A map showing the location of the Lakeshore neighborhood.

A Florida Land Boom community

Mediterranean style designed residences built during the 1920s Florida Land Boom.

The Florida Land Boom of the 1920s was a period of economic prosperity that led to the state’s first real estate boom, stimulating growth in cities such as Miami, Miami Beach, Hollywood, Opa-Locka and Coral Gables. Ultimately, this period of Florida land speculation crashed in 1926, leaving a number of developments throughout the state incomplete and in financial ruin.

While Jacksonville isn’t typically associated with the Florida land boom, neighborhoods like San Marco, Lake Forest, San Jose and Venetia are examples of real estate developments built during this period of economic prosperity. Lakeshore was as well. Developed by the Lakeshore Corporation and the Bayview Corporation, much of the neighborhood was platted during the height of the Florida Land Boom. Influenced by Mediterranean design, a hallmark of many upscale Florida Land Boom developments, the neighborhood features a Spanish Mission style entryway gates and monument and a distinctive boulevard designed to include a central commons as a linear median park. While several model homes were initially built, development came to a screeching halt when the state’s real estate bubble burst in 1926. Today, many of these homes still stand as visual reminders of this important period of Florida’s past.

Jacksonville’s Marina Mile

The neighborhood of Lakeshore holds the designation as the recreational boating center of Jacksonville and Northeast Florida. A stretch of Lake Shore Boulevard and Lakeside Drive, in the vicinity of Roosevelt Boulevard has long been the home to several marinas, boat repair shops, yacht sales and similar marine oriented businesses. On the north side of the Ortega River, this unique working waterfront environment is known as “Marina Mile”. Marina Mile is also the home of the Huckins Yacht Corporation. Established in the Historic Eastside in 1928 by Frank Pembroke Huckins, the company was commissioned by the U.S. Navy to built eighteen PT (Patrol Torpedo) boats for service during World War II.

A “town center” before Town Center

An early 2000s view of Blanding Boulevard’s historic commercial building stock, just south of San Juan Avenue.

Jacksonville’s older neighborhoods are home to a series of long-overlooked historic, walkable commercial districts. Lakeshore is an example of a neighborhood that had a pedestrian friendly commercial node that has been negatively impacted by roadway widenings during the second half of the 20th century. Seven miles outside of downtown, the intersection of Blanding Boulevard and San Juan Avenue developed into a pedestrian scale node prior to the 1950s explosion of strip plazas specifically designed to cater to the automobile traveler.

By 1948, a cluster of businesses, including Stewart’s Five-and-Dime and Lovett’s Food Store formed Lakeshore’s “town center.” However, continued outward growth west and south of the neighborhood led to the district’s streets being widened to accommodate regional growth. This change led to a decline of this district and a set of neighborhood gateway entry arches being demolished due to the widening of Blanding Boulevard. Today, the intersection could be described as one that is pedestrian hostile compared to its original development as a central business and pedestrian-friendly focal point.