Jacksonville's Eastside

The Eastside is a historic African American neighborhood within downtown Jacksonville, and most of it now lies inside the Eastside Historic District.

The Florida National Register Review Board minutes describe the Eastside as a densely packed urban community for working-class African Americans and one of the most intact of the remaining downtown African American districts in Jacksonville. It developed primarily as a residential area, with a commercial and entertainment core along Florida Avenue, and it contains several religious institutions, including Mother Midway AME, which the State calls the first officially sanctioned African Methodist Episcopal Church in Florida.

The National Park Service weekly list gives the district's boundaries as roughly East 7th Street, Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway, the Arlington Expressway and Cemetery Street in Jacksonville. State staff noted development pressure on the district from the nearby Springfield and Stadium districts, and stressed the scarcity of intact downtown African American districts in Jacksonville, especially east of Interstate 95.

The Eastside grew from Campbell's Addition and Oakland, and the State dates its African American community to before the Civil War.

The Review Board minutes say the formerly enslaved community there was joined by an influx of freedmen from outside the area, drawn by the proximity to the ports and the sawmills. The City of Jacksonville adds that the residential community of Oakland emerged during the 1870s and was oriented toward working-class families, and that Oakland Park, in the Oakland section of downtown Jacksonville, has been City property since the 1880s.

The Eastside is also a Gullah Geechee place. State staff told the board that the district lies within the National Park Service Gullah Geechee Heritage Corridor and contains one of the largest and most important populations of Gullah people in Jacksonville. The National Park Service says the corridor and its federal commission were designated by an act of Congress on October 12, 2006, through the National Heritage Areas Act of 2006, and that the corridor runs from Pender County, North Carolina, to St. Johns County, Florida.

Florida Avenue was the spine. The minutes single it out as the commercial and entertainment core of an otherwise residential Jacksonville neighborhood, and two City parks with Eastside history now carry addresses on A. Philip Randolph Boulevard: Buster Ford Checkerboard Park at number 804 and A. Philip Randolph Heritage Park at number 1096.

The Jacksonville district holds 678 contributing and 326 non-contributing resources across roughly 392 acres, with a period of significance from about 1884 to 1970.

The housing is modest and dense. The State describes the district as primarily single-story frame vernacular residences from the early to mid-20th century, with a significant representation of Masonry Vernacular, Commercial Vernacular, Industrial Vernacular, Craftsman, Ranch and Midcentury Modern buildings. Its one contributing site is Oakland Park, the first playground established in Jacksonville for African American children.

Losses in this part of Jacksonville have been steep. State staff reported that 467 buildings identified in an earlier 1993 survey are no longer extant, many replaced by non-historic infill. Because the original neighborhood was so densely packed and most buildings were small, staff concluded the demolitions had not cost the Eastside its cohesiveness, and that compared with LaVilla and Brooklyn, which saw wholesale destruction of nearly entire swaths of the communities, the Eastside is considerably more intact.

The nomination passed Jacksonville review in October 2022, won a unanimous state vote on January 19, 2023, and was listed by the National Park Service on July 3, 2023.

According to the Review Board minutes, the Florida National Register Review Board meeting set for November 10, 2022 was postponed to January 19, 2023. State staff had given a copy of the nomination to the City of Jacksonville as a Certified Local Government, and the Jacksonville Historic Preservation Commission reviewed it at its October 26, 2022 meeting. Staff found the district eligible at the local level for 1884 to 1970, the nomination's author spoke in support, and the board voted unanimously to forward it under Criteria A and C. The minutes posted by the Department of State are labeled a draft.

The NPS pending list dated May 20, 2023 carried the Eastside Historic District as MP100009081, and the weekly list of actions the agency posted on July 7, 2023 records it as LISTED on July 3, 2023.

Three City of Jacksonville parks hold Eastside history, led by Oakland Park, the first City playground for African American children.

Oakland Park, at 657 East Union Street, was the first playground established by the City of Jacksonville for African American children. The City says it opened on July 4, 1918, through the efforts of humanitarian Eartha M.M. White (1876 to 1974), and for ten years was under the direction of recreation leader Florida C. Dwight (1886 to 1977). West of the park lies the Old City Cemetery, established in 1852, and along its northern edge St. Joseph's Cemetery, part of the Old City Cemetery. Amenities include basketball, benches, grills, picnic tables and a playground.

A. Philip Randolph Heritage Park, at 1096 A. Philip Randolph Boulevard, is named for the civil rights leader who grew up in Jacksonville. The City writes that his efforts led to the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, a meeting with President John F. Kennedy and the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. A life-size bronze statue of Olympic gold medalist and Dallas Cowboys star Bob Hayes, who grew up less than a mile from the park, was added in November 2002, and the park has playscapes, an amphitheater, an outdoor fitness center and restrooms.

Buster Ford Checkerboard Park, at 804 A. Philip Randolph Boulevard, was assembled in pieces. The City bought the first portion on the courthouse steps in September 1989 for $881.58, a second in May 1995 for $9,000, and a third, bought in July 1995 for $4,000, was reallocated from the City's Community Development Division to the parks department in August 1995. A reopening was held in May 2025.

Last verified: October 18, 2026, against the Department of State's January 2023 Review Board minutes, the NPS pending and weekly National Register lists, the NPS Gullah Geechee corridor page and three JaxParks pages for Oakland, A. Philip Randolph Heritage and Buster Ford Checkerboard parks.