HISTORY OF AVONDALE
This historical overview of Avondale is from Jacksonville’s Architectural Heritage: Landmarks for the Future, Revised Edition, Wayne W. Wood, 1996, Jacksonville, Florida.
After the American Revolution, Spain regained East Florida from England. Eager to attract new inhabitants, the Spanish Government in 1790 began granting tracts of land to prospective settlers. The area know today as Avondale is based on such a grant to Robert Hutcheson.
Southwest of "Dell’s Bluff," now called Riverside, was a 150-acre tract granted in 1815 to Robert Hutcheson, who established a successful plantation there. Three years later he obtained another 350 acres, extending his holdings to the south. This entire tract of land came into the ownership of William McKay in 1836, who named it "Magnolia Plantation." Producing sea island cotton, the plantation worked fifty slaves.
When Elias Jaudon bought Magnolia Plantation in 1850, in included 550 acres extending from what is now Powell Place all the way to Fishweir Creek. Expanding the plantation to over one thousand acres, Jaudon produced cotton, corn, sweet potatoes, sugar cane, cattle, and sheep. After his death in 1871, Magnolia Plantation was sold and divided into several truck farms.
While Riverside prospered, the western part of the old Magnolia Plantation remained thickly wooded with a few scattered farms. As early as 1884, a portion of the Jaudon estate was purchased for development as a residential community by a group of northerners, led be James Randall Challen, William Harksheimer, and John Talbott. Named "Edgewood," the development extended from present-day Park Street to Roosevelt Boulevard, along Challen, Edgewood, and Talbot Avenues. The land was platted for homesites, but only a few residences, mostly farmhouses, were constructed there. During World War I, hunters were still shooting wild game in this vicinity.
By the summer of 1920, several wealthy investors led by Telfair Stockton had assembled a large tract of land including all of Edgewood and the adjoining riverfront property, at a cost of over $500,000. They developed an exclusive subdivision that would overshadow all of the smaller developments around it. Stockton chose the name "Avondale" after a subdivision near James R. Challen’s former home in Cincinnati. Avondale was advertised as "Riverside’s Residential Ideal," where only the "correct" and "well to do" people would live. Boasting that "Avondale is desirable because the right kind of people have recognized its worth and because the wrong kind of people can find property more to their liking elsewhere," the Avondale company sold 402 of the 720 lots and completed nearly two hundred homes in its first two years.
As the most elaborately planned development in Jacksonville at that time, Avondale lived up to its publicity. Sidewalks, sewerage, city water, gas, electricity, and telephone lines were installed before lots were offered for sale. Gently curving roadways and 16 parks were laid out by William Pitkin, a well-known landscape architect from Ohio. Restrictive covenants regulated types of construction in order to maintain the exclusive nature of the residential development. Most of the houses were two stories tall. Adopting the architectural style that would saturate Florida during the booming years of the 1920’s, a large proportion of the early Avondale residences were built in the Mediterranean Revival style. The Better Homes Company, a subsidiary of the Avondale Company, did much of the actual construction, insuring a uniformity of building quality.
Initially considered part of Riverside, Avondale quickly developed its own identity. The original Avondale subdivision was long and narrow, only 4-1/2 blocks wide (Seminole Road to just beyond Talbot) and one mile long (from the river to Roosevelt Boulevard). Although contiguous developments such as Windsor Place, Ingleside Heights, St. Johns Heights, Shadowlawn, and Arden sprang up, the mystique of Avondale prevailed: the entire area from McDuff Avenue to Fishweir Creek is today generally known as "Avondale." By the time the Florida Building boom fizzled in 1928, virtually all of this area had been developed.
Today Avondale still forms one of Florida’s unique neighborhoods. The riverfront setting, the ample parks, and the tree-canopied streets blend with the varied architecture to produce a pleasing tapestry. In recognition of these qualities, Avondale was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1989.
Period of Development:
The Avondale Historic District contains a high-quality concentration of residential design and construction dating from 1909 to 1936. It has remained primarily a single family residential neighborhood since its initial development.
Uniquely Avondale:
The Avondale Historic District, through its high percentage of historic buildings and its unusual plan, conveys a strong sense of time and place. Because of the innovative planning concepts applied by its original developers, the architectural integrity and quality of life of the neighborhood have been maintained. The district is one of the most picturesque in Jacksonville and includes the most intense concentration of high-quality, historic residences in the city.
Landscape and streetscape design contribute to the distinctive sense of place which the district conveys. These features include curvilinear streets, landscaped medians, and fifteen small, pocket parks. Natural features, mainly the river and an abundance of large trees that offer spacious canopies, distinguish the district. Trees and plants include live oaks, magnolias, palms, azaleas, and dogwoods.
Historic Significance:
There are over 800 buildings in the district. Of these, 715 are historic or contributing buildings. Contributing buildings were constructed during or before 1936. Many of the 92 buildings that are considered non-contributing are defined as such because they fall outside the period of significance, but most of them still embody the design, materials, and setting of earlier buildings despite their more recent date of construction.
The residences range from finely crafted, custom-built, upper class homes to speculative housing designed for the city’s then burgeoning middle class.
