 Production funding for fire was provided by the Jacksonville Association of Firefighters and the Jacksonville Area Burger King Restaurants. In the sultry days of early summer, where the only relief from Florida's heat was pockets of shade, a pleasant sitting parlor, a refreshing swim, or perhaps an afternoon rain shower, Major General Andrew Jackson was also steaming hot under the collar. The cantankerous Jackson was less than enthralled with his new appointment as provisional governor of Florida, despite the fact that he'd come directly from President James Monroe. Somewhat reluctantly, the controversial Old Hickory retired from the United States Army to become the first executive of the Florida Territories, which America had recently acquired from the Spanish Crown. Situated at the junction of the King's Road and banks of the St. John's River between Georgia and St. Augustine, was an area known as the Calford. In the mid-1800s, the town leaders renamed it an honor of Old Hickory, calling the place Jacksonville. Bolstered in part by the Second Seminole Indian War, Jacksonville grew as a viable port. Lumber and turpentine became some of its major commodities. Tourism was also blooming. But the Civil War would detain all that. Jacksonville was occupied four times in less than two years. It was burned twice. First by the Confederates. Later, federal troops torched parts of Jacksonville. When the war finally ended, Jacksonville residents would again set about building their city. By the 1870s, Jacksonville overnight had become the tourist mecca for the eastern seaboard of the United States. There were numerous grand hotels, the railroad and shipping lines brought vacationers here. But again, Jacksonville's cosmopolitan growth was thwarted. This time, by a major yellow fever epidemic at the end of the 1880s, which decimated the city's attractiveness as a tourist mecca, malaria kept vacationers away in droves. And another factor was Henry Flagler's railroad came not just to Jacksonville, but through Jacksonville, taking tourists further south from the popular hotels in Boca Raton and Key West. Eventually, the city's economy switched from being based largely on tourism and one focused on trade. Jacksonville began to position itself as the business center of Florida. I'll race you down to Hogan's Creek. I bet you're a nickel, I'll beat you this time. A nickel? You go ahead and try me. Ready? On your mark, get set. Go! History is sometimes contrived and from legends. And as this particular turn of the century anecdote goes, 16-year-old George Hoddan, a German immigrant who had arrived in Jacksonville only the year prior, was busy at work, he was sweeping floors and washing beer mugs and perhaps even carrying out a few inebriated customers in the comfortable shade of Mr. Nick Vondel and saloon down on the corner of Davis and Kings Road. The thirsty patrons were actually knocking down a few toddies at lunch hour on this particular warm May day. And as the legend has it, the bartender noticed he hadn't any eggs to use in one of his specialty libations. So he asked young George to round up some eggs from the chicken coop out back. Chief Haley! The call was legit! Box 57, just not through! Box 57? That's state Davis. Come on, men. Prepare yourselves. Let's make haste now. Ready those horses. I'm going to hook them later. Two hoes away. About 10 minutes after George Hoddan throws the switch at Box 57, Chief Hanion is meant to arrive at the Cleveland Fiber Factory, which occupies a block curb by Beaver, Ashley, Davis and Madison Streets. 10 minutes. An eternity of misfortune the day would later prove. The material processed inside the factory affirms itself as more than ideal kindling for a handful of sparks that fall from an old wooden chimney stove in one of the nearby shanties. The dried cotton gin moss, palmetto leaves, cured feathers, horse hair and millions of shards of paper called Excelsior are but an enticement to the itinerant embers. It had been very dry and it was in May, and it was noontime. Near where the Ritz Theater is now, a few blocks from there, there was a fiber factory that used these huge drying racks to dry, and they always made sure when the wind was blowing to have a watchman on duty while the others were eating lunch just in case some of this moss caught on fire there would be someone there to throw a bucket of water on it. On this particular day, since the wind wasn't blowing the watchman went to lunch. Recalls factory foreman E.J. went. I had shut down the machinery and after the help at lunch as usual I laid down somewhere in the fiber moss over near the cotton gin to nap. Nothing out of the ordinary on this pretty spring afternoon. The men are resting comfortably when the frolics and sparks alight upon the moss. Just then, the first inklings of wind flurries over the yard. The fragments catch fire in race with the speed of powder flashes. I ran for the first fire hose just outside the office door and run along the shed to wake up the workers. The burn and moss was rolling in waves like ocean comers. The whole factory crew had to jump down the trash hole near the back of the factory to escape. E.J. went. Fiber factory foreman. Responding to George Hodin's alarm as soon as they could muster themselves the fire engines speeden on the double quick led by Chief Haney. Hose Company Number 2 located on Main Street and Hose Company Number 4 most