Industrial Panama Park

Despite the neighborhood’s frontage along the St. Johns River, public access to the river is not possible. This section of the neighborhood is dominated by large industrial users including USG wallboard plant and NuStar Energy LP’s Jacksonville terminal.

Now under the ownership of CSX, this former J&SW; railroad line was originally constructed by Wellington Willson Cummer in 1899 to connect his Panama Park sawmill to the company’s timber lands near Newberry, FL. In 1904, the line became a part of the Atlantic Coast Line railroad. While this section of the former J&SW; serves USG and NuStar Energy LP, west of I-295, the old J&SW; has been converted to the Jacksonville-Baldwin Rail-Trail.

Shaw’s Southern Belle Frozen Foods, Inc. has been a staple in the Panama Park community since it opened in 1934 by John R. Shaw Sr. as Florida’s first crabmeat processing plant. The company, which employs about 120 people, makes products like deviled crab and crab cakes for the commercial food industry. Clients include Red Lobster, Shoney’s, Captain D’s Seafood, Golden Corral Buffet & Grill, Long John Silvers and Cracker Barrel Old Country Store.

Complete with it’s own paper mill, the United States Gypsum Company’s 700,000-square-foot complex manufactures drywall under the company’s brand name, Sheetrock.

NuStar Engery LP’s Jacksonville Terminal contains 30 tanks with a capacity of 2,459,000 barrels. Products such as asphalt, aviation gasoline, distillates, gasolines, jet fuels, lube oils and residual fuels arrive and depart via ship, barge, rail and truck. NuStar’s facilities lie on the former location of Phenix Park and the Florida Ostrich Farm amusement parks.

Phenix Park and streetcar – George D. Aucther Company

206 East 63rd Street was occupied by the Whistle-Vess Cola Bottling Company, Inc. for many years during the mid-20th century. Vess Soda is a soft drink manufactured and distributed primarily in the St. Louis, MO region. Founded by Sylvester Jones in 1916, Vess soft drinks were bottled for local distribution until the late 1960s.