In
1562,
French Huegenots sailed into what is now known as the
St. Johns River. They called the waters, the
River of May and founded a
settlement there,
Fort Caroline. A few
years later,
Spanish forces from the
fort in
St. Augustine attacked the French and
wiped out the settlement.
Spain controlled
Florida for the
next two centuries.
In
1763 the Spanish would
trade Florida to the
British in
exchange for
Havana, Cuba. The British
sought to
establish a
road system from
Savannah, Georgia to
St. Augustine, Florida. The road crossed the St. Johns River at a
point known as
The Cowford,
located roughly where
downtown Jacksonville is
today.
The Spanish again took
control of Florida from
1783 until around
1821. At this time, Florida was
ceded to the
United States and
Americans began to
move in and
settle the
state.
The
ferry crossing provided a
good means of
commerce and a settlement
gradually began to
grow around it. In
1822 the area was
surveyed by
Isaiah Hart, who is
considered the
founder of the
town, and given the name Jacksonville for
General Andrew Jackson who was the first
military governor of the area.
Lumber mills helped the town to grow up until the
Civil War. The town was
burnt numerous times during the
war. When the war was over, the
city became a
popular winter resort. As Jacksonville grew, the
railroad eventually came through the city and
farther south into Florida. The city
suffered an
outbreak of
yellow fever in the
19th century as well as one of the
worst fires in the south in
1901. The
fire destroyed
over 2400
buildings. After
recovering from the fire, the city became a
center for
banking in the
state and over 300
silent movies were
filmed in the city.
After
World War II, two U.S.
Naval bases were
located in Jacksonville. The city also began to
attract companies in the
insurance industry. In
1967 citizens of Jacksonville and the surrounding
county,
Duval,
voted to
consolidate the city and county
governments. This made Jacksonville one of the
largest cities in the
nation based on
land mass. The city of Jacksonville
encompasses over 840
square miles.
Jacksonville
currently sits at the
intersection of two
transcontinental highways,
I-10 and
I-95. The
population of the
metropolitan area is over one
million. The city is home to the
Florida Coastal School of Law, the
University of North Florida and
Jacksonville University. The city hosts the
NFL's
Jacksonville Jaguars, a
Double A minor league baseball team, the
PGA's
TPC golf tournament, the
ATP headquarters and many other sports related events. Perhaps one of the biggest events is the annual {Florida-Georgia]
football game. This has also been called
the South's largest outdoor cocktail party. It's
worth going to Jacksonville just
once to
see that and the
drunken mayhem that goes along with it, if nothing else. This may be the closest thing the city has to it's own
Mardi Gras.
On a more
cultural note, the city also is
host to an
annual jazz festival. The
Florida Theatre hosts lots of
events from
concerts to
old movies
during the
summer. The Cummer Gallery is a
museum and
garden located in the Riverside
area.
If you are looking for
nightlife the Jacksonville Landing is a good
place to
start. There are a lot of
bars and
restaurants there. After
dinner, there are some
dance clubs
downtown. The only one I remember is on Forsyth Street called Club 618, I think. Supposedly there is a new club down there called the Voodoo something and I think it is also on Forsyth Street. Grab a copy of the Folio Weekly which is the local
liberal events
rag. The city can
pretty much be
broken down into two main
sections (the Northside doesn't count, ask anyone, unless they are on that side of town, it's where the
airport is). The two sections are the Southside and the Westside.
The Southside is the more
stuck up section, though no one who lives there will
admit it. The beaches area is included in the Southside, along with San Marco (an area where you are considered
alternative or
gay and just have
extra money to
burn on
rent), Mandarin (this is where a lot of rednecks move when they get a decent job) and Baymeadows/Deerwood (where they really have their noses up their asses).
The Westside includes the Riverside area (this is the
poor man's San Marco even though there are a lot of rich ass mofo's there), Murray Hill (an even poorer man's Riverside), Orange Park (which is, actually another city, but you are getting on the
verge of
redneck land), Marietta/Whitehouse (which is redneck land) and Middleburg (this city is southwest of Orange Park and is DEEP redneck land).
There are a lot of clubs at First Street and Atlantic Boulevard which is at the beach. You can park and hit probably five or six clubs within walking distance of each other. The best is probably Pete's bar (I think that's the name, I was usually smashed by the time we got there but it's in a big white building). All of the yuppies hang out at Ragtime. On the other end of the beach, near the
Red Cross lifeguard station there are more clubs (Third Street and Beach Boulevard). San Marco has some good restaurants, with my favorites being Sushi Rock and Pappa's (I don't think it's actually called this but it's an Italian place across the street from Sushi Rock). Firehouse
subs has some
great sandwiches also. Everyone talks about Cafe Carmon, though I have only gotten drunk there, never eaten. If you
head towards downtown from San Marco, you will see European Street on your
left. They have a ton of
beer on
draft and in
bottles. The food is pretty
damn good too. This is a good
place to
adjust your
attitude before hitting the clubs (it closes at 10).
Over in Riverside, the place to start is Five Points. There are some restaurants there but mostly alternative (
tattoo's,
bongs,
smokes,
clothing,
magazines,
leather items, etc.) shops. Club Five is also located here. They have
Saturday night seduction you know when, which
features
S&M,
bondage and some
other interesting stuff. Deeper into Riverside (in the Avondale area) you will find the Art Bar (Saturday night used to be the night to go) and around the corner from it another European Street. There's also Partners, Monty's (not the actual name but it's what everyone calls it,
Wednesday night is
open mic night and it's usually packed), and the Hookah Lounge (may or may not be the name but it's next to Monty's). A little farther west into Riverside is Gene's Seafood, the Loop, Harpoon Louie's (a great place to
hang and they have good
inexpensive food and
cheap beer) and the Eclipse (Friday night is the night to go but don't get there before 11 or you will think I'm
full of shit. In Orange Park, there is a place called the Roadhouse, that has good bands sometimes on Friday and Saturday night (
warning, you will see rednecks). Another interesting club is the Fat Kat Lounge in Murray Hill on Edgewood Avenue (I don't know what nights go off here). Walk across the street to my favorite
hole in the wall bar, the Alibi (the people are friendly and sometimes strange but drinking IS encouraged and the beer is pretty cheap).