The intersection of Union and Newnan streets. State and Union streets looked completely different during the mid-20th century.
Springfield Park during an era when it was still the urban core’s premier park.
The shotgun house was considered to be blight and worthy of demolition in the video. 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. 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.
A view of Park Street looking into Brooklyn from the Lee Street viaduct. The Russell McPhail Chocolates, Inc. candy and ice cream factory stands on the immediate left.
General Mills occupied one of several warehouses that once surrounded the Riverside viaduct. Today, the JTA Skyway Operations And Maintenance Center occupies the site today.
Slum Heart of Jacksonville video courtesy of the Florida State College at Jacksonville Digital Archive