First step toward Friendship Park, mayor claims promoters controlling politics
Have you ever wondered what life was like in Jacksonville half a century 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 headlines then and today. As interesting as the differences may be, so are the similarities. These are some of the top stories from the week of April 5-11, 1960. The items were compiled from the Jacksonville Public Library’s periodical archives by Staff Writer Max Marbut.
• First, some perspective on what was going on in the rest of America this week a half-century ago: The American Red Cross said 28,000 people had been affected by a series of floods in eight Midwest states – Wisconsin, Illinois, Nebraska, Iowa, Michigan, South Dakota, Missouri and Kansas. Massachusetts Sen. John Kennedy, who was a candidate in the Wisconsin Democratic presidential primary campaign, went on television to say he had assured President Dwight Eisenhower that if elected he would continue any moratorium on underground nuclear tests.
• The Jacksonville City Commission voted to spend $81,000 available for development of a park on City-owned property on the Southside riverfront between the Acosta and Main Street bridges.
The action came on a recommendation from a citizens advisory committee which had been planning development of the park site which was described as “a barren patch of sand.” The funds would cover only preliminary preparation of the site for future development.
In a letter to the commission, committee chair Frank Sherman said the group hoped to soon have final plans and cost estimates to complete the park which would “entail bulkheads, marinas, parking facilities, a fountain and beautification and landscaping.”
The commission also voted to purchase, for $25,000, half of a 12-acre tract at Valencia Road and Yukon Street in Avondale for development as a playground near Fishweir Elementary School.
The City was having difficulties, however, in negotiations with Verne Hoolehan for purchase of the remaining six acres needed for the play area. Hoolehan was asking $70,000 for his property which had been valued at $16,400 two years earlier by a City appraiser.
The property approved for purchase was owned by Lucille Perkins and had been appraised at $23,994 in 1959. City Claim Attorney Claude Mullis said the $25,000 quoted by Perkins was, in his opinion, a fair price.
Mullis also reported negotiations for the Hoolehan property were continuing. “However, it appears at this time it may be necessary to obtain the property through imminent domain proceedings,” he said.
• Gubernatorial candidate Haydon Burns came home from a campaign trip and charged that “behind-the-scenes professional promoters were playing a major role” in Florida’s political campaigns.
The mayor was one of 10 Democratic candidates seeking the governorship in the May primary election. After a “handshaking swing” through South Florida Burns returned to Jacksonville and said well-paid promoters were setting every stage, writing the cues and creating imaginary images for some of his opponents.
• The architectural firm Kemp, Bunch and Jackson was two months from completing the final plans and specifications for the new riverfront municipal auditorium. The designers were aided by a citizens advisory committee chaired by attorney Olin Watts.
After the blueprints were submitted it was expected that the contractor with the successful bid would begin construction in September and the $4 million auditorium, theater and exhibition hall could be complete on late 1962.
Watts said the architects were coming up with a set of specifications that would provide Jacksonville with the most modern facilities available.
William Kemp and Franklin Bunch, partners in the design firm, had made trips to New York City to confer with officials at the Metropolitan Opera, the stage manager and lighting engineer at Radio City Music Hall, agents and producers for the “top bus and truck shows” and the nation’s top television engineers. Kemp said the auditorium, acoustically, would be “as fine as anything south of Philadelphia.”
Use of the auditorium and the 12,000-seat municipal sports coliseum which was under construction near the Gator Bowl would be under a joint booking policy to “provide maximum worthwhile activities” in both venues.
• U.S. Rep. Charles Bennett announced that the National Park Service had agreed to reproduce a replica of Fort Carolina for the 400th anniversary of the French settlement, which would be observed in 1964.
National Park Service Director Conrad Wirth said the replica of a section of the former fort would be constructed on a 144-acre memorial site in Arlington.
The Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce Quadricentennial Commission was planning a celebration for the 1562 Huguenot expedition to the area and the construction of Fort Caroline in 1564.
• Three of five men charged with conspiring to violate the federal liquor laws withdrew their earlier pleas of innocent and pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court.
The pleas were entered by Noonan Moab Bradley Jr. of Starke, Charles Mason Rogers Jr. of Newberry and Ralph Ernest Mason of Starke. Named with them in the conspiracy indictment were Fate Brown, a former Bradford County deputy sheriff, and Vasco Forsyth of Starke.
The guilty pleas were entered as Judge Bryan Simpson sounded a trial docket preparatory to fixing trial dates for a number of criminal cases. He set the trial for Brown and Forsyth for the following week.
Among the overt acts charged to Brown were efforts to recruit still workers and providing a safe escort for moonshine-laden vehicles while he was serving as deputy sheriff.
Imposition of sentences on the three guilty pleas was deferred until April 25.
• Thieves stole $500 worth of camellia and azalea plants from a nursery on Atlantic Boulevard. Fuller Tresca, who owned the business, said the culprits dug up 100 camellia plants and an undetermined number of azaleas from a flower bed behind his building.
• A police investigation determined that the very quiet “bandit” who robbed the night manager of the Jamaican Motel of $600 was actually a man who wasn’t there.
Chief Criminal Investigator J.C. Patrick said night manager Robert Jablonski broke down during a lie-detector test and confessed he had hidden the money in the motel’s lobby. Patrick later found $567 in a package addressed to the manager at his home on Rogero Road.
Jablonski reported he had been held up about 4 a.m. Saturday morning by a quiet bandit who wielded a .38 caliber pistol. He reported he did not get a look at the armed robber’s face but that he left with $600 in cash.
The money had apparently been packaged during the night, wrapped and addressed to Jablonski and left under the registration counter in the lobby, Patrick said. He also said he was mystified as to why Jablonski didn’t take the money with him when he got off work. Jablonski was booked into the City Jail on $2,000 bond on a charge of grand larceny.
• John Ingalls was elected president of the Friends of the Jacksonville Public Library at the group’s fourth annual dinner at the Mayflower Hotel.
Mrs. F.A. Brink was elected vice president; Herbert Coons, second vice president; Minnie Schreiber, recording secretary; Joseph Hartzar, corresponding secretary; and William Shorts, treasurer.