When was jacksonville florida established

The Spanish Empire was in decline and after several attempts to oust the Spanish from the Florida colony, including intrusions by Andrew Jackson, Spain ceded its Florida holdings to the United States. Plantations had become important economic centers along the St. Johns River. Now part of an established commerce network of a new and growing country, Jacksonville exported cotton, lumber, oranges, and vegetables and received manufactured goods from the North.

Jacksonville was the center of commercial activity in the territory by the time Florida gained statehood in This was a time of profound change for the fledging United States, especially in the South. Florida seceded from the Union, but there was support for both the Union and the Confederacy in Jacksonville. As a port city, Jacksonville played a major role in the Union blockade of the Confederacy and it was occupied by Union troops four times.

The population grew with both freed and runaway slaves seeking safety and a new life. As with many Southern cities, Jacksonville suffered both property damage and economic devastation due to the war.

Its location as a port city again proved to be valuable, however. A new item was soon imported into the city — tourists. By the late s, the area was drawing 70, people annually seeking a respite from the cold northern climes.

Downtown hotel buildings expanded and communities along the beautiful beaches began to grow. As the railroad expanded south across the river, however, the tourists had a means for exploring other parts of Florida. At the same time, a yellow fever epidemic spurred tourists southward.

The spark that started the devastating Great Fire of , in which over 2, buildings burned to the ground, may have ignited the trend for transformation that Jacksonville needed. From the ruins of a colonial frontier past emerged a modern skyline of concrete and stone. A public library donated by Andrew Carnegie was built in In , 29 Timucua remained, all living in a single town.

A decade later, when Spain withdrew from Florida at the conclusion of the Seven Years War, there was only one Timucuan Indian still alive to accompany the Spaniards to Cuba. Johns River at the Cowford — a narrowing of the St. This was a problem for the British, as the southern colonies in North America supplied food, clothing, and other supplies to their sugar plantations in the Caribbean. The Floridas were located right between the British sugar plantations in the Caribbean, and the northern colonial revolt.

Thomas Creek was also the southernmost battle of the Revolutionary War. During a series of battles from to , Spain was able to recapture West Florida from the British. The English refused to pose for this portrait commemorating the Peace of Paris in , so it was never completed. Nicholas, was situated just west of the athletic field of present-day Bishop Kenny High School.

Johns River. But Pritchard died within a few years, and what little development he started on the land was abandoned when political disturbances in and again in cleared this site of all settlers. He fell out of grace with the Spanish government, however, and within a few years his land was confiscated. In the land was re-granted to William Hendricks, a ship builder and farmer who lived on Talbot Island.

His son Isaac soon moved to this peninsula west of Fort San Nicolas. He built houses and cultivated the land. After the death of his first wife, Isaac Hendricks married Elizabeth Hudnall, the widow of Ezekiel Hudnall, who owned a large tract of land to the east.

South of the Hendricks plantation was a tract owned by Albert G. Philips, near Point La Vista. Thus, by three of the largest land holdings on the south bank of the river were linked by marriage. At 3 AM one of the gang who spoke Spanish approached Commander Ignacio Lopez at the gate with a false announcement that the men were militia reinforcements arriving to strengthen the battery.

A brief exchange of fire took place that resulted in the immediate deaths of two Spanish guards. A third soldier later died from his wounds.

The battery was quickly overrun and Lieutenant Lopez and twenty-eight members of the Catalan Light Infantry Company were captured. Anchored in the St. Johns River in front of the battery was the royal gunboat, the San Simon, captained by Manuel Otero, who had twelve men under his command. Because the rebels captured the battery by marching south along the riverbank they were able to elude the guns of the San Simon. A lack of communication between the gunboat and the battery meant that Otero and his crew were unaware of what was happening until the rebels were actually in control of the fortification.

When he realized this, Otero ordered his crew to fire on the battery. The rebels fired back. Knowing that the defenses of San Nicolas were far superior to those of the San Simon, Otero ordered the crew to cease fire and cut the hawser in an attempt to escape.