atoms also respond as fleetly as they're able. The firemen are at work even before the horses come to a full stop. Gallons upon gallons of water pours onto the burning factory but to no avail. It only seems to fuel the insatiable flames. Perhaps unaware of their imminent danger the commotion proves to be quite a spectacle for many of the downtown populace. Years later George Hodin recalls I stood by the box until the heat dropped me away. Then I went back to the store. There was a lot of work to be done. Spectators attracted back to the fire and watched it from the saloon. It was very hot by then. Most of them wanted a glass of beer. The patrons afternoon folly would soon prove itself perilous. And as the maw swept across this drying yard made its way over to a huge wooden warehouse where bails of this fiber was piled high to the ceiling and it was just an old wooden lighter pine building. Which is extremely ignitable. The most ruinous of flames actually start 12 feet above the ground on the second level of the large drying factory. A platform of about 200 by 200 feet filled with bails of the processed material. Like a well crafted bonfire with both above and below it the flares quickly spread throughout the material and instantly ignite the virtual powder keg. It just exploded in a huge billowing tornado of little cinders that just swept up in the sky as the wind came up. Spewing the combustible moss up into the air like a furious volcano, mushrooming above the factory, hurling flaming material, burning bails and igneous debris high into the air. Then, as if conjured up by a pernicious force the wind begins to rise. Eventually to nearly 20 miles per hour. In that monstrous red-locked blaze of bluster thousands upon thousands of fiery particles are born high into the air. A hail storm of fire and blazing debris falls onto the defenseless dry wooden roofs of homes and buildings below. Showering the neighborhood with burning material as many as 30 houses ignite in course. Their mournful wails become a cacophony of memories, hopes, dreams and lives now all aflame. I was eating lunch in a boarding house down the street from the number one fire station when the alarm came in at 1235. I ran back to the station and caught the end of the wagon just as it went out the door. Nobody had any idea of course what we were in for. Jacksonville fireman W.G. Smedley. I remember we were real scared. Sparks were all over the place. My mother was just praying. I guess my father was at work helping people downtown. He owned a livery stable. His drivers were picking up furniture from homes and stacking them in a vacant lot where they had hoped it would be safe. A driver brought in a piano and one of the crew sat at it for some time in the old town tonight. Richard D. Oldham. Eventually a canopy of fire arcs over Chief Haney and his men. Propelled by the wind blowing out of the west the flames charge eastward down Beaver Street like advancing Calvary, leaping hundreds of yards in a single bound. The enraged firestorm plunges and tears into roofs. Beaver is ablaze all the way to Liberty Street in 30 minutes. The advancing flames sweep across Ashley, much than Monroe Streets, almost within an instant. They're soon assaulting Adams and leering at Forsyth and also spreading northeast towards the predominantly African-American section of the city known as Hansen Town. I wonder if Mr. Dawn is almost finished with his walk, Maddie. I've been thinking about your catfish cakes ever since this morning. Look at him, Miss Susie. I believe I don't see Mr. D. come around the block. Look like he enjoyed himself, too. Yeah, I see him. You're right. Good thing, too. I'm starting to get hungry. Don't you let your stomach worry, you nun. I got plenty for you and Mr. D. this fine day. And plenty left over for them growing raspberries, too. Hello, my dear. Hello again, Maddie. Welcome back, Mr. D. Show me a pretty day for your walk, ain't it? Yes, yes. Summer's almost near. Sure could use some rain, though. The drought's been real awful on these gardens. I was wondering how long you'd be gone, Phillip. Maddie's been making catfish cakes for us. No wonder you've been waiting for me to get home, darling. Did you see the boys? Oh, lots of took glimpse of them. They were heading east towards Hogan's Creek. You know, sometimes I wonder if it's right seeing them play together all the time. It's different here than in Cincinnati. Nonsense, darling. Max and Polly grew up together. We practically raised Polly as a... I know. We know that, darling. But I'm just concerned about appearances. Appearances are no. I, for one, won't be bullied by ignorance. Neither should you, nor should anyone. Don't be lookin' like the ordinary fire. Miss Susie, please, I gots to see where the fuss is about near Hanson Town. I got Ken over Yonda. You're right, Maddie. All right, you go then. Go quickly, but please be careful. Look here, it's probably nothing. Even so, Chief Haney's men are on it. Maddie. Susan. Susan. Susan. Susan, where are you going? What about dinner? Darling, you forgot your hat. My God, my boys. The heat produced by hundreds of cauterized buildings, homes, and trees is unbearable and is equally destructive. Bricks used to pave the street leap 10 or 15 feet in the air and then burst into countless fragments. Before melting into snarled tangles, over the telegraph wires, Haney requests assistance from fire