from staff
Jacksonville’s history is rich with stories that, up until the Super Bowl, fell along one major dividing line: before and after the Great Fire of 1901.
One contributor to the stories was James E. Merrill who, with his brother, owned the Merrill-Stevens Shipyard. According to Jerry Spinks, president-elect of the Jacksonville Historical Society and chairman of the society’s Merrill House committee, the East Jacksonville neighborhood in which Merrill lived was built after the Civil War.
The Merrill house has been under renovation for five years and is nearly complete. When finished, the house will serve as a museum showing what life in Jacksonville was like at the turn of the 20th Century shortly after the fire consumed a large portion of downtown.
The house was built in 1879 on the corner of Monroe and Lafayette streets in what was called East Jacksonville, Spinks said, and legend says Merrill could see the shipyard, an integral piece of Jacksonville’s economic history, from his bedroom window on the second floor of the house.
“It’s easy to find someone in this town whose ancestor worked there,” said Spinks. “Bishop Kenny (High) is on the site of the first Merrill Shipyard. The building of the Assumption School is in the original administration building.”
The house was expanded in 1886 with the addition of the tower and rooms on the south side of the house, Spinks said.
The City bought the house in 1999 from the Leach family, who bought it from the Merrill family decades before. An extensive restoration began when the Historical Society started leasing the house from the City. Spinks said the terms of the lease included restoring and maintaining the house.
Spinks said most of the house as it can be seen now is original, although some parts had to be reproduced. At one point, a tree fell into the roof and actually grew to be part of the house. However, years of water damage from the fallen tree ruined part of the hardwood floor.
The house was constructed primarily using heartpine and cypress wood, both strong woods. During the restoration, workers used as much original wood as possible and, Spinks said, when the original wood was too rotten or otherwise unusable, they used new heartpine that had to be specially ordered.
“We tried not to make anything look new. If (George) Leach or Merrill had freshened it up, that’s what we‘ve done,” said Spinks.
At the same time, some wood was left over that was too small to use in its previous location, whether it be siding or flooring. A cabinet was made out of that left over wood.
“In nearly every element that was restored, we used something from the house. The original shutters are on the tower. These,” said Spinks pointing to several shutters stacked up inside one of the rooms, “were reproduced exactly” from shutters found after the house was moved.
A floorboard in one of the rooms has traces of paint on it from the house’s previous occupants and Spinks said restorers used that to find the colors that were probably used on the interior walls.
Perhaps the most interesting restoration is the front porch.
“The front porch was stolen but (the thieves) dropped three front porch spindles. We recreated the porch from those and a photo,” said Spinks.
Funding for the renovation came from a combination of grants and donations.
“It’s in a package of state grants (and) one city grant, but the majority of it is private citizen-contributed,” he said.
Actual costs to date are more than $550,000 and Spinks said less than $1,000 was spent outside Jacksonville. Whenever possible, the Historical Society uses local vendors and craftsmen. So far, only some hardware had to be ordered from firms up north.
Asked how much the restoration would cost without all the donations, Spinks couldn’t answer.
“I’ve never figured it up. It’s a number I’d be scared of,” he said.
The Merrill House is located on the corner of Duval Street and A. Philip Randolph Boulevard, next to the Jacksonville Historical Society’s headquarters in the Old St. Andrews Church. Spinks said the museum should open in late fall 2005.