A tale of two Jacksonville women...Cora Crane and Zora Neale Hurston. These two remarkable women paint a picture of not only different lives in Jacksonville history, but unique and fascinating women’s history in general. Zora Neale Hurston, noted author, is more famous on the world scale than Cora Crane. Crane is largely known as the common law wife of Stephen Crane (author of the Red Badge of Courage) and proprietress of “sporting houses” (aka brothels) in LaVilla and Jacksonville Beach. But both women led incredibly rich lives, particularly during times when women’s roles were proscribed and freedoms limited. As the saying goes, a well-behaved woman never makes history. Read More
To round off our week of successful adaptive reuse examples of former festival marketplaces across the country, today we stay in Florida and take a look at a center that was recently acquired and renovated for less than Jacksonville is prepared to spend to buy out Sleiman Enterprises, remove existing small businesses and raze the Jacksonville Landing. Read More
Very few urban revitalization innovations have generated as much popularity as the festival marketplace craze by the Rouse Company during the late 1970s and early 1980s.
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Some look at the Jacksonville Landing as a failure that's past its prime and believe that taxpayers should pay to demolish the complex, evicting several businesses from the downtown core without the serious consideration of adaptive reuse. When creativity and vision is allowed to enter the redevelopment discussion, structurally sound buildings from failed concepts can become viable destinations of activity. With this in mind, today we take a look at Toledo's former Portside Festival Marketplace.
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