departments in nearby towns. Fernandina's crew finally arrives around 2.20. Others are soon to follow. But by now, any effort to stay the conflagration proves too little, too late. It swept from block to block as the wind whipped up in all these old wooden buildings in Jacksonville where just like matchboxes marched across the city all day long. Several months prior, the innovative Fire Chief Haney had launched fire alarm boxes throughout the city. There were about 52 in service. Nearly every portion of downtown is covered by them. But all of the boxes, and eventually even the fire stations themselves are annihilated by the inferno. In the firestorm's aftermath and even throughout the day, it is rumored Chief Haney had lost his mind in the heat of battle or is speculated to have died fighting the flames. Worse, overwhelmed by despair and embarrassment the distraught Chief takes his own life. Adding impulse to the malicious scuttlebut Chief Haney secludes himself from the general public saying nothing until the following Wednesday, May 8th, when at last he speaks to the Times Union and Citizen Reporter. Immediately upon my arrival I sent out a general alarm calling all of the apparatus in the service. The department was put to work on the east, south, and west sides of the fire. But when the factory roof collapsed it was like a blizzard of fire. The situation was nearly beyond the capability of my men or resources. But after some very hard work the department had the fire under control in the blocks adjoining the one in which it had started. When to my surprise and I might say horror I was told that there was a fire on the corner of church and bridge streets. From this time it was one report after another that this house or that one was on fire five blocks away. The department was making the best fight possible. Even the hoses were burning in the hands of my nozzlemen as water rushed through them. We were surrounded and barely escaped with our lives. From what I saw before I became incapacitated and have since learned from the citizens of this city there was never a more noble or braver fight than was made by the little band of men that constitute this department. Chief Haney and his courageous department were rightly congratulated and should remain forever honored for their heroic efforts in attempting to save what they could of Jacksonville. Despite succumbing repeatedly to hyperthermia and exhaustion Haney did everything possible to thwart the fire spread. No human power could have saved the city. All the fire apparatus of New York, Atlanta and Chicago combined would not have stayed the fire in Jacksonville. Atlanta Fire Chief Walter Robinson joined us. We lived on the southeast corner of Union and Lee and the fire started on the next corner in a mall factory. And of course they started to scream and then yell and fire. They had fire fire trucks and all like that. And I'm only going to tell you one thing that I shouldn't say. Only one thing that is up to you to put it in there if you're doing this all right. Now the colored people said that the white people wouldn't telephone the fire companies and tell them about the big fire that's going over in the mall factory on the corner of Union and Lee because they wanted them to burn up the Negroes and the trenches which was a bad insinuation to make on the people. But then out of this mall factory you could see big wards you didn't know what it was and it was a mall that would break loose from the fire in the factory and that's why the city burned down so because these big old balls of fire would be going you could see a house start to burn it and it was a terrible sight to see and finally they say here comes Chief Haney and this poor little man he looked like he was smaller than I am but I imagine he wasn't he was very sick and they had taken him out of a sick bed and he was lying on pills and they had somebody was holding a red parasol over him and he came laying back pills all under and he would just look at it he couldn't tell us he couldn't say nothing he was really sick because he had parked the car house first so that made me I could stand right there and see him all the time he was there and he was just so sick and everybody felt I think my mother and everybody went and asked do you want water for him do you want anything they said no because he's so sick you can't have anything he had to take him back home so then the fire was there to burn at the will of the workmen because they didn't have a fire chief to direct the fire and it burned until late that night James Weldon Johnson was born and raised in Jacksonville during the last several decades of the 1800s he became not only one of Jacksonville's most prominent African-American citizens but a world celebrated educator and renaissance man in his 1933 autobiography along this way Johnson asserts that upon arriving at the ill-fated factory Hanien and his men were highly selective about what property they attempted to save from the male's trauma flames I was 30 years old in 1901 when I was with my brother Rosamond we were returning from commencement rehearsals at the Baptist Academy we'd been going along a few minutes when we noticed a curling volume of smoke spreading wider and growing darker we continued toward our house which was in the general vicinity of the flames we met many fleeing people from them we gathered excitedly related snatches the