Have you ever wondered what life was like in Jacksonville half a century ago? It was 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 1961. The items were compiled from the Jacksonville Public Library’s periodical archives by Staff Writer Max Marbut.
• City Council President W.O. Mattox received a budget approved by the County Commission that weighed in at 8 pounds and contained requests for a record $86.7 million. He handed it to the Budget & Finance Committee for a “weight-reduction course.”
Committee Chairman Ralph Walter said he and his colleagues were concerned with trimming $12.6 million from the submitted budget to keep the proposed spending in line with projected revenues.
A resolution sponsored by Mayor-Commissioner Haydon Burns to hire three more police officers was placed on hold at the request of Walter, who said he would not move on the confirmation until the 1962 budget was approved.
Another transfer resolution offered by the commission, which would move $212,000 from capital improvements into various operational accounts, was sent to the committee for its consideration.
The committee asked City Auditor John Hollister to provide a list of City employees who had received “spot raises” during the year before they would approve the transfer.
• A Jacksonville franchise in the Triple-A International Baseball League advanced a step toward reality when 100 business and civic leaders gathered at a dinner meeting at the Roosevelt Hotel called by Mayor-Commissioner Haydon Burns.
They heard “a steady succession of speakers hammer away in an optimistic vein” about the future of a professional sports franchise in Jacksonville.
“Our people will support first-class quality in sports and entertainment. There are still a few technicalities to be ironed out, but we are quite hopeful and quite sure those things will be ironed out – and we’re on the verge of Triple-A baseball,” Burns said.
He then cited the benefits of such a franchise from both a commercial and prestige standpoint and pledged the help of his office in the effort.
Others who addressed the group were Sam Wolfson, president of the Jacksonville Baseball Club; Bill Terry, former president of the local club and the South Atlantic League and a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame; Thomas Richardson, president of the International League; Cy Mann, manager of public relations and promotions for the proposed club; and Bobby Maduro, owner of the Jersey City franchise, which was considered a likely candidate to move.
Maduro told the crowd what had to be done to make bringing professional sports to Jacksonville a reality.
“We have set a goal that must be reached before Dec. 10. We must sell a predetermined number of box seats, reserved seats and grandstand admission tickets before that date – enough to guarantee a successful operation. We would like to have the purchase of these tickets in the form of a three-year pledge. We must sell advertising in our scorecard and on the billboards in the park and we must find sponsors for the radio broadcasts of the games. Jacksonville deserves Triple-A ball because it has grown to be a great city and it has all the facilities required for this type of operation,” he said.
Wolfson weighed in. “Triple-A baseball will mean that untold thousands of dollars will be spent in our city by visitors during the summer months when business is badly needed. Merchants, restaurants, hotels and motels and many other businesses will benefit, directly and indirectly, from this operation,” he said.
Some of the guests in the hand-picked audience of business leaders questioned Wolfson about ticket prices.
He outlined a plan for the 77 home-game season that would include a reserved box seat with one reserved parking space for $125, $100 without the parking space.
Single-game tickets would be sold for $1.25, the minimum established by the International League, but fans could purchase a book of tickets for all 77 games for $75, less than $1 per game, Wolfson said.
• A blueprint for solving Downtown’s traffic congestion and parking problems was laid before members of the Downtown Council by William Barr from Washington, D.C., executive director of the National Parking Association.
He had spent two days in Jacksonville observing the Downtown parking situation and had consulted with City officials and business owners.
Implementation of all or part of the plan was left up to the businessmen. Franklin Reinstine, president of the council, said Barr’s survey of the problems and his recommendations “were greatly appreciated.”
The suggestions included removing on-street parking in areas pinpointed by City traffic engineers, renewing the system of chalking tires on parked cars, erecting directional signs to parking lots and garages, providing free parking and free bus rides to shoppers and extending the retail day with more night shopping hours.
Barr said Jacksonville was unusual among the 400 cities in which he had conducted similar surveys because of the Expressway, bridges and feeder roads to the Downtown area.
