Plans announced for Downtown business complex, police clamp down on parking meters
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 this week in 1960. The items were compiled from the Jacksonville Public Library’s periodical archives by Staff Writer Max Marbut.
• Plans were announced for a $15 million business center to include four buildings in a two-block complex Downtown.
The structures would include a five-story building to house the seventh department store of J.B. Ivey and Company, which was expanding its southern operations to Jacksonville; a 14-story office building to be called the Universal-Marion Building; a six-level public parking garage that would also be the new location for women’s specialty store Purcells; and a five-story medical building, the first floor of which was designated for a restaurant and cocktail lounge.
“The new store will give us more than double the space we now have and the move is in keeping with the natural growth direction of Downtown and a mounting trend for modern stores to become part of a planned center with parking, offices, a restaurant, recreational facilities and professional offices in proximity,” said Richard Lewinson, Purcells president and general manager.
The garage would be on the south side of Church Street between Main and Laura streets. The other three buildings would be constructed in the block bounded by Main, Ashley, Laura and Church streets.
The focal point of the center would be a landscaped plaza with a reflecting pool-ice rink 114 feet long and 45 feet wide. The restaurant would overlook the pool.
• A woman sought by the FBI on charges of threatening to kill Criminal Court Judge William T. Harvey was arrested by two City police officers who had been trailing her as a shoplifting suspect.
D.K. Brown, special agent in charge of the Jacksonville FBI office, said Mrs. Margaret Marie Thornhill, 33, had been identified as the writer of two threatening letters by fingerprints found on them.
Sgts. J.C. Boatwright and Anne Hancock followed the woman through several Downtown stores after they received information she resembled a woman who had stolen a purse from a department store on May 12. A charge card in the purse had since been used to obtain merchandise under a forged signature, police said.
She was booked in a routine investigation charge of vagrancy and a check of her fingerprints showed she was the suspect in the threats and she was questioned by Brown.
He said Thornhill was given an 18-month jail sentence by Harvey in November 1958 upon her conviction on four charges of check forgery. At the time, a 3-year-old child was taken from her by Juvenile Court authorities and placed with out-of-town relatives.
Brown said the threatening letters were written May 12 and May 18 and mailed locally. Thornhill was released from prison Feb. 8.
The first letter blamed Harvey for taking a child away from the writer, threatened the judge and demanded that he meet the writer at a Downtown church the following night. The second letter declared Harvey would be dead within three days, said Brown.
He also said the letters were signed “Katherine” and their receipt launched a search through courthouse records of cases in Harvey’s court for several years previous to receipt of the threats. Identification of the fingerprints in the Washington, D.C., office of the FBI enabled agents to pinpoint the suspect.
• The special courthouse construction fund, which could be used for completing a bulkhead along the St. Johns River, was increased with the addition of $236,628 received from the sale of the old Duval County Courthouse. The money was deposited into the fund on the recommendation of County Attorney J. Henry Blount.
Before the action there was $495,000 in the fund and the project was expected to cost $1 million.
• It was reported that motorists who wanted to shop or do other business Downtown should have an easier time getting a parking place because of increased law enforcement.
The police department ordered a “closer check” on persons who violated the law by parking their cars at metered spaces for periods longer than allowed by the meter,
Capt. C.L. Raines of the traffic division stated the law required that a car be moved from a metered space after the maximum stay, which could be 36 minutes, one hour or two hours, depending on the meter’s location.
The intent of the law was to bring about a turnover which would benefit both the motorists visiting Downtown establishments and the merchants.
Raines said the crackdown would be on persons who parked their cars in one metered space for several hours or all day long and continued to put coins in the meter. The practice was said to be fairly common among some employees of Downtown establishments, and in some cases the employees were banding together to designate one person to put coins in the meters for all of them.
• The Florida Board of Bar Examiners announced that 14 local men were among 214 candidates who passed the bar examinations given in March. They would be sworn in before the court on June 3.
The local candidates were William L. Allen, Alban Emerson Brooks, Harry A. Gatras, Gilbert S. Goshorn Jr., William J. Haley, William J. Hamilton Jr., Frederick H. Kent Jr., Silas Poe Lee, Harry B. Mahon, James M. McLean, Robert C. Miller, Donald Gilbert Nichols, Daniel D. Sykes Jr. and Arthur George Yeager.
• Two holdup men struck within 10 minutes of each other in the same neighborhood.
In the first case a man wielding a pistol forced William Hendricks, manager of a service station at 1156 Kings Road, to hand over an undetermined amount of money, according to patrolman Henry Harley.
Ten minutes later, another man entered Tex Grocery and market at 1955 W. Beaver St. and after a struggle with the female manager fled with $35 from the cash register.
Mrs. R. Vauknight, 65, told patrolmen E.R. Deyo and D.L. Poston that the man ordered a package of hot dogs and when she turned to fill the order, he grabbed her from behind and choked her unconscious.
When she regained consciousness, Vauknight saw the man rifling the cash register and she kicked and pummeled him while screaming for help.
The bandit fled, limping, she stated.
• Police dispatcher Kenneth Plummer received a frantic call from a youth who announced excitedly, “I’ve just shot and killed another boy.”
Plummer rushed Sgt. F.R. Whitehouse, Patrolman W.L. Harper and homicide detective Sgts. Fred Gruber and W.C. Barber to the 1800 block of East 21st Street, which the caller said was the scene of the shooting.
The officers found a gun-wielding 6-year-old who had shot a companion with a cap pistol during a game of cowboys and Indians. As the officers left the scene, the boy’s mother was wielding an object that looked like a paddle, they reported.
• Jacksonville Beach Police Chief C.F. Franks said he had learned that the “beatnik and hot rod crowds” were boycotting the resort because of the enforcement of a ban on drinking alcoholic beverages on the boardwalk and beach.
“This news is breaking our hearts,” said a smiling Franks.
He added he was amazed at the improvement in orderliness on the beach and boardwalk as result of the curb on drinking and the absence of what he termed “the troublemakers.”
• An 18-hour telethon broadcast live from the George Washington Hotel raised more than $76,000 for United Cerebral Palsy of Jacksonville. Although the telecast fell short of its announced goal of $95,567, officials said they were “highly pleased” with the public’s response and grateful for the pledges and contributions.
“We are very grateful to the people for their contributions, to the stars who went far beyond what was asked of them and the more than 600 volunteers, many of whom worked around the clock,” said C. Lamar Dean, president of the organization.
• Accreditation of Jones Business College as a junior college of business was announced by the Accrediting Commission for Business Schools in Washington, D.C.