firemen spent all of their efforts saving a long row of frame houses just across the street on the south side of the factory when complaints about this reached the fire chief he exclaimed it will be a good thing for some of these damn niggers to get burned out several months after the fire Florida Times Union and citizen reporter Benjamin Harrison writes Acres of Ashes which chronicles the ill-fated event in it he recalls the softest cheek ever nourished by Caucasian blood seems yellow and drawn under the firelight the blackest African flushes into saffron and the eyes emit a gleam that seems borrowed from the cat's eye or the angry panthers to the eternal credit of the people of Jacksonville be it remembered that through it all the brute passions of the human never broke loose under every temptation there was courtesy to the female consideration for the weak and tenderness from the strong the firestorm enlarges throughout the afternoon wagons are piled high with hastily packed trunks, furniture and miscellaneous keepsakes bedding is thrown over these in a vain attempt to protect the precious contents from the flames but the charging wagons ignite and maniacal horses with frightened drivers mad dash their fiery carriages like comet tails through the doomed streets women were even seizing vehicles standing on streets where they had been hauled out of stables for protection and began loading them by themselves and getting between the shafts and pulling them little children were fleeing some with dolls in their arms and some with cats or bird cages I saw one woman leading her cow up the middle of Bay Street inside of five minutes the places we had just left were a seething mass Mrs. Clarence Maxwell some managed to carry their personal property to distances assumed safe and then try to return for other belongings but sparks fall on these abandoned piles and the diabolical flames bound into the air darting and dashing into open windows torching moss laden great oaks spraying onto the dry lawns and flying furious in the driving wind the parish hall of the first Presbyterian church at Ocean and Monroe streets burns briskly at mid-afternoon the city's only synagogue at Laura and Union streets it comes to the Fulmination by 245 the handsome residences in the vicinity of Julia and Church streets are burning in a short time Trinity Methodist Church as a blaze from this furnace the destruction of the grand hotels is orchestrated like wild pack animals the flames encircle a Windsor hotel before closing in for their kill earlier in the day the Windsor had been filled with guests and fire harried refugees who had crowded the halls and rooms with whatever belongings they could salvage now all around Hemming park and elsewhere throughout the pastoral river city other majestic resorts gasp their death rattle to fires unyielding choke hold the Grand National and the Deval throughout the early afternoon thousands of residents deposit mounds of furniture and personal belongings in Hemming park particularly at the base of the Confederate soldier it is assumed by many that the lush foliage will protect their valued belongings yet it is not so photographs burst into flames or sparks shower upon petting clothing papers and the like within moments the hills of cherished property ignite as if they were candle wicks refugees hurry children before them and carrying anything they can muster seek the now dubious safety of riverside Springfield or Fairfield or via riverboat try to steal their way across the St. John's to South Jacksonville throughout the day more fire crews from neighboring cities arrive we got the call in Savannah and loaded our engine on a railroad flat car and sped south 122 miles per hour on a 60-pound rail when we arrived Jacksonville looked like it was under bombardment some fire units from other cities that came to help became lost and were boxed in by the flames they had to abandon their equipment to escape some departments which sent in every bit of equipment they had lost it all that way fireman Stephen A. Weeks Savannah fire department the armory considered by many an invincible citadel is used as temporary repository for people's possessions but due in part to the intense heat generated by the burning building surrounding it when the untamed scintilla leaps upon the mighty structure it crumbles like an eggshell tons of valuables are charged or ashes in a single breath it's about 430 full visitation continues to prove itself ecumenical in all 23 houses of worship are incinerated throughout the day the western portion of the Duval Street viaduct traversing Hogan's Creek is burned and yet another escape route is thwarted the wind which soon time had been blowing the fire eastward now makes a dramatic shift and careens the flaring battlements south towards the densely populated north bank at the St. John's River all the structures that were previously considered out of harm's way are now directly in the path of the juggernaut advancing towards Jacksonville's north bank sorry there's no time to stay our office club is on fire and your house is soon to follow the fire has had straight for the river now it seems it is time to go Simon Harry, couldn't you appropriate a wagon for any of your collectibles truth to tell I never thought the damn thing would spread this far neither did any of us come along then Simon wait I cannot leave the picture my father painted