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 are some of the top stories published in the Florida Times-Union the week of March 2-8, 1959. The items were compiled from the Jacksonville Public Library’s periodical archives by Staff Writer Max Marbut.
• Mountains of sand were piling up at the construction site for the new riverfront Civic Auditorium. The idea was to build up the area under the facility to a height of five feet above the high-tide mark of the river as well as level the surface before construction would begin. Duval Engineering and Contracting Company was to excavate the bottom of the St. Johns River at a point opposite the Park Lane Apartments east of the Fuller Warren Bridge, separate mud from river sand, dump the mud under the Coast Guard’s supervision and haul the sand on barges to form a stockpile at the auditorium site. Pilings were also being driven as deep as 70 feet in order to penetrate at least 10 feet into solid shale and limestone. Commissioner of Highways, Airports and Sewers Louis Ritter said the project would cost $1.2 million. The excavation and hauling of the sand would add $300,000 to the original budget for the project.
• County Engineer John Crosby said the county might go ahead with plans to bulkhead the riverbank behind the County Courthouse without waiting for the City to complete similar plans for its adjacent property between the river and Bay Street where the new City Hall was being built. It was reported that City officials weren’t confident there would be sufficient funds remaining after the construction project was finished to participate in the joint venture.
• Two men were in custody in the Duval County jail for robbery of a payroll, specifically the $3,031.14 payroll of the Inn at Ponte Vedra Beach. One of the men, Harry Leroy Sands, was the son of Lt. H.L. Sands of the Duval County Sheriff’s Office and the brother of a City policeman.
• Duval led all Florida counties in the number of admissions to the Florida Alcoholic Rehabilitation Center at Avon Park. Since the center opened in December 1956, 104 Duval County residents had been admitted. Hillsborough County was second with 100 and third place was held by Dade County’s 86.
• A Sidewinder missile with an explosive warhead was accidentally separated from an F8-U Crusader jet aircraft as it was taking off at Cecil Field Naval Air Station. It landed about two miles east of the runway and Navy officials said it buried itself to a depth of 30 feet in the marshy land. At Naval Air Station Jacksonville, a Navy flight instructor and his student narrowly escaped a crash landing when the engine on their aircraft flamed out at an altitude of 1,500 feet during his landing approach. The 25 year-old instructor, Lt. j.g. Duke Ventimiglia, said he counted two seconds before the landing gear locked in position and the tires met the runway.
• The Duval County Board of Public Instruction was facing a dilemma caused by “skyrocketing land values” as it negotiated for property to build a new school. The board wanted to acquire a 20-acre tract at Lone Star and Tracy roads in Arlington for a junior high school. The owners of the property, Mr. and Mrs. Harry S. Johnston, were asking $65,000 for the land. Ellis Crenshaw, who was identified as “a real estate salesman who does a lot of work for the board,” stood up at a meeting and said, “Four years ago I offered you that property for $900 an acre. A year ago you could have had it for $2,800 an acre.” Chairman Raymond A. David retorted, “Yes but we didn’t know we’d need to build a school there then.”