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 16-22, 1959. The items were compiled from the Jacksonville Public Library’s periodical archives by Staff Writer Max Marbut.
• A two-day celebration was held for the official opening of the Robert Meyer, Jacksonville’s newest hotel. The main lobby extended for an entire block along Julia Street and was faced entirely with glass. Tropical gardens were installed at the corners of Duval and Monroe streets. The hotel’s main entrance was on Julia Street and in the lobby were airline and car rental offices as well as sites for Beaufort Baum women’s fashions and Barnett Jewelers.
All 550 rooms were air-conditioned and came with free television and four-channel radio with rates starting at $6.75 per night.
The layout also included “Cafe Caribe” where lunch prices started at 85 cents. The “Marlin bar” was described as “A wonderful meeting place for business friends – social friends – all friends” and offered a hot buffet luncheon for $1.25.
Press and television representatives from throughout the South were taken on a tour of the building and 200 business and professional leaders from all over the nation were guests at a luncheon in the hotel’s Windsor Room.
The opening also included a benefit dinner and ball for the Jacksonville University library fund with entertainers Joe E. Lewis and Danny Costello serving as masters of ceremonies.
• Sheriff Dale Carson announced a plan to deal with juveniles who were being held in jail and behaving like what he referred to as “tough babies.”
The trend toward bad behavior prompted Juvenile Court Judge Marion W. Gooding to approve a policy to serve baby food to jailed juveniles who caused trouble. As soon at it was announced, the plan started having the desired effect. Chief Jail Warden Tom Heaney said just mentioning the diet was sufficient to quell impending recalcitrance.
In 1959, juvenile offenders were sent to the County jail when they became too tough to handle in what was described as “the cramped old quarters of the Juvenile Shelter.” They were isolated from adult inmates and there were never more than 35 juveniles in the jail at a time.
• The Jacksonville Symphony Association began its 1959 membership drive. Association officers said they hoped the campaign would allow the orchestra’s budget, the lowest in any Southeastern state based on per capita income, to increase.
It was noted that Miami budgeted $500,000 for its orchestra, Atlanta, $240,000 and Orlando, $110,000. The Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra was working with a $60,000 budget to give 116 performances. It was also noted that in 1958, 800 people joined the Symphony and memberships accounted for 43 percent of the orchestra’s annual budget.
• Neptune Beach voters approved the granting of a 30-year franchise to the Jacksonville Gas Corporation to provide natural gas service. With only 219 of 615 registered voters going to the polls, the results were a landslide with just two people voting against the franchise.
• It was announced bids for the enlargement and renovation of an annex for the County’s Auto Tag Agency would be opened by the Duval Board of County Commissioners April 13. The enlarged annex was the idea of Tax Collector Clyde H. Simpson as a way to enclose two outdoor cashier cages on Forsyth Street that were used by agency customers.
The board also approved a recommendation to provide a better traffic light at the intersection of U.S. Route 17 and the entrance to Imeson Airport. Chief William Johnson of the Duval County Patrol said the existing blinker light should be replaced with a fixed-time light to accommodate the increased traffic in and out of the airport.
• A runaway teenager from Syracuse, N.Y. was taken into custody and placed in the Juvenile Shelter pending his return home. The youngster had run away the previous July and was apprehended just an hour after he arrived in Jacksonville when “his Yankee accent and lack of identification” betrayed him to Patrolman D.A. Slay.
• It was reported the job of special attorney for the Jacksonville City Council would be abolished. The $5,000 a year post which was at the time held by Harry Fossard would be prohibited by a special statute. Provisions were made, however, for the appointment of a special attorney for the Council “in the event there is a conflict of interest between the Council and the City Commission.”
The Duval Legislative Delegation, Sen. Wayne Ripley and Reps. John Mathews, Harry Westberry and George Stallings Jr., released a statement that said, “The enactment of this bill will prevent unnecessary duplication of functions by two separate legal departments for the City and will result in saving the taxpayers money.”
• Dr. Hugh Wilcox was named president of the Jacksonville YMCA. New directors were also elected: I. M. Sulzbacher, S. Ralph Fetner, Dr. O.E. Harrell, Richard H. Suddath, Dr. John H. Hanger, R.E. Wilkerson, Lamar Winegeart, George A. Zellner Jr., Ray Turner, John Gilliland and S. Martin Fryer.
• W.J. Hamrick, chair of the projects and screening committee of the Rotary Club of Jacksonville, announced the recipient of the proceeds from the club’s 1959 Charity Foundation Ball would be the YMCA. A total of $12,000 would be donated to fund construction of an infirmary at Camp Imokalee.
It was noted that “Each year the foundation selects the most urgent capital improvement among local charities and then raises necessary funds for that improvement.”
• The Expressway Authority was presented evidence of “what may be a deliberate attempt to inflate value of lands needed for the Jacksonville Expressway right of way.” Cecil C. Bailey, general solicitor for the authority, was directed to authorize condemnation attorneys to “go the limit” in exposing any fraudulent land value manipulations which might be involved when the cases were taken to court. Several cases were cited as examples of the inflationary scheme. Bailey said the authority’s appraisers had set the value on the parcels at $4,400 to $5,000 but recent sales indicated $6,200 was paid for them on the basis of a small down payment plus a $6,000 mortgage. On the sites were unfinished homes without plumbing or electricity of a type erected by builders at a cost of about $1,800.
Bailey said the prices apparently had been driven up by “aggressive salesmen and untutored buyers.” Five parcels of land were in the process of condemnation and the cases were scheduled to be heard in Circuit Court March 23.