for the mill workers. This area became known as Milldale.
Following Cummer’s death in 1909, his sons Arthur and Waldo took over the company. While Arthur and Ninah Cummer’s Riverside estate would later become the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens, the former mill site took on new industrial roles. It was repurposed into a drydock yard for the George D. Auchter Company and, later, a wallboard manufacturing plant for the United States Gypsum Company (USG). In 1939, USG opened its Jacksonville wallboard plant on the old Cummer property. Utilizing the original railroad for transporting raw materials, the 42.8-acre facility grew into a 700,000-square-foot industrial operation, at one point featuring its own paper mill to produce chipboard paper exclusively for USG’s gypsum products.
Today, USG stands as the nation’s largest distributor of wallboard and the leading manufacturer of gypsum products. Among its most recognized brands are SHEETROCK, FIBEROCK, and Tuff Hide. The Jacksonville plant is one of USG’s largest operations, producing over 23 million sheets of wallboard annually. It also serves as a key distribution center for products including DUROCK cement board, FIBEROCK gypsum fiber panels, wallboard accessories, and dry setting-type compounds. From Jacksonville, these products are shipped nationwide as well as to markets across Central and South America.
2. A Buffalo, New York connection
East 57th Street in an area of Milldale platted as the Charles E. Bell Subdivision.
The heart of Milldale was formally laid out as the Charles E. Bell Subdivision, named in honor of local real estate developer Charles E. Bell. Born in Buffalo, New York, on January 11, 1870, Bell was the son of James S. Bell, who had been affiliated with the firm of Pratt & Company in Buffalo. In 1880, the elder Bell relocated the family to Jacksonville to pursue opportunities in real estate. Following in his father’s footsteps, Charles E. Bell also entered the real estate business.
Bell’s Subdivision primarily served the African American communities of Milldale and nearby Panama Park in the early 20th century. It was officially annexed into the City of Jacksonville in 1925. A lingering vestige of segregation, the streets within Bell’s Subdivision remain disconnected from the traditionally white sections of Panama Park located immediately to the west.
3.The Cummer Avenue Business District
The intersection of East 57th Street and Evergreen Avenue was once the center of Milldale’s business district.
During the operation of the Cummer Lumber Company mill, Cummer Avenue served as the community’s primary thoroughfare. Between East 56th and East 59th Streets, a cluster of businesses supported the surrounding neighborhoods, the lumber mill, and other nearby industries. These establishments included Mary Reid Drugs, William A. Suiter Dry Goods, and the Clarence E. Haight Department Store. North of East 59th Street, the west side of Cummer Avenue was lined with several African American residences.
Cummer Avenue was annexed into the City of Jacksonville in 1932. Following the mill’s closure, the street was renamed Evergreen Avenue. Over time, the entire district along Evergreen Avenue was gradually cleared and redeveloped for industrial use, erasing the historic fabric of the original community.