In a
matter of hours, the Great Fire of 1901 turned Jacksonville into a
wasteland of rubble and ashes.
Downtown looked as if an atomic blast had struck it. Tens of
thousands were homeless. Business owners had lost everything. City
Hall was destroyed. Seven people died.
But amid the devastation and grief, residents already were moving
forward to rebuild the city, local historians say. The fire hit on
Friday. On Monday, business owners were filing for building permits.
Six months later, half the homes had been rebuilt, and one-third of
the offices and shops. In the two years after the fire, more new
buildings were erected than the total of all the buildings that
existed in Jacksonville before the blaze.
Over the next decade, Jacksonville's population boomed, doubling
in size as newcomers flocked to the city for plentiful construction
jobs.
"Why not just say, 'That's it, I'm moving to Savannah, I'll see
you?''' said Wayne Wood, a Jacksonville doctor who recently co-wrote
The Great Fire of 1901. "But they just had an inherent
determination to come back. They were nuts! And yet history has
proved them out."
This week, the Jacksonville Historical Society and other groups
will mark the centennial of the Great Fire, which started when
sparks from a chimney ignited Spanish moss drying on outside
platforms at the Cleaveland Fibre Factory. The actual anniversary
for the May 3, 1901, blaze will be Thursday, but activities will
start Wednesday and continue through Saturday.
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Rises from the
ashes: In 1903, just two years after the Great Fire, much
of the burned-out area has been rebuilt.
courtesy of the Leah Mary
Cox Collection
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Highlights will
include dedication of historical markers, bus tours that follow the
route of the fire, an exhibit at the Cummer Museum of Art and
Gardens, and the grandng of the restored Jacksonville Fire
Museum near Metropolitan Park.
Time of rapid growth
The centennial celebration comes when Jacksonville, through the
half-cent sales tax hike for the Better Jacksonville Plan, is
embarking on a decade of construction projects that include new
government buildings and roadwork through the city.
The Great Fire of 1901 unleashed a similar wave of activity, but
with this difference -- the Better Jacksonville Plan is aimed at
improving the city's quality of life and boosting the infrastructure
for growth, whereas the survival of the city was at stake after the
smoke cleared on May 3, 1901.
Jacksonville's rebound was not unique. Chicago, Baltimore and San
Francisco also recovered after fires. Indeed, if not for the fire,
Jacksonville would not have developed as fast as it did, said James
Crooks, a retired University of North Florida professor and author
of Jacksonville After the Fire, 1901-1919.
Before the blaze, Jacksonville was among the Southern cities
experiencing steady but not spectacular growth.
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Destruction along
the river: Destroyed buildings line the river in this
photo taken shortly after the fire.
courtesy of the Leah Mary
Cox Collection
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"But by 1910,
Jacksonville was bigger than all of them except Atlanta and
Birmingham," Crooks said. "If the fire had not happened, the growth
would have been more gradual, like Charleston or Savannah, not like
Atlanta or Birmingham. What you had was a momentum that started with
the rebuilding after the fire."
How Jacksonville rebounded from the fire "is the most fascinating
part of the story," said Wood, who joined the late Bill Foley, a
longtime reporter and columnist for the Times-Union, in writing a
book about it. The book is expected to be out by the end of May.
The driving force for restoration was the Board of Trade, which
later became the Chamber of Commerce. The day after the fire, the
board called a mass meeting. The mayor and City Council joined the
board's effort, rather than the other way around.
"They were kind of going, 'We're in charge of this,''' Wood said.
"They hit the ground running. If anything had not worked well, it
would have brought the whole house of cards down."
In that era, the federal government wasn't in the business of
disaster relief, though it did send 12,000 tents that became a "tent
city" for the homeless. The catastrophe spawned headlines in
newspapers across the country, and the the Board of Trade created a
communications subcommittee that sent out pleas for help through
newspapers. The campaign netted several hundred thousand dollars
worth of donations in cash and emergency supplies.
In 1901 dollars, the fire caused an estimated $12 million to $15
million in damage. That represented roughly half the city's taxable
property. Insurance covered just $5 million, but that still
represented a big dose of money, Crooks said.
Blaze brings new work
Along with capital investment, manpower was required to rebuild
the city, and the fire struck when people were moving from the farms
to the cities. In Jacksonville, that trend was accelerated.
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New buildings pop
up By 1903, several large, new buildings obscure the
piers.
courtesy of the Leah Mary
Cox Collection
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"You had jobs.
You had sharecroppers and farmers who became the workers," Crooks
said. "They built the skyscrapers and they built the suburbs."
Among the companies that thrived was the The Afro-American Life
Insurance Co. Chartered by the state in March 1901, its building at
Ocean and Union streets was destroyed in the fire. Eartha M.M.
White, a clerk at the time, grabbed the insurance records and spared
them from the flames, said Camilla Thompson, a longtime resident and
historian.
As part of this week's centennial activities, a historical marker
will be unveiled at the corner of Ocean and Union.
The centennial bandwagon also is giving a ride to advocates of
downtown development. The Downtown Council of the Chamber of
Commerce will sell tickets for tours of buildings, including the
six-story Dyal-Upchurch Building, designed by famed architect Henry
John Klutho. Klutho read newspaper stories about the fire while he
was living in New York. A month later, he moved here to help with
the restoration. The Dyal-Upchurch Buildingd in May 1902,
rising from what was the burned-out downtown.
"I think the amazing thing is that people started rebuilding the
city so quickly," said Bobbi McGinnis, who serves on the
Jacksonville Historical Society and also Downtown Vision, a private
group dedicated to downtown development. "If you look at pictures
after the first month, you already see structures being built around
Hemming Plaza."
Organizers expect the various events will attract several
thousand, thought it's hard to tell how people will respond, said
Wendy Raymond Hacker of the city's special events division.
"It's different than saying, 'Come on down to a concert,'''
Hacker said, who said the educational events are designed to appeal
to all ages. Except for the Downtown Council tours, all the
activities are free.
Crooks and Wood say it's a rare chance to give Jacksonville
residents -- who mirror Florida's come-and-go population trends -- a
historical perspective on the city.
"This was a disaster of epic proportions faced by real people,"
Wood said. "In the past it was always a footnote. It was always, "Oh
yeah, there was a fire.'"
Crooks said, "They're not aware of the fire, and yet at the same
time, it had a major impact on the shape of the city. That's kind of
a puzzle."
