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.
• The president-elect of the American Bar Association told Jacksonville’s legal fraternity during Law Day ceremonies at the George Washington Hotel that rule by law must win over rule by force.
John C. Satterfield, an attorney from Yazoo City, Miss., said Law Day in the United States was the free world’s answer to May Day in Russia.
“We must move with greater force and conviction to overcome the move of communism through the world,” he said.
He urged members of the local bar association to remember that “no nation had ever voluntarily embraced communism.”
Satterfield said that while the Soviet Union paraded its military might and used May Day as an opportunity to threaten the world, Law Day reaffirmed “America’s faith in the rule of law as the best safeguard of human freedom and dignity.”
• County Tax Assessor Frank Osborn charged that a “well-organized, powerful clique of slumlords, land barons and real estate speculators” was working through paid political interests to block revaluation of Duval County property.
Osborn, speaking to the South Duval Young Democratic Club at Jacksonville University, said he was speaking “not in anger but in determination.” He said the clique was “as well entrenched a group of professional tax dodgers as Florida has ever seen.”
Osborn had proposed to spend $644,700 for a countywide property reassessment. The proposal was rejected by the County Commission.
Osborn also publicly responded to specific charges made in a declaration by the five commissioners in turning down the revaluation proposal.
He said their reference to doing away with the homestead exemption was a “red herring introduced to confuse the issue” and said he had nothing to do with the homestead exemption.
Osborn said it had been 25 years since Duval County had been revaluated and that his proposal was supported by the Jacksonville Area Chamber of Commerce, the League of Women Voters, the Legislative Committee of State Realtors, the School Board and the Better Schools Citizens Committee.
Asked what steps he would take next, Osborn said he was preparing a detailed report to submit to the County Budget Commission in the hope that they would fund the revaluation.
• U.S. Rep. Charles Bennett asked Administrator John Gleason of the Veterans Administration to meet with him to discuss the possibility of building a new VA hospital in or near Jacksonville.
“New beds for veterans are definitely needed in Florida. The only question is whether they should be added to the present facilities or be incorporated in a new hospital,” said Bennett.
The VA already had authorized additional beds for hospitals at Bay Pines, Coral Gables and Lake City.
Bennett noted that Jacksonville was the only one of Florida’s three largest cities that didn’t have a VA hospital to serve the community.
• Spontaneous combustion was determined to be the cause of a three-alarm fire that destroyed a custom furniture and cabinet factory.
Fire Chief Frank Kelly and Assistant Fire Marshal C.D. Banks said the blaze at Lerner Fixture and Cabinet Co., 1390 W. 18th St., apparently started in painting stalls on the second floor of the two-story building.
Their preliminary report estimated the loss of the building at $15,000 and damage to its contents at $20,000.
The fire was reported shortly before 7 a.m. and 15 minutes later, units from seven fire stations had been summoned to the scene. More than 7,500 feet of hose was laid to connect with hydrants several blocks away.
The flames reached such intensity that paint was blistered off a fire truck and at least one hose was consumed by the fire. Firefighters stayed at the scene almost seven hours, finally getting the blaze under control at 1:49 p.m.
It was the third three-alarm fire in 1961.
• Final legislative approval was given to a bill requiring all nonprofit organizations which received contributions from the City of Jacksonville to file an annual report showing how the money was spent.
Also approved was a measure to give automatic pension credit to City employees with previous service with the police or fire departments if there was no break in City employment.
• Jacksonville Beach awarded a $10,290 contract to the General Engineering Co. for new electric voltage regulators, even though the firm submitted the highest bid.
Customarily, contracts were awarded to the low bidder, but identical bids of $10,287 were submitted by five other electrical firms for the regulators.
“We figured the high bidder must not have the same price catalog as the other companies, so we decided to give the firm the extra $3 to buy it with,” said Council member Forrest Bryant, who was in charge of awarding the contract.
• The State Budget Commission pledged $1.8 million in school construction funds to Duval County.
The pledge represented state funds matching construction funds posted by the County school system as part of a $35 million school expansion and improvement program that was endorsed in a bond election in November.
• The County Commission voted to acquire the right of way for widening University Boulevard as soon as funds were available.
The boulevard had recently been adopted as a primary road by the State Road Department and plans were under way to widen it from the Expressway to the vicinity of Jacksonville University.
Commissioner Bob Harris estimated the cost of the needed right of way at $500,000, but only about $4,000 was in the County uncommitted secondary roads fund for the remainder of the fiscal year, which would end June 30.
County Engineer John Crosby said even if funds were available to purchase right of way, it would be at least three years before the project could begin.
• The Jacksonville Symphony Association reported that half of the tables available for the seventh annual outdoor pops concert by the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra already had been sold.
The concert, which usually was a sellout, was scheduled for 8:30 p.m. May 24 on the terrace at the Prudential Building.
Mrs. Raymond H. King, concert chair, said record attendance was expected for the performance and no tickets would be available at the door. Tickets were $3 per person.
• Sidney R. Smith, 32, was arrested on a federal indictment charging him with making a false claim against the United States.
His car was destroyed by fire near Cecil Field Naval Air Station Dec. 20 and Smith alleged the vehicle caught fire as result of flames emitted from a government-owned aircraft. He was seeking $443 in damages in his claim against the security department at the
base.
The indictment alleged Smith’s claim was “false, fictitious and fraudulent.”
According to FBI agents who investigated the claim, Smith said he had been in a wooded area near the air station looking for a Christmas tree when his car became stuck in sand. It was cold, he said, so he built a fire to keep warm.
He alleged he could not free the car, put out the fire, and started out to get help when a plane flew by and dropped a flare which landed near the car. Smith said the flare ignited a woods fire that destroyed his automobile.
Agents said Navy records, however, showed no aircraft were flying over the area at the time named by Smith.
Smith also was under indictment with another man, Willie Nolan, on a charge of stealing 350 feet of copper cable belonging to the government from the vicinity of Cecil Field Sept. 20.
He was free on $1,000 bond on that charge and posted an additional $1,000 bond on the fraudulent claim charge.