Major League baseball in Jacksonville’s urban core
A 1938 photograph of the Jacksonville Red Caps Negro Leagues professional baseball team. | Ritz Theatre & Museum
Durkeeville was the home of Florida’s first major league baseball team, the Jacksonville Red Caps. The Red Caps began as an independent team organized by the Jacksonville Terminal Station. The owner was white stationmaster J.B. Greer, and the players all worked at the station as porters. Porters were nicknamed “redcaps” for the hats they wore, hence the team’s nickname. Porter jobs were coveted, middle class positions for African-Americans at the time, thanks in no small part to unionization efforts spearheaded by Jacksonville native A. Philip Randolph in the 1920s. For prospective ballplayers, a day job as a porter was an especially enticing perk, as it offered opportunities for advancement and benefits. The Red Caps played their games at Durkee Field on Myrtle Avenue in Durkeeville. In 1938, they joined one of the top leagues, the Negro American League, becoming Florida’s first major league team in any sport. They played the Negro American League from 1938 until 1942.
Northeast Florida’s highest-ranked public high school
New Stanton High School during the 1960s. | Jacksonville Public Library Special Collections Department
Named in honor of General Edwin McMasters Stanton, an outspoken abolitionist and Secretary of War under President Lincoln during the Civil War, the Stanton Normal School opened in April 10, 1869 as the first school for the formerly enslaved in Florida. In 1877, President Ulysses Grant visited the school during a tour of Florida. During the visit, a six-year-old student named James Weldon Johnson raised his hand from the crowd and Grant shook it. Johnson would go on to become the school’s principal in 1894, and expanded it to become the only high school for Black students in the city. While serving as the principal, Johnson wrote “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” which his brother Rosamond put to music. This song would later become known as the Black National Anthem. Then known as New Stanton High School, in 1953, this school replaced the older Stanton building in LaVilla. During Durkeeville’s early years, this site was the location of the the corporate offices and car barns for the Colored Man’s Railroad, a Black-owned streetcar system. In addition, the property served as a streetcar park for African American residents called Mason’s Park. Today, the school is known as the Stanton College Preparatory School. In April 2024, according to the U.S. News & World Report ranking the best high schools in the country, Stanton was the highest-ranked school in Northeast Florida, ranked No. 5 in Florida and 55th nationally.
The urban core’s first rails to trails project
Built in 1886, the Durkeeville neighborhood developed around the Seaboard Air Line Railroad. | City of Jacksonville
In 1886, the Jacksonville Belt Railroad was constructed between Springfield and the Jacksonville Terminal area in LaVilla to connect the Fernandina & Jacksonville Railroad to the Florida, Atlantic & Gulf Railroad. During the early 1900s, the railroad was acquired by the Seaboard Air Line Railroad (SAL) system. Abandoned during the 1980s, the former railroad through Durkeeville was converted into the S-Line Urban Greenway in the mid-2000s. The S-Line Urban Greenway is a 4.8-mile rails-to-trails multi-use path that connects New Town and Durkeeville with Springfield and Brentwood. It runs from Myrtle Avenue, just north of Beaver Street, to Norwood Plaza, near Gateway Town Center, at the intersection of Norwood Avenue and 44th Street.
Remnants of Walkers Commercial and Vocational College
An interior view of Walkers Commercial and Vocational College. | City of Jacksonville
In 1916, Dr. Julia Walker-Brown opened the Walkers Commercial and Vocational College with her first husband, Richard Walker, on LaVilla’s Broad Street. The school focused as a transitional bridge for veterans returning to civilian life. Also catering to the local community, Dr. Walker-Brown’s school offered courses in bookkeeping, accounting, insurance, office machines and secretarial training. A graduate of Florida A&M University, Walker-Brown also offered a trade division at her college, with courses in dressmaking, tailoring and upholstering. In 1950, Walkers Commercial and Vocational College relocated to the block of 8th & Myrtle in the heart of Durkeeville. There, the school survived until 1970. A few former college buildings, near the intersection of West 8th Street and Myrtle Avenue, live on today as commercial storefronts.
Editorial by Ennis Davis, AICP. Contact Ennis at edavis@moderncities.com