The community of Cosmo, in Arlington along the St. Johns River.
The JEA Building, formerly the Universal Marion Building, is within the Downtown historic district.
Black Bottom House of Prayer in Orlando, built in 1925.
Eatonville Historic District in Eatonville, established in 1887.
Lee School in Leesburg, built in 1915.
McFarlane Historic District in Coral Gables, established in 1925.
Patten House in Ellenton, built in 1895.
Pensacola Vocational School in Pensacola, built in 1942.
S.H. Johnson X-Ray Clinic in Miami, built in 1939.
St. Cloud Municipal Utilities building in St. Cloud, built in 1926.
The Florida Trust for Historic Preservation’s “2020 Florida’s 11 to Save” list includes two areas in Duval County, including Downtown.
The group released the list July 29 at the Preservation on Main Street conference in collaboration with Florida Main Street.
This year’s list comprises endangered historic resources in Duval, Escambia, Lake, Manatee, Miami-Dade, Orange, Osceola and Sarasota counties.
Here are the Duval County sites:
• Community of Cosmo and the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, established in the 1870s
The community of Cosmo, in Arlington along the St. Johns River, was established in the late 1870s as a Gullah Geechee freedmen settlement community.
The Gullah Geechee people are the descendants of West and Central Africans who were enslaved on coastal rice, indigo and Sea Island cotton plantations in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.
Part of Jacksonville’s Gullah Geechee history, Cosmo still is home to the descendants of the founders and retains historic buildings, burial grounds and fishing grounds on the banks of the St. Johns River.
• Downtown Jacksonville National Register Historic District
In May 2016, 56 blocks of Downtown were listed in the National Register of Historic Places as a historic district.
The 158-acre site is a contiguous group of resources that relate to the development of Florida’s first big city central business district as a commercial, institutional and residential hub following the Great Fire of 1901.
According to the group, despite inclusion on the National Register, some historic and culturally significant sites including the City Hall Annex, Greyhound Bus Station, First Baptist Church Sunday School Building and the Universal Marion Building, used as JEA’s headquarters, have been demolished, are approved for demolition or have a doubtful future.
Also on the 2020 list:
• Eatonville Historic District in Eatonville, established in 1887.
• Patten House in Ellenton, built in 1895.
• Lee School in Leesburg, built in 1915.
• Black Bottom House of Prayer in Orlando, built in 1925.
• McFarlane Historic District in Coral Gables, established in 1925.
• St. Cloud Municipal Utilities building in St. Cloud, built in 1926.
• S.H. Johnson X-Ray Clinic in Miami, built in 1939.
• Pensacola Vocational School in Pensacola, built in 1942.
• Walter Farley House in Venice, built in 1956.
The nonprofit Florida Trust for Historic Preservation was established in 1978 to protect Florida’s heritage and history. The organization is a partner of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Visit FloridaTrust.org for more information.
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