The Jacksonville Historical Society emerged from the dust of the Better Jacksonville Plan over the weekend to reopen the St. Andrew’s Church and Merrill House.
The society’s centerpieces had been closed while work on the baseball park, and then the arena, were underway, and the streets around the buildings now are clear enough to resume work on the historic house and hold events in the old Episcopal church.
About 100 attended to take tours of the Merrill House, wander about the now-completed Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville, look across A. Philip Randolph Boulevard at the arena, which is still under construction, and attend a reception in the adjacent church.
The Merrill House, which was moved from a few blocks away several years ago, is being recreated to show how people lived in the early part of the last century. The exterior is almost complete but considerable work remains inside.