“But what do they do when they get here?” he asked the businessmen.
He said if something was not done, Downtown would “strangle in its own traffic.”
Barr outlined Downtown from Duval Street to Water Street and Pearl Street to Main Street on a blackboard and said there were about 1,600 parking places in the area.
Of those, he said, about 500 were used all day by meter feeders that worked Downtown and had found a cheap, convenient way to park near their work.
He said chalking tires would prevent the practice because the City prohibited one car from remaining in one spot longer than the specified time limit.
The system of giving credits against paid parking fees to shoppers who spent $2 or more in merchandise would help, as would giving credits for free one-way rides on buses.
Barr told the group the system of validating free parking cost about two-tenths of 1 percent of gross sales and “would go a long way toward making Downtown the biggest shopping center in the community.”
He said the history of public transportation in America generally had been bad and that his observation of the local mass transportation system was that it was “sick, sick, sick.”
Barr said the directional signs would “help prove to shoppers there are parking spaces Downtown.”
• A Maryland man was sentenced to two years in the Duval County jail for stealing money from parked cars whose owners were visiting graves in Evergreen Cemetery.
Kenneth Charles Lancaster, 20, of Baltimore, pleaded guilty and was sentenced by Criminal Court Judge A. Lloyd Layton.
Assistant Solicitor R. Hudson Oliff, the prosecutor, said Lancaster’s downfall came after one of the thefts, when he was spotted by cemetery General Manager Fred Mohle.
In his rush to escape, Oliff said, Lancaster backed his car into a tree and a tombstone and then fled on foot with his 16-year-old girlfriend he brought with him to Jacksonville. Lancaster and the girl were arrested the following day and the girl was returned to Maryland.
Oliff said Lancaster remembered hearing friends in Baltimore tell him how easy it was to get money from cars at cemeteries and he decided to try it here because he wasn’t making enough money from his regular employment.
• James Thompson literally came to a dead-end after a high-speed car chase through Southside.
Duval County Patrolman E.W. Taylor said he pursued Thompson’s vehicle at speeds of more than 70 mph for approximately 10 minutes.
Taylor said he finally caught the 19-year-old driver after Thompson turned from Southside Boulevard onto Cunningham Road, a dead-end street.
Thompson was released from the County jail on a $250 bond after he was charged with speeding, reckless and careless driving, running a stop sign and having an improper muffler.
Taylor said after he apprehended the suspect, he had to protect Thompson from a group of irate parents who were angry because their children were playing outdoors in the area at the time of the chase.
• Rev. Christopher Kelly, a young Catholic priest who had been missing since Sept. 3, was found unharmed two blocks from his church. The “dazed and haggard” cleric was discovered coming out of a thicket behind 6623 Pottsburg Drive.
Fred Willig, who said he saw Kelly through a window in his home, brought the priest into the house and notified the Duval County Patrol and Rev. W. Thomas Larkin, pastor of Christ the King Catholic Church.
Kelly was admitted to St. Vincent’s Hospital for treatment of shock and exposure and listed in fair condition.
Larkin said Kelly “apparently suffered amnesic shock” when he left the rectory a week before he was discovered. His unexplained departure was shortly before he was to have said his first Mass at the church.
The Irish-born Kelly could not remember or relate where he had been during the week he was missing. County detectives said they made no attempt to question him when he was admitted to the hospital.
Investigators said they did not know where Kelly had secured food or shelter and described him as “weak and haggard and in need of a shave.”
Kelly came to the United States from Ireland Aug. 30 and flew to Jacksonville the following day. He was to become Larkin’s assistant and teach at a parochial school.
A native of Ballinasloe, a small community in western Ireland, Kelly was described as being completely unfamiliar with many things in common usage in the United States.
Shortly after Kelly’s disappearance, Larkin told investigators Kelly could not drive a car or even use an American-style telephone and that he appeared to be depressed shortly after his arrival.