Several historical artifacts are in place around the old Duval County Courthouse along East Bay Street, left behind when the courts and other facilities in the building moved less than a mile away to the new courthouse.
There currently are no plans regarding what to do with the monuments, but it’s important that they be preserved and relocated to a public place or places, said Emily Lisska, executive director of the Jacksonville Historical Society.
“They belong to the City. The goal is to move the markers to appropriate locations where each would be most meaningful,” she said.
The markers in the courtyard on the corner of the property nearest Bay and Market streets are dedicated to members of the U.S. Armed Forces. The eternal flame marker was donated July 4, 1969, to all veterans by the local posts of the American Legion.
A few feet away is a marker memorializing men and women who died in the Vietnam conflict, dedicated in 1974 by the residents of Duval County.
Also in the courtyard is a marker that Lisska described as “the most tricky” when it comes to relocation.
It’s a memorial to seven men who died and 12 who were injured March 19, 1957, when the construction elevator collapsed while the building was being finished.
“It’s the only one of the markers that is specific to the site,” Lisska said.
Monuments to parking lots aren’t very common, Lisska said, but that’s what’s found on the south side of the building.
When the courthouse opened, the bank of the St. Johns River was only feet from the door. After a short time, the bank began to erode and it was decided that the building needed more parking spaces.
Engineer George Register Sr. presented what was in 1961 a revolutionary design – a prefabricated concrete parking deck supported by steel pilings sunk into the riverbed. It was completed in 1964.
“The marker at the parking lot struck me as odd at first, but engineering feats are important to our history,” said Lisska.
A large monument on the north side of the old courthouse near the entrance commemorates the founding of Duval County. It was placed in 1950, most likely at the courthouse on the northwest corner of Forsyth and Market streets that served the county before construction of the riverfront building and then moved to its present site, Lisska said.
Even though no plan is in place for the future of the artifacts, Lisska said she is confident the monuments will not be merely removed and stored.
“I don’t expect any of it to go into hiding,” she said.
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