Elena Flats, 122 E. Duval St.
Bostwick Building/Cowford Chophouse, 101 E. Bay St.
John Gorrie Middle School/John Gorrie Condominiums, 2525 College St.
Seminole Building/Sweet Pete’s, 400 N. Hogan St.
Barnett Bank Building, 112 W. Adams St.
Brewster Hospital/North Florida Land Trust, 843 W. Monroe St.
The Historic Sites Committee of the Jacksonville Historical Society included six success stories along with its list of endangered historic properties.
They include:
Elena Flats is one of the last historic structures in what was once a vibrant Downtown rooming house district built after the Great Fire of 1901.
Initially catering to middle-class workers, the building later was converted to a rooming house for Jones College students in the 1950s. By the late 1970s, the building had been subdivided into as many as 25 rooms.
Over the next several decades, the building began to deteriorate from lack of maintenance. It was last used as nightly and weekly rental housing in the early 2000s.
Investors Jack Meeks and JoAnn Tredennick, through J Properties III LLC, bought the almost 7,000-square-foot building in 2015. After securing historic tax credits and investing nearly $3 million in restoration costs, the building has been redeveloped as a quadraplex.
The building opened as First National Bank in 1902 and was expanded in 1919 by Guaranty Trust and Savings Bank.
After several banks failed, the Bostwick family bought the building in the 1930s. Henry Klutho had his architectural office in the building from 1944 to 1960.
In 2013, the property owners were behind in taxes and requested approval for demolition. The city won a foreclosure suit to force the sale of the building, which was bought by the Forking Amazing Restaurant Group in 2014. The Cowford Chophouse opened in 2017.
Many details of the Renaissance Revival landmark were restored with support from the Downtown Investment Authority and the city’s Historic Preservation Trust Fund. Restored elements include the arched windows, exterior bricks, metal cornice and 300-year-old heart pine lumber that is seen throughout the building.
Named for the inventor of mechanical cooling, the John Gorrie Junior High School was built in 1923 and served West Jacksonville students for decades, then was used for administrative purposes.
Listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1987, it closed in 1997 and remained neglected until 2009, when then-Jacksonville Jaguars co-owner Delores Barr Weaver bought the building and began a two-year restoration, renovation and adaptive re-use project turning former classrooms into residential condominiums.
In 2012, the project won the Outstanding Multi-Family Renovation Award from Riverside Avondale Preservation.
Built in 1903, the building operated for decades as the Seminole Club, a private men’s social club. It was renovated in 1975, when elevators were added.
It closed in 1989, and again in 2004, and was designated a historic structure in 2006. After the 2007 economic recession, the building remained unused until it was purchased in 2014 by reality TV host Marcus Lemonis for $550,000.
The 22,000-square-foot building was renovated, including conversion of its former basketball court into a candy production area. The structure houses the Sweet Pete’s candy company and a restaurant.
JWB Real Estate Capital LLC bought the building in 2020 for $1.7 million.
Designed and built in the middle of a Jacksonville building boom, the structure was finished in 1926, when it was Jacksonville’s tallest building at 18 stories.
In 2013, SouthEast Development Group acquired the building along with the Laura Street Trio and began rehabilitation in 2017.
Finished in two years, the $53 million project houses a commercial bank, the Downtown campus of the University of North Florida and residential apartments.
The Brewster Hospital building was constructed in 1885 as a private residence for Hans Christian Peters, a Jacksonville meat cutter. The hospital’s name came from Mrs. George A. Brewster, an early contributor to the first hospital for African Americans in Jacksonville in 1901.
The building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976, having been vacant since 1966.
In 2005, the city moved the building from 915 W. Monroe St. to its current site and invested $1.2 million in rehabilitation for a new use. In 2020, the North Florida Land Trust became its primary tenant.