and bequeathed to me oh nonsense Harry we must go now the Bristol Hotel sure to be next I must retrieve it it's all I have left of him damn your bullheadedness there's no reason with you very well then I'll meet you at the market street wharf please Harry for God's sake do make haste throughout the day residents and business people have fled to the river bank where nearly a century before the city had first been surveyed starting at a bay tree near the waters edge many take refuge at the market street wharf in surrounding areas but now the mohawk block is going and flames sweep back in an eddy slaying both the shop of McMurray and Baker and the Florida Yacht Club it is here with intentions of fire that the market street wharf is authored refugees are stranded escape possible only by water some unfortunates are lapped off the wharf by the dragon's fiery breath others fall into the St. John's and drown I shall never forget the hissing of the big logs as they floated by the bundles of ignited fiber as they were carried by the strong wind the city nothing was spared not homes, not schools not churches, not stores nothing I still remember as though it was yesterday the horror of it all I was just ten years old standing on the deck of the May Gardener a St. John's riverboat with my invalid aunt the captain watching the horrific scene as we floated upstream and near the city the docks along the waterfront were gone burned to the river's edge later that day the captain was able to locate and tie up the boat to a private dock in Riverside so my aunt and I disembarked and went to the Peterson's home a family friend after a while I remember I just couldn't stand it any longer so not really thinking I bolted out the door despite everyone's protests to look for my mother I remember looking down the Peterson's long driveway and thinking I must find my mama I just can't wait any longer I'm gonna find my mama then I saw that the big gate at the end of the Peterson's driveway was open I started running faster and faster soon I came to where the trees had shriveled and curled up another block and the trees had no leaves another block there were no trees or flowers or shrubbery only black skeletons that had once been trees just ghosts of them the ashes under my feet were hot my sandals were burning my feet I must have been a sight I often had to stop and catch my breath the air was so full of smoke and soot you see no one was anywhere I was all alone in a sea of dust and ashes I had not seen a single human being the whole time since I'd left the Peterson's nothing was the same anymore realizing this I frantically looked in every direction for something familiar something to help me find my way eventually up in the distance I saw a big building black and dirty but it had not burned and it was familiar it was the big marble post office I felt safe if you know what I mean so I started walking towards it after a few minutes I finally got to its front steps just then I remembered my mama once telling me listen to me darling to get home from the post office always remember walk down the steps then turn left walk down the street making no other turn and you will get home safe and sound so I walked up and then down those ashen steps then turn left like my mother told me and started walking again I was tired and weak from not eating I remember being so very hungry but I couldn't eat ashes and that's all there was that's all there was anywhere so I kept on walking just walking in this unfamiliar ash covered world who goes there show yourself it's just me now little lassie just who do you think you are just where do you suppose you might be going I am Linda Rebecca Mr. Soldier and I'm going to find my mama so that you are Ms. Linda tell me how old are you I'm 10 years old sir I see y'all grown up and just where might your mother be where's your home mama says to walk straight down the road without making a turn from back there at the post office well then reckon we best be off then don't you think so you're going to help me find my mama Mr. Soldier I that I am out of the way you shouldn't be late for supper I'm famished one instant my life was in his hands you see I'm alive today because of him and he took me all the way back home brave gentleman soldier I shall never forget him nor his kind Irish eyes but to this day I don't even know his name Dusk begins to pull its weary blanket over the city the evening is truly unlike any other Jacksonville is destitute for many of the only beds to sleep upon are ashes the only water to drink is the St. John's after an interminable night Saturday morning dawns over the ravaged city this was an event of cataclysmic proportions where everyone involved lost everything except the clothes they had on their back but were burdened by fear shrouded by uncertainty two thousand three hundred and sixty eight buildings and homes destroyed one hundred and forty six blocks of downtown nearly four hundred and seventy acres reduced to a post apocalyptic wasteland during the eight hour eternity most of downtown Jacksonville since the very heart and soul of the city had been totally incinerated leaving only tons of slag and rubble stolen dreams among the casualties were ten of the city's finest hotels the official reports vary some say seven died others ten Savannah fireman Stephen Weeks believes there may have been countless more the number lost will never be