by Bailey White
Staff Writer
When he first opened his business, Dr. Jerome Weitzen was among eight to 10 other optometrists downtown.
“There was one on every block,” he says. But Weitzen had something new to offer Jacksonville — the contact lens.
“I had worked for seven months in New York at a contact lens laboratory called Vent Air,” said Weitzen. “When I opened in Jacksonville, nobody was wearing them. They were rigid and hard to fit, and most doctors just didn’t do them.”
As a new doctor, however, Weitzen “didn’t have a lot of patients and had the time to establish people and introduce them to the lenses. If you wanted contact lenses, you had to come to me.”
Most of Weitzen’s early patients were teenagers seeking an alternative to glasses.
Now, 40 years later, Weitzen is the only optometrist left of the original downtown group. (There are currently two other optical shops downtown).
“I’ve never considered moving,” he said. “We still do well. Being downtown we have exposure to the entire city.”
In 1962, Weitzen opened his first office on West Adams Street.
“I took the only vacant store. French Novelty had just moved, and their old store was in the Center Theater building,” remembers Weitzen.
In 1982 Weitzen moved to his current location on Laura Street.
“I moved because the roof was always leaking, and I guess after 20 years, they never fixed it,” he says, referring to the theater building’s collapse last week.
Originally from Brooklyn, Weitzen decided to make his home in the South after serving for three years in the Air Force.
“I was stationed in small town in Georgia, and having been exposed to southern culture for so many years, decided to stay here,” he said. “I liked the sociability, the climate, the ocean.”
Jacksonville seemed like the natural choice because of its southern charm and big city offerings.
“At the time it was the second largest city in the state,” said Weitzen.
With the Better Jacksonville Plan bringing several new projects downtown, including a new library and county courthouse, Weitzen is looking forward to seeing the improvements.
“I’d like to see them put up new buildings,” said Weitzen. “Otherwise, it would be like Rip Van Winkle; you wake up and nothing’s changed after all those years.”
Still, he misses the old hotels — the Roosevelt, Washington and Mayflower.
“I miss the luncheons they had, where you could get soup, salad and an entree for a buck and a half,” he said.
And he misses wandering through the big department stores, which also brought so much foot traffic.
“I’m a big people watcher. I like to watch everybody walking by. Personally, I think downtown needs retail to revive it,” he said.
Weitzen is thinking towards the future, but retirement hasn’t crossed his mind.
“I enjoy what I’m doing. Every day I come in and I’m happy,” said Weitzen. “My youngest daughter has thought about optometry, and she is applying to schools now. Hopefully, I’ll hang in and we can practice together, and she’ll go on to be in business for another 40 years.”