Since its founding in 1929, the Jacksonville Historical Society (now the Jacksonville History Center) has placed permanent markers at the locations of significant events in the city’s past. Some were erected as early as 1930. The shape and size of the markers has varied, but generally they are cast in durable metals and positioned on metal posts, attached to concrete tablets or sometimes attached to buildings. In more recent decades, a more standardized design has emerged that conforms to the appearance of historic site markers placed by the State of Florida.
Unsurprisingly, historic markers take a beating in the elements and, when placed alongside busy streets or highways, they occasionally fall victim to errant trucks or cars. Sometimes they are temporarily removed for new road or utilities construction. Sometimes we get a notification about a missing marker, but at other times their fate becomes a mystery.
That was the case recently when word reached the JHC about a cast metal marker languishing in a residential backyard in the San Jose area. In 1975, the Historical Society had placed the marker at a point along Old Kings Road South, near Kings Trail Elementary School. It described the Kings Road, built in Northeast Florida during its British colonial period along what is today roughly the route of U.S. 1. Exactly when and how it disappeared is unclear, but in recent years there had been anecdotal accounts of a lost and found marker at a home somewhere in that neighborhood. Like the Loch Ness monster or Ivory-billed Woodpeckers, sightings of the old marker were rare and unconfirmed.
Finally, a homeowner contacted their City Council member, Joe Carlucci, who passed the word to the City’s Department of Traffic Engineering asking if that department could see to putting the marker back in its appropriate location. Operations Manager Scott Carter called the Jacksonville History Center, and a recovery mission began.
Mr. Carter and I met at the location along Old Kings Road South close to where we believe the marker originally stood and identified a few locations where it could be safely put back into service.
We then visited the nearby residence where the marker had somehow landed, and the homeowner cheerfully showed us to its temporary resting place. After untangling it from overgrown vines and shrubs, while reassuring the neighbor’s dog that our business was legitimate, we loaded the heavy plaque into the back of Scott Carter’s truck. Next, we rendezvoused with a contractor whose specialty is placing and restoring historic site markers. After agreeing on what needed to be done, that gentleman took it into custody. In about six weeks, we expect to have the marker, cleaned and freshly painted and back at work telling its Jacksonville story to all who pass by.
Have you spotted an historic site marker and wondered whether it is in its rightful location? Please let us know! We are updating our inventory of locations and plaques, which are another example of the ways that we share Jacksonville’s many stories, in the neighborhoods where they happened. Jacksonville’s history matters, and it is all around us.
Alan J. Bliss, Ph.D.
CEO, Jacksonville History Center