known but to God it was impossible to determine how many were burned or drowned in the river where they had fled for safety a whole city was left homeless in one day if you look at the pictures and see the wasteland there it's almost like Hiroshima after the bomb had been dropped it was just gone the fire had swept over a tract of two miles long from west to east and over a half mile broad estimates placed property damage at about fifteen million dollars over two billion today with insurance covering only about a third of the losses the untiring staff of the Florida Times Union and Citizen without gas or electricity somehow managed to produce the Saturday morning edition it was read by some of the nearly ten thousand who were now bereft of water, food or shelter or in many instances knowledge of their loved ones whereabouts when the wires of the city were felled on Friday the news that the Union Railroad Station had brokered the news across the nation about Jacksonville's most off-hold visitation the tragic reports of one of the largest fires to ever strike a southern city screamed across the headlines writes Harrison in every city of the land Jacksonville, the gate of Florida travel was known and in thousands of them were men and women who had friends among us the American people had heard and Jacksonville should not starve or struggle naked against her foe to hear was to feel to feel with Americans is to act organizations and individuals across the country all heeded to this fallen city's tears yet you read in the newspaper accounts the mayor and the chairman of the board of trade came out and said with some enthusiasm it's hard for me to even imagine we're going to rebuild this city we've had a setback, we're going to bring back from the ashes and you wonder why how could they have summoned that enthusiasm when everything they had was just gone just totally gone as if it had become the very personification of hope the ever vigilant statue in Hemming Park became a beacon of resolve for the city of beleaguered evacuees there the early morning found him on guard where he was placed true to duty and unchanged in ought gave that the smoke of battle shrouded his form and the smell of conflict was on his garments but all the fields now smoking under the eye of that bronze soldier was lately throng with a seething mass of humanity and horrible conflict with the unchained forces of the elemental world hail to thee oh soldier the city shall rise again and the pledge of its resurrection is seen in the beam of mourning now crowning thy imperishable front Saturday morning Florida Governor Chris Jennings declared the city under martial law assigning local and out of town militia to guard duty at the entrances to the still smoldering burn district Mayor J. E. T. Bowden met with the city council and other governmental organizations a mass meeting at the board of trade garnered pledges for $15,000 for the Jacksonville Relief Association by Sunday trains and trucks were arriving at Union Station from around the country the primary committee began distributing food and supplies to several thousands from black and white relief stations the employment committee began taking application from both blacks and whites to clean up the debris a relief emergency hospital was opened a woman's relief committee was appointed some churches held their worship services under the cathedral of trees if they could find any left standing throughout the weekend supplies continued to pour in from cities across the heartland just as they'd sent in their fire crews only days before from Jacksonville's kindly neighbors Fernandina, Savannah St. Augustine, Pilatka, Jasper and other nearby towns on Monday, May 6 the first building permit for the burn district was requested and granted to Mr. Leonard H. Grunthal it was also the first day of the regular term of the circuit court for Duval County the courthouse had been reduced to four brick walls and was filled with charred rubble and documents while mostly segregated in its efforts towards recovery the general citizenry was praised for its herculean efforts to ensure the mandatory tasks of survival so too did they continue to look for their precious missing you certain that could be him? yes sir magistrate Ludewith that's him we've been searching ever since Friday evening thought maybe he'd left down on the train or appropriated a boat sad to say it but that's Harry Bonathou alright oh no not my Harry oh dear god no oh harry why couldn't you put yourself first this once oh my love what will we do without you? I warned him not to go back but it was useless you know I had strong harry could get when he'd get a notion about something Harry your father's painting here it's safe now rest in peace my friend the overall sentiment evolved from one of utter despair to determination the havoc wrought that day set the stage for recreating Jacksonville anew forged by flames the citizenry now focused on building a brighter future for themselves and their children before long new structures were planned and financed however most of the projects in our city at that time still reflected the segregationist policies and the attitudes so prevalent in the south at the time yet major restoration projects in both Jacksonville's black and white communities did continue for example you had Baptist minister J. Milton Waldron, A.L. Lewis and others forming together to found