The Historic Eastside Cultural Center features a recording studio, art studios and art exhibit, a studio for jewelry design classes and will have classes and workshops on Black history, foreign language, architecture and other topics. (Ennis Davis, AICP)
The Eastside Brotherhood Building was built as the Ladies Union Industrial League Hall in 1929. The Eastside Brotherhood Club was established in 1981 as a fraternity for fellowship and comradeship. The building features a large mural that pays homage to Jacksonville’s civil rights leaders and memorializes events related to Axe Handle Saturday. (Ennis Davis, AICP)
Inside the Eastside Brotherhood Club at 915 A. Philip Randolph Bouelvard. The building has and continues to serve as a central social gathering space for the community. (Caron Streibich)
A new mural on the side of Eva’s 1925 Sports Bar & Grill at 736 A. Philip Randolph Boulevard. (Caron Streibich)
Jaxson Magazine tour guide Ennis Davis, AICP with Honey Holzendorf at We Make The Shirt at 822 A. Philip Randolph Boulevard. (Caron Streibich)
The renovation of a historic residence and new infill residential construction on Pippen Street. Platted in 1869 by Jessie Cole, the Eastside attracted Gullah Geechee descendants after the Civil War with its working-class housing and employment opportunities at sawmills and docks along the St. Johns River. The recipient of discriminatory public policies over the years, the neighborhood just outside of downtown has become an increasingly popular destination for infill mixed-use development projects and real estate speculators. (Caron Streibich)
The Union Terminal Warehouse Company is a 300,000-square-foot reinforced concrete structure that was constructed as a produce warehouse in 1913. Atlanta-based Columbia Ventures plans to convert the top three levels into 228 market rate apartments, a ground level that is split between residential and community commercial space, and a basement with both commercial space as well as an 80-space indoor parking area. The rooftop will become a rooftop terrace with views of downtown. Expected to be completed by 2023, the $34 million project will be first in Florida to use both Opportunity Zone and Historic Tax Credits. (Ennis Davis, AICP)
A row of shotgun houses on Oakley Street. Designed to provide a solution to urban overcrowding, shotgun houses were often built as rental properties near manufacturing centers and railroad hubs to provide affordable housing for workers. Shotgun houses tended to be narrow across the front in order to maximize the number of units on each residential lot. Running deep on the lot, rooms were typically arranged one behind the other connected by a long hallway. Because this long hall usually ran the entire length of the house, the name derived from the possibility of firing a round from the front door through the back door without hitting any part of the house.
Many scholars believe shotgun houses reflect African building traditions that entered the American Southeast via the transatlantic slave trade through the Caribbean Islands, starting in New Orleans and brought to cities like Jacksonville by migrating Black freedmen and women. (Caron Streibich)
Article captions by Ennis Davis, AICP. Contact Ennis at edavis@moderncities.com.
Photographs courtesy of The Jaxson’s Ennis Davis, AICP and @caroneats Caron Streibich.