Have you ever wondered what life was like in Jacksonville half a century ago? It was a different era of history, culture and politics but there are often parallels between the kind of stories that made headlines then and today. As interesting as the differences may be, so are the similarities. These are some of the top stories from this week in 1961. The items were compiled from the Jacksonville Public Library’s periodical archives by Staff Writer Max Marbut.
• Penn State, the apparent winner of the Lambert Trophy, “emblematic of Eastern major college football supremacy,” accepted an invitation to play Georgia Tech Dec. 30 in the 17th annual Gator Bowl game.
The Nittany Lions had previously rejected bids to play in the Gotham Bowl in New York City and the Liberty Bowl in Philadelphia.
Henry Kramer, chairman of the Gator Bowl selection committee, said he had seen Penn State play twice during the season and fans were “in for a wide open contest.”
Penn State finished the season with a 7-3 record. Their trip to Jacksonville would mark the team’s third consecutive post-season bowl appearance.
• The assets of four national banks in the state were pooled through the formation of a holding company, First Bancorporation of Florida.
The announcement was made by Frank Norris, chairman of the board of Barnett National Bank of Florida, and William R. Barnett, the bank’s president.
Institutions participating in the formation of the holding company were First National Bank of Miami, First National Bank of Orlando, the Exchange National Bank of Tampa and Barnett. The group would have its headquarters in Orlando.
Norris and Barnett issued the following statement:
“Florida is in a dynamic period of growth and banking has to grow with it. Through the instrumentality of the bank holding company, more specialized skills in banking and business counseling will be available in the four communities than any single bank can now afford.”
After the application to become a bank holding company was filed with the Federal Reserve Board, the U.S. attorney general’s office confirmed that no antitrust litigation was planned by the federal government providing Federal Reserve Board approval was granted.
• At its annual meeting at the George Washington Hotel, the Jacksonville Tourist and Convention Bureau announced its activities in 1961 represented a potential of $9 million in gross revenue for the community.
George Tobi, bureau vice president and general manager, said that in the first 11 months of 1961, the bureau assisted in signing 203 conventions with 82,000 delegates visiting the city.
The number did not include wives and family members who came to Jacksonville with the convention delegates, he said.
Commenting on Jacksonville’s growth as a convention city, Tobi said that in 1959, there were 130 meetings with attendance of 51,000 delegates. In 1960, there were 183 meetings and 65,000 delegates.
Also at the meeting, Cooper Cubbedge was re-elected bureau president for the next year. Five new members were named to the board of directors: Garnett Andrews, Hood Dittmar, Frank Gay, John McCormack and William E. Scheu.
After the business agenda concluded, members viewed a new public relations film that told the story of the city zoo and its function as one of Jacksonville’s outstanding attractions.
• The management of about $100 million in land holdings of the Arvida Corp. of Miami was assigned to Stockton, Whatley, Davin & Co. of Jacksonville. The transaction linked two of Florida’s largest real estate and real estate management firms.
Brown L. Whatley of Jacksonville, chairman of the board of SWD, was elected president and chairman of the board of Arvida and would serve as chief administrative officer of the firm while continuing to serve as SWD chairman.
Comer J. Kimball of Miami, former president and chairman of the board of Arvida, was re-elected board chairman of Arvida.
The transaction also involved exchange of directorships between each firm and offers of stock options by each firm for the cash purchases of stock in the other firm.
The stock option provision would allow SWD to purchase 400,000 shares of Arvida common stock at $11 a share on or before Dec. 1, 1966. Arvida had the option to purchase 50,000 shares of SWD common stock shares at a minimum of $17.50 a share.
In 1961, SWD was one of the four largest mortgage companies in the United States and was at the time serving more than 50,000 individual mortgages with principal amounts totaling more than $420 million.
Arvida Corp. was formed to consolidate the land holdings of Florida financier Arthur Vining Davis. It was at the time one of the largest land companies in Florida and owned more than 100,000 acres in South Florida.
• The first spectator events in Jacksonville’s newest public park were scheduled for Dec. 9 on the Downtown Southbank between the Acosta and Main Street bridges.
The Southside Business Men’s Club announced it would sponsor a “Between the Bridges” celebration. The event would introduce the new park to the public and raise funds to support the club’s annual Christmas basket charity for Southside families in need.
Harry A. Pierce, chairman of the arrangements committee for the celebration, said the two main events on the program would be a softball game between elected officials of the City government vs. elected officials of the County government and a tug-of-war between members of the Duval County Board of Public Instruction and members of the County Budget Commission.
Pierce said City Council member John Lanahan was organizing the municipal team and that County Commissioner Bob Harris had pledged to put nine County officials on the field.
The new park had been covered with grass, but was not complete. A bond issue had been proposed to provide the financing for a bulkhead, mooring slips for small boats and other improvements.
• Duval County’s 16 volunteer fire departments answered a total of 2,877 calls in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 1961.
The figure was included in an annual report presented to the County Commission by Bruce Whittle, communications director for the Duval County Volunteer Fire Department Association. He also served as chief of the Wesconnett volunteers.
Whittle’s report showed that the largest number of calls – 415, including 86 woods fires – were answered by the Arlington department. Second was the Wesconnett department with 292 calls, followed by Dinsmore with 290.
Of the 2,877 total, 951 were listed as woods fires. Others were:
Homes, 461; miscellaneous, including washing gas off streets, hauling cats out of trees and the like, 439; trash and brush fires, 95 percent credited to neglect and carelessness, 360; automobiles, 206; heaters, 175; nonresidential buildings, 111; false alarms, 97; and 77 calls were for resuscitation or rescue.
Using operating costs at the Wesconnett department as an index, Whittle calculated the cost to the County of each call at $23.06.
• Jacksonville University was granted a $938,000 loan from the federal government for the construction of two dormitory buildings and three faculty apartments.
The loan was announced by Sidney Woolner, commissioner of the Community Facilities Administration of the Housing and Home Finance Agency, through the office of U.S. Rep. Charles Bennett.
The loan was the first ever made to the university by the federal government and would be repaid over a 40-year period with revenue from dormitory rentals.
JU President Franklyn Johnson said he was “overjoyed by the announcement,” that construction bids were scheduled to be opened Dec. 5 and he hoped the project could begin by the end of 1961.
The dormitories were designed by Reynolds, Smith and Hills, architects for several other buildings on the campus.
The four-story, brick dormitories would be constructed as two wings connected by a one-story center building that would house a lounge, recreational and service areas and the faculty apartments. Each wing would accommodate 144 students – one wing for women and the other for men.
The dormitories would be furnished by the university and each room would be occupied by two students. Johnson said the rental would be about $300 for the nine-month school year, which was “about average for similar quarters in other universities.”
He said the loan provided for one of the most important changes in JU’s history, ranking with its becoming a four-year college and gaining accreditation.
“In my opinion, the college will continue to be a community institution, but we are, for the first time, going to develop a student body with a national flavor,” Johnson said.