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.
• Santa Claus arrived via fireboat and docked at the municipal parking lot to begin a pre-Christmas program sponsored by the Downtown Council of the Jacksonville Area Chamber of Commerce and other groups.
Santa boarded a float with a sleigh and reindeer that wound its way through Downtown to Hemming Park. When he arrived at the band shell, he was presented the keys to the city by Mayor Haydon Burns and lit a 50-foot-tall Christmas tree.
• The Duval County Commission delayed awarding a contract for construction of two new courtrooms and three new offices for new circuit court judges.
Apparent low bidder on the project was the Auchter Co. with a base bid of $204,430. Seven bids were received, with the top bid at $212,690. Auchter was the main contractor when the courthouse on Bay Street was built.
With a population increase reflected in the 1960 census, the county was entitled to three new judges who would be appointed by Gov. LeRoy Collins.
The reason for the delay in awarding the contract was the hope that a figure on the cost of the proposed parking lot and bulkhead behind the Courthouse could be obtained. The commission had been advised by County Attorney J. Henry Blount that in order to validate the approximately $500,000 in bonds needed to round out available funds for the project, the bond petition should contain references to both projects.
The commission also decided to try once again to reach agreement with the City Commission on possibly linking a proposed City bulkheading project behind the new City Hall with the bulkheading behind the Courthouse.
• In other business, the County Commission ruled that its correspondence was not public information until it was brought up at regular meetings. Commissioners complained about reading of possible items on meeting agendas in the newspapers.
It was noted that for years, reporters had access to the correspondence on file in the commission office and were able to inform the public of some of the matters scheduled to go before the commission at regular meetings.
That access had been recently restricted.
Commissioners said citizens would read about possible agenda items and then telephone the commissioners for more information. Because commissioners might be unfamiliar with some of the subjects until discussed at a meeting, the commissioners would be accused of ignorance regarding the issues, they said.
• A major blow was dealt to a proposed extension of the Jacksonville Expressway to the Beaches by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which turned down a planned bridge across the St. Johns River in the vicinity of 21st Street.
The engineers rejected the plan on the basis that the bridge would be a hazard to navigation. The bridge was a key factor in the expansion to the Beaches, as projected tolls on the span would have provided the major financing for a proposed $39.6 million bond issue for the improvement.
Lucius A. Buck, chair of the Jacksonville Expressway Authority, when advised on the decision, said: “We’ve had shockers before, but we’ve always managed to overcome them and go ahead with our Expressway plans. We certainly are not giving up now.”
• The new municipal coliseum was dedicated Thanksgiving Day.
Bill Terry delivered the dedicatory remarks at a formal ceremony inside the building and said he saw it as more than an arena. It was an opportunity to give local youth “a bigger and better chance to grow up clean and strong and self-reliant.”
Terry was a Jacksonville businessman and former player-manager with the New York Giants baseball organization. “This handsome new coliseum can be our monument,” he said, “and our dedication to the job of bringing up here in Jacksonville, for service to the world, the strongest, cleanest and most self-reliant all-American young men and women we can imagine.”
He also said the $3 million structure adjacent to the Gator Bowl would play a “major part in Jacksonville’s continued growth and prosperity.”
• Also Thanksgiving Day, more than 400 of Jacksonville’s Christians and Jews gathered to fill First Methodist Church and collectively offer their prayers of thankfulness at the 43rd annual Thanksgiving Day service sponsored by Downtown churches and the Jewish Temple.
They heard Sidney Lefkowitz, rabbi of the temple, liken the service to the actions of Daniel in the Old Testament story.
“Our American Thanksgiving Day these past few years has come when we find ourselves confronted by nations whose leaders have come tumultuously into council chambers roaring with indignation, pounding with shoes upon desks, rattling not sabres but atomic warheads, assailed by nations planning one of the wickedest and far-reaching and ambitious conspiracies for world domination.
“Like Daniel, facing an evil conspiracy and a desperate and monstrous threat against our national life and world order, we as a nation offer prayer and thanksgiving. Perhaps we do this more fervently and sincerely and devotedly than in days of world tranquility,” said Lefkowitz.
• Jack Lewis Walker was back in town.
He left Jacksonville in 1958 headed for New York, but wound up in Huntsville, Texas. More specifically, Walker wound up in the Texas State Prison.
According to Peace Justice George Harris and Constable Lonnie Sikes, it happened like this:
Walker, a truck driver for a local produce company, was instructed in May 1958 to deliver a load of produce to New York with a stop in Baltimore. That was the last time he was seen in Jacksonville.
Walker sold the produce in San Antonio, Texas, for $498 and also sold the $7,500 tractor-trailer for $450. Two weeks later, he was arrested in Huntsville for failing to return a rented car and was sentenced to three years for auto theft.
Walker was paroled for good behavior and turned over to Duval County authorities who had placed a hold order against him. He was returned to Jacksonville and bound over to criminal court under a $5,000 bond on grand larceny charges.
• Duval County Tax Assessor Leon Forbes died of an apparent heart attack while on a hunting trip in Ocala.
Forbes, 61, had served without opposition in elections as tax assessor since 1947. From January 1937 until his election in 1946, he had served as deputy assessor.
Forbes was a member of First Baptist Church and was a past chair of the board of deacons. Since 1941, Forbes had been president of the church trustees. He was also a member of the board of trustees of Baptist Hospital and at the time of his death, was president of Goodwill Industries of Jacksonville Inc.
He worked as a machinist as a young man before entering the grocery business. At the age of 28 he was named vice president of the Florida Grocery Co., original operators of the Piggly Wiggly chain in the state. Prior to joining the tax assessors office, he was in the insurance and real estate business.