Myrtle Avenue, Durkeeville
Time for a Historic Durkeeville update. The ladies of Durkeeville have been busy organizing meetings to get the community on board with the quest for a historic neighborhood designation. They are now working under the name Citizens for DARP (Durkeeville Acquistion, Revitalization, and Preservation). They plan to work under this name until the actual DARP Council is formed following historic designation.
Here is is what Amani Francis said about the initial community meeting:
It went well and the turnout was great. While most of the neighborhood residents who showed up are pro-historic designation, there are a few people who were voiceably against it. One such gentleman owns a whole block of houses in Durkeeville. He kept saying that historic designation won’t be a good thing. The reason why though is that he doesn’t want to adhere to city codes when it’s time for him to do repairs on his houses. Of course, it could get costly for him, but we advised him that there will be special programs and grants available following historic designation.
The next neighborhood meeting will be held on September 16th at 10:30 A.M. at the Graham Library Branch on Myrtle Avenue. In the interim, they have set up meeting with the Durkeeville elders and neighborhood leaders, as well as a separate meeting with a younger group of Durkeeville residents who we think can be instrumental in planning the remainder of the process. As well as garner neighborhood support.
tags: jacksonville, durkeeville, darp, historic designation
There will be a neighborhood meeting on August 12th, 2006 at the Graham Library Branch at 2304 North Myrtle Avenue (Map) at 10:30 A.M. concerning historic designation for the Durkeeville area within the above boundaries.
This meeting pertains to those living in the following area, which I assume will be the boundaries of the Durkeeville Historic District. Kings Road and 13th Street and I-95 and Whitner Street.
Here is an update from the women heading up the historic designation for Durkeeville, Terri Staten and Amani Francis:
Councilwoman Yates’ office did return our call. We were referred to the historical society. We’ve already spoken to them, so I’ve called back and left them another message. I let them know that we need Ms. Yates to take the motion to the city council to have Durkeeville declared historic. So again, I’m waiting for a call back. Team Durkeeville will forge forward regardless though. We are tentatively planning our initial neighborhood town hall meeting on August 12th, 2006.
For further information, please email Terri Staten and Amani Francis at info@venuesouth.com
tags: jacksonville, durkeeville, historic designation
I spoke with Amani about the progress of the Durkeeville historic preservation effort. She had the following to say:
We’re still trying to get a meeting with Gwen Yates. She hasn’t called us back yet. So [we have] called her and we’re still waiting to see if she will schedule a meeting.
Our next plan is to set up an initial meeting in the neighborhood. I’m going to call and ask the folks at the Myrtle Ave. library if we can meet there within the next two weeks or so.
We’ll let you know once we figure out what time the meeting will be held if you are interested in attending.
More Durkeeville posts
tags: jacksonville, durkeeville, historic preservation
The following post was written by Amani Francis who, along with Terri Staten, is working to get a historic desingation for Durkeeville
Our meeting with Mr. McEachen went well. Our first step is to set up a meeting with our councilwoman, Gwen Yeats. I called her office on Friday and I’m waiting for a return call. I’ll call her again this afternoon if I don’t hear back from her soon. Hopefully we can convince her to take our motion to the city council to have Durkeeville declared historic. If she doesn’t agree to help, we will have to do it ourselves.
After that step, we will have to call a neighborhood town hall meeting and inform them of what we’re trying to do, as well as explain to them how that will effect them – especially when it comes to taxes (the elderly people may be concerned about this, as well as others who live on fixed incomes). After that, ballots will go out to residents. They will have to vote on whether or not they want the historic designation. If we get a large enough percentage of votes, then the council will approve a local historic designation for Durkeeville.
We also met with the ladies of AKA who own the large AKA house at 8th and I-95. They are going to help us by reminding their neighborhood residents (they said about 50 AKA’s reside in Durkeeville) to vote for the historic designation. They actually do their own African American historic tours of Jacksonville and they have a historical society faction of the sorority. Anyway, they were extremely helpful and they want to help in any way that they can. All in all, Friday was very productive for us. We’re quite hopeful about the outcome.
Mr. McEachen stressed that it may be a challenge and it may also be seen a controversial by Councilwoman Yeats, but Terri’s dad knows her and she is going to get him to speak with her if she won’t agree to meet with us right away. We’re hopeful that she will be supportive though. I don’t really see why this is controversial. It seems to me that people should want their neighborhood to be the best that it can be. We’ll see though.
Durkeeville photos
More Durkeeville posts
tags: jacksonville, durkeeville, historic designation
Left to Right: Joey, Amani, Daniel, Terry
I met with Terri Staten, Amani Francis and Daniel Blanchard yesterday at Boomtown to talk about getting a historic designation for Durkeeville. For those of you who don’t know where Durkeeville is you can find by taking 8th Street West, just past I-95.
Lucky for you, and the rest of the City for that matter, I was able to convince Amani and Terri to blog about their experiences as they go through the process of getting the historic designation. We hope to document the entire process from start to finish. I hope this will be a great resource for anyone attempting to get a historic designation for their neighborhood.
Here is a little Durkeeville history:
In the early 20th century, Durkeeville is where Jacksonville’s elite African American professionals lived. Like many other established neighborhoods, this one went through a decline in later years. With the help of dedicated volunteers, Durkeeville is reestablishing itself as a wonderful place to live. The Historical Society runs a small museum that has become a popular spot for gatherings and reunions. The exhibits highlight the many interesting and famous people from this community. Hank Aaron played ball at J.P. Small field, and his wife’s brother, Bill Lucas, became professional sports’ first black general manager, running the Atlanta Braves in the mid ’60s. Charlie “Hawk” Singleton was a prolific songwriter with more than 500 tunes to his credit, including ‘Strangers in the Night’ and ‘Spanish Eyes.’ Two events draw big crowds each year — the November Music Fest and February’s celebration of the Negro Baseball League (Source: AOL Cityguide)
The historical society mentioned in the quote stopped short of pursuing a historic designation. While we can’t know why, we have heard there are those at the historic society who don’t like newcomers stepping on their turf. The road for Amani and Terri probably won’t be easy, but it sure as hell will be interesting.
I am meeting with two Durkeeville advocates next week, Amani Francis and Terri Staten, to talk about their plans for a historic designation. Durkeeville lies just West of I-95 on 8th Street. For now I am going to say its Eastern boundary is I-95 and it’s Western boundary is Golfair Boulevard, Beaver Street in the south and 20th street in the north.
We know that the reasons why Durkeeville is ignored as a downtown neighborhood is partially due to urban blight – a lot of which is still present in the Springfield area. We are in the process of beginning a “resurrection†movement in our own neighborhood, as it was once the chosen place of residence for affluent Blacks in Jacksonville. As the architectural style of the houses in the area is quite similar to those in San Marco, Avondale, and Riverside – with many historic bungalows, cottages – we are longing to restore our neighborhood to its previous beauty and glory.
I hope to have Amani and Terri blog about the experience of going through the historic designation process. If all goes as planned they want to name the historic organization DARP – Durkeeville Acquisition, Revitalization, and Preservation. Amani feels all three components are crucial to the advancement of Durkeeville.
tags: jacksonville, durkeeville