afro-american life insurance company at that time in the few hours that remained for recreation Jacksonville residents flocked to the beaches and attended amateur football games just six months later the city hosted the Florida State Fair the ostrich farm once Jacksonville's major tourist attraction returned and undaunted W. W. Cleveland announced his intentions to build a new fiber factory at his ill-famed site the day after the fire Clutho read of the catastrophe in the New York Times later that summer the young architect arrived in Jacksonville from Manhattan trained in New York and Europe clothed in talent, charm and an innate business savvy Clutho committed himself to making an eradicable mark upon the fire ravaged river city he was 28 years old he was a young architect who had not made his stamp in his career but he saw this as an unprecedented opportunity for an empty canvas city to rebuild and he had an artistic quality about him that set him apart from others but he coupled that with an entrepreneurial spirit that was probably not equal in any other of the architects who came to Jacksonville he vowed that he was going to reshape the skyline of Jacksonville and during those early years before World War I he pretty well did Henry Clutho's early masterpieces the Dial-up Church building the Carnegie Library Congregation Ahavath Chesed the First Baptist Church and the New City Hall they all reflected his European, Neoclassical Gothic and Romanesque aesthetic once he met Frank Lloyd Wright who was trying to persuade America that we needed our own architecture that reflected the democracy and the vibrance of our new industrial economy and Wright's style really struck him as something that might be appropriate for this newly resurrected city of the south so many of the buildings he did after 1905 reflected this architecture that had its roots in the Midwest and Chicago in fact they called it the Prairie Style which is hung on to this day his greatest work of course was the St. James building which became the Cohen Brothers department store it was built on the site of the old St. James Hotel craftily the owners of the Windsor Hotel that rebuilt immediately after the fire purchased that lot and put a deed restriction so that no hotel could ever be built there so they would have no competitors Clutho was a friend of Mr. Cohen who had the idea to rebuild his department store on this big lot and Clutho convinced him to build a department store but to build a building that was multiple in use it had shops, it had offices, it had restaurants this was way ahead of its time at the time and it was one of the largest department stores in the world when it was built having put the Phoenix on the bum the city continued to grow population and incomes nearly doubled just three years after the fire the city opened its first movie theater in 1908 the first motion picture studio opened as film crews came south to escape the frigid winters Jacksonville continued to garner an excellent reputation as a cinema city between 1912 and 1914 there were actually more motion picture crews working in northeast Florida than in Los Angeles yet the film industry also irked the more conservative of Jacksonville's residents certain incidents such as studios feigning fire they could shoot actual fire crews rushing to a scene perhaps struck an all too raw nerve so when former mayor Bowden sought re-election in 1917 despite all the gallantry he had shown during the great fire the movie makers antics really became the serious and heated issue of that campaign Bowden would lose to a reform minded John Martin over the next few years Hollywood's presence continued to wane by the time World War one had erupted the military's presence in Jacksonville was again on the rise and the city was designated as one of 16 mobilization centers planned for US troops by the war's end the entertainment industries luster had fizzled but this did give way to a more prominent military occupancy which even today makes its significant social and economic impact upon our city but that is a story for another day one of the ways we learn about our history is through photographs photographs are like a time machine they take us back to see the faces and the styles and the architecture of times that are long gone at the same time our grandchildren and their grandchildren and generations beyond are going to look back at us and they'll look to see what we did what we built what we made in this place and whether we squandered the value of what we had and whether we inspired them to make something beautiful in this place to add to what had already come before and to go on to save something for future generations beyond them when you look at history as something that's dynamic and is ongoing and that we are part of we may not necessarily be historic ourselves but what we do here and what decisions we make and what we build here today will affect people that go on for hundreds of years in a good way if we do it right in a bad way if we do it wrong so it's a responsibility what we leave for the future becomes then very important not just as a legacy to who we are but as a message to the future and that message to the future should be something that inspires generations that are yet unborn Production funding for FIRE was provided by the Jacksonville Association of Firefighters and the Jacksonville Area Burger King Restaurants