Restrictive Covenants:
Design control and land-use restrictions were a key part of the historic development of Avondale. The Avondale Company controlled land use, density of development, and setbacks through restrictive covenants. Land-use controls, landscape features, and the design and construction standards employed by the developers produced a visual cohesiveness throughout the district. Few buildings exceed two stories in height and all buildings are detached and share common setbacks. They are located on generous lots and have regular ground plans, usually rectangular in form. The covenants prohibited apartments, flats, hospitals, stores, and offices.
Architectural Styles:
Almost all historic buildings in Avondale are detached, one and two-story single-family residences embodying a variety of early twentieth-century architectural styles. Part of the significance of the Avondale Historic District is its association with prominent architects. Professionally trained or self-taught architects designed over one-hundred buildings, or roughly one-sixth of the total number of those contributing to the district.
Model homes established precedent for architectural designs that followed as the development grew. Spanish and Italian-styled residences with tile roofs were among the first models. Avondale contains an overwhelming concentration of formal architectural styles.
Common architectural styles are the Colonial Revival with over 200 examples and the Bungalow with 191. Other common styles are the Prairie School, Tudor, Mission, Italian Renaissance, Spanish Eclectic, and other Mediterranean influenced styles. The unique mix of architectural influences is another aspect of the architectural significance of Avondale. The blocks nearest the river are less densely developed. They contain large, deep lots with the most massive and finest designed and constructed residences in Avondale.
Avondale is one of Jacksonville’s first residential areas where the automobile exerted a wholesale influence on building and landscape design. Driveways, garages, carports, and porte cocheres are common, original features of most buildings and lots in the district. Garages and carports were frequently integrated into the design of houses through stylistic features and materials.
Building materials used:
A final aspect of the architectural significance of the Avondale area is the prevalence of masonry building materials. Materials commonly found in buildings here include brick, tile, stucco, and coquina concrete block. As a result, Avondale contrasts greatly with many of the older sections of Riverside, where literally hundreds of frame buildings were constructed.
Commercial Development:
The use of restrictive covenants in the Avondale Historic District prohibited apartments, flats, hospitals, stores, and offices. There aren’t any commercial developments in Avondale. However, just a stones through away in West Avondale, you’ll find what most Avondale residents are most proud of…"The shoppes of Historic Avondale." This is one of the highlights that makes Avondale unique and very special.
Parks:
There are two major parks, just west of the Historic District, in West Avondale. The Avondale Historic District ends just past Talbot Ave, even though the entire area from McDuff Avenue to Fishweir Creek is today generally known as "Avondale." West Avondale is essentially an extension of the adjacent Avondale Historic District. There are also fifteen small, pocket parks throughout the district.
Boone Park is a large, very beautiful park that many residents in Avondale are drawn to. The city purchased most of the property from William Elijah Boone and four other owners in 1926. In 1937, the "little house" was constructed on the grounds for use by the girl scouts, and the first tennis courts were built sometime prior to 1946. After the tennis clubhouse opened in 1950, the park hosted the city’s major public tennis tournaments for decades. Major renovations took place between 1997 and 2003, with substantial funding and assistance provided by the city.
Fishweir Park derives its name from nearby Fishweir Creek. The property is part of Fehrenbach’s Subdivision that was platted in 1882. The extension of the streetcar line to the area spurred residential growth leading to the development of the Fishweir Park and Stockton Place subdivisions about 1913 and the construction of nearby Fishweir Elementary School in 1917. The city obtained the land for the park in 1960 and 1961, and created the park in that decade. There is now a terrific playground area for children.
Location:
In my opinion, Avondale has the very best location! Low traffic volume, with easy access to Roosevelt Boulevard on the west and northwest, makes traveling in or out of Avondale a relaxing drive. I-10 east/west is just north of Roosevelt which leads to I-95 north/south.
The downtown area is only about 7 minutes away. The Riverside Market Square is only 3-4 minutes away. The "Fine-dining district" on the "South-bank" is 6 minutes away. Orange Park is about 14-15 minutes from Avondale. It takes about 18 minutes to get to The St. John’s Town Center and the beach is only about 30 minutes away.
Roosevelt Square is a convenient shopping and dining area to the southwest and Murray Hill Town Center to the northwest is a very charming area to shop or dine as well
Schools:
There’s only one public school in Avondale and there aren’t any parochial schools, but residents have many options through the "magnet program" and nearby private schools.
The one public elementary school Avondale does have is part of the magnet program and is an excellent one.
Public:
Fishweir Elementary
3977 Herschel Street
(904)381-3910
Additional Private School options nearby:
Central Riverside Elementary (magnet), in Riverside
Riverside Presbyterian Day School, in Riverside
St. Paul’s Catholic Elementary, in Riverside
John Stockton Elementary (magnet), in Ortega Forest
St. Mathews Catholic School, in Murray Hill/Lakeshore
St. Marks Episcopal Day School, in Ortega
Chosen Vessels, in Murray Hill
Wayman Academy of the Arts, in Lakeshore
To check out the entire list of "magnet school" options, go to www.magnetprograms.com
