The New International Encyclopædia/Jacksonville (Florida)

JACK′SONVILLE. A city and the county-seat of Duval County, Fla., 14 miles from the Atlantic Ocean, and 30 miles southwest of Fernandina; on the Saint Johns River, and on the Seaboard Air Line, the Plant System, the Southern, the Florida East Coast, and other railroads (Map: Florida, G 1). It is connected with New York, Charleston, and other Atlantic coast ports by steamship, and since the completion of the improvements in the river has become an important shipping-point for lumber, shingles, cross-ties, cotton, phosphates, kaolin and clay, oranges, garden produce, naval stores, etc. The city has also a considerable wholesale and retail trade. Prominent among the industrial establishments are cigar factories, lumber and planing mills, mattress and palmetto-fibre factories, carriage works, iron-foundries, brick-yards, ship-yards, and steam-engineering works. Jacksonville has long been a popular winter resort. It has several public parks, and is well paved, many of its streets with macadam and vitrified brick. Among the more notable buildings are the United States Government Building, city building, county court-house, armory, Union Depot, Saint Luke's Hospital, United States Marine Hospital, Confederate Soldiers' Home, Daniel Memorial and Saint Mary's orphan homes, Windsor Hotel, and the Central Grammar School. Saint James Park contains a Confederate monument. The water-works and electric-light plant are owned by the municipality. Jacksonville, named in honor of Gen. Andrew Jackson, Florida's first Territorial Governor, was founded in 1822. On May 3, 1901, a fire swept over 148 blocks of the city (450 acres), destroying the buildings thereon and causing a loss of over $10,000,000. Population, in 1860, 2118; in 1880, 7650; in 1890, 17,201; in 1900, 28,429.