However, the current carried the gunboat toward the riverbank where it ran aground. Otero made repeated efforts to push it back into deeper water but was unable to do so.

Accepting that the boat was defenseless and that further resistance placed the lives of his crew in danger, Otero had no choice but to surrender to the rebels.

For the next two days the rebels based themselves at San Nicolas and terrorized settlers along the river. This parcel was surrendered to Isaac Hendricks by the governor of Spanish East Florida in , and confirmed by the land commissioners, in Frontiersmen from both sides of the tense Florida-Georgia border attempted by force of arms to seize Spanish East Florida and join it to the United States with little delay. Britain was blocking U. She married Lewis Zachariah Hogan[s], and they built a log cabin near what is now the corner of Hogan and Forsyth streets, now the location of a FedEx Office.

He built a home here, but then sold his land to John Brady in These two tracts of land form most of Downtown today. Spain sells the Florida Territory to the U. Hart, who proposed the renaming in a town charter to honor the newly appointed American military governor of the new territory, Major General Andrew Jackson, the future 7th President of the United States.

Johns River, District of San Nicolas, husband of Spanish land-grant holder Anna Hogans Bagley, and deputy surveyor — started platting the streets for a town at the northern bank of the cow ford.

Under the same town charter that renamed Cowford to Jacksonville and included provisions for establishing roads and a courthouse, William J.

Mills was named the first Mayor of Jacksonville. Not much is known about Mayor Mills due to the Great Fire of destroying all city records in the courthouse.

During the Second Seminole War, Hart led the movement to build the blockhouse a fort made of squared timbers with a projecting upper story , the little fort was probably finished in It was to give a place of refuge if Seminoles raided Jacksonville. Floridians had voted in a referendum in favor of statehood in and a state constitution was approved in , but it was not until the U. Congress approved the act in that it became official. Winds pushed St. The flood waters then advanced an additional block north reaching across Forsyth Street.

Wind and water destroyed wharves and wrecked structures in the tiny town. The sizeable vessel, the Virginia, anchored in the St. Johns, was relocated by the gale, dragging anchor and all, to a surreal lopsided perch spanning the equivalent of two city blocks. Isaiah Hart establishes just over two acres of land for use as a public square. James Hotel. The flags of Spain, France, England, and the United States had flown over the city, and now the flag of the Confederacy waved high over the docks of the St.

Not all locals were as devoted to the Southern purpose, nearly a third of the city populace were passionate Union supporters. The strain of war rippled through families and the streets of the town. Wood With each, the town took a bleaker air. Maps and archaeological testing showed this site was the location of Fort Hatch, which housed one of nine gun batteries built to protect the city.

The chest-high fortifications contained barracks, mess halls, medical facilities, and parade grounds. Fort Hatch was named in honor of General John P. The Roosevelt Hotel fire of claimed 22 lives , 15 more than in the fire in See more photos. Pictured: Guests opened windows and tried to escape from the smoke that filled the building at the Roosevelt Hotel in On August 31, , at p.

While no serious property or bodily damage occurred, the disturbance lasted 11 minutes. Tremors continued in the city throughout the month of September with the last major shock on October This quaking action was associated with the Charleston earthquake where scores of people died and hundreds of buildings were destroyed. The Florida Theatre was built during and and it is one of only three surviving movie palaces in Florida. More than a million bricks were used to construct the theatre and it was the first time ready-mixed mortar was used in the south.

The theatre was the first major building downtown to use full air-conditioning. Curious Jax: The rooftop garden at Florida Theatre. The creator of the King Kong film, Merian C. Cooper, was born in Jacksonville in He was an Army pilot and a prisoner of war before he began a career in film.

He planned to use a giant lizard to terrorize New York, but in the end changed the character to a gorilla. Speaking of movies, Norman Studios was founded in by Middleburg-born silent filmmaker Richard Norman. While much of the industry headed to the West Coast, Norman helped keep movie-making in Jacksonville for another decade.