Have you ever wondered what stories made headlines in Jacksonville 50 years ago? It may have been a different era of history, culture and politics, but there are often parallels between the kind of stories that made then and today. As interesting as the similarities may be, so are the differences. These were some of the top stories from the week of July 13-19, 1959. The items were compiled from the Jacksonville Public Library’s periodical archives by Staff Writer Max Marbut.
• Jacksonville’s “mushrooming growth” was underscored by Federal Housing Authority records that showed June 1959 was an all-time high month for the filing of mortgage loan insurance applications in the city.
According to William T. Pennington, local FHA director, 1,911 applications were recorded in his office, an 84.6 percent increase over the number of applications filed in June 1958. He said a partial explanation for the “spurt in applications” was the desire of builders to beat the June 30 deadline when new minimum construction standards went into effect.
• Two young men who pleaded guilty to charges of reckless operation of motor vehicles and driving while intoxicated were sentenced to serve 30 days as trustees of the police department.
Municipal Court Judge John Santora handed out the sentences to to the two 21-year-olds who had wrecked their cars four days earlier while playing “chicken” on Talleyrand Avenue. They were accused of driving their cars head-on at each other to see who would turn away from the impending crash. Neither turned and the collision caused $800 damage to the two cars.
“You feel you have a lot of guts, I guess,” said Santora. “But actually, you are a detriment to the people of this community.”
Based on learning the pair had received a combined total of eight speeding tickets, Santora commented: “Evidently fines haven’t helped at all. Perhaps doing a little work will.”
As trustees, the men would work eight hours a day for the City Signal Bureau and stay home at night.
• The application for a permit to build a new 1,200-foot wooden pier on South Sixth Avenue in Jacksonville Beach was filed with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers district office by R.L. Williams from Virginia Beach, Va.
The applicant said he would erect a pier 20 feet wide with a T on the end measuring 30 feet wide and 40 feet long. The pier also would have a 45-by-60-foot restaurant and tackle shop 225 feet from the bulkhead.
“It is not proposed to hold a public hearing on this application,” said Col. Paul D. Troxler, the corps district engineer, stated in a public notice of the application.
It continued, “This public notice is being distributed to all known interested persons. Any facts developed will be given the same weight as if they were developed in a public hearing. Anyone desiring to submit a protest based on the proposition that the proposed work would unreasonably interfere with public navigation or would unfavorably affect the navigable capacity of the said waterway (Atlantic Ocean) should submit such protest in writing in sufficient detail to admit of a clear understanding of the reasons therefore.”
• No objections were recorded to a State Road Department plan to construct its “highest type” of urban highway on Hendricks Avenue from Dunsford to Longwood roads.
District Engineer James A. Brewer, who headed a team of engineers for the hearing, said such a hearing was required under a new law whenever a road project is allocated federal aid funds. He said the law was designed to permit property owners to express their views regarding the location and the economic effect of an entirely new road but it also applies when only the improvement of an existing artery is contemplated.
Three owners of property on Hendricks Avenue appeared at the hearing but they were interested only in learning details of the proposed improvement. They were George D. Auchter, William S. Walker and Norman Supove.
Construction on the 2.5 miles of new highway was expected to begin in August, with an estimated cost of the project was $600,000.
• City crews at Jacksonville Beach began shaping the tees and greens and planting grass on the first nine holes of the new municipal golf course.
City Manager Buford McRae reported a target date of Sept. 15 had been set for the opening of the links. “If we keep getting the rain we’ve been having lately, the Bermuda grass should be running good and the course will be covered enough for opening,” he said.
The back nine would be financed out of proceeds from the auctioning of 41 City lots adjoining the west side of the golf course property. The first effort to sell the lots was not successful, as not a single bid was received for any of the parcels.
McRae stood by the minimum prices asked by the City for the land, which ranged from $30-$40 a front foot.
“I don’t believe that is too much to pay for lots of this type,” he said. “Many of them are well wooded, all fairly large and nicely located. When the golf course is complete, City utilities are extended to the property and the final surface put on Fairway Lane, the street that serves the Mission Hills subdivision, I feel sure the City can sell the lots at the same prices.”
• A team of fast-working bogus bill passers hit Downtown merchants with fake $100 bills and realized more than $350 in cash in less than an hour.
Det. Sgts. E.H. Perry and F.W. Murray said the two men cashed bills at the Roosevelt Hotel, Donaldsons, Inc., Kay Jewelers and Barnett Jewelers. The men purchased merchandise in the three stores and received change for the worthless bills.
• Plans were announced for a 125-lot residential development on a two-mile stretch of the Intracoastal Waterway south of Beach Boulevard. The realty firm of Williams and Ellis were sales agents for the property which would known as “Pablo Keys” and would cost $500,000 to develop. A contract was awarded to Santee Dredging Company of Charleston, S.C. to develop the canals and land. All of the waterfront lots, to cost between $6,000 and $10,000 each, would be bulkheaded.
The developers, William Akerman of Charleston and R.C. Dix of Jacksonville Beach, said they expected to sell a block of lots soon and would begin construction of homes in the $25,00-$30,000 price range.
• A 30-year-old man was placed on probation for five years for embezzling more than $6,000 from a trucking firm that employed him as a general office cashier.
Claude S. Hoard pleaded guilty to larceny of the cash from Great Southern Trucking Company. Criminal Court Judge A. Lloyd Layton suspended sentence and ordered probation for Hoard, father of five children.
Asst. County Solicitor Edward M. Booth said a total of $6,051.25 was taken from the company over a period of several months and it was Hoard’s first offense.
In the other division of Criminal Court, Judge William T. Harvey imposed a two-year prison term on John Henry Norton, 16, who pleaded guilty to formal charges of breaking into three businesses in Jacksonville Beach during April. Asst. Solicitor Raymond Simpson said the youth actually admitted six break-ins during the period but was able to find money at only one place.
• Ralph E. Daughton, president and general manager of Cohen’s Department Store, was elected to the board of governors of the Jacksonville Area Chamber of Commerce. He succeeded Guy Luke, who retired from the board.
In other action at the group’s luncheon meeting at the George Washington Farm, the board approved 18 new units of membership, adopted a resolution in honor of the late James Morton, president of Levy’s, and named Winthrop Bancroft as the chamber’s official representative on the Swedish trade mission scheduled for mid-August.
• Two Spanish nationals who shared the distinction of participating in the maiden voyage of the SS Fusan, which docked in Jacksonville, spent their first night ashore in the Duval County Jail. Both were arrested as stowaways and held under $1,000 bond each for U.S. District Court action.
The pair slipped aboard the freighter July 4 in Dunquerove, France and hid in one of the vessel’s holds. They carried a small supply of food and water that ran out eight days later, they told FBI agents and immigration authorities, and did without food or water for that time rather than risk discovery. They were found when the ship began unloading its cargo and ships officers turned the stowaways over to federal authorities.