Its history is marked by its proximity to the country’s oldest city, which brought settlers and builders to this area in the early 1700s. It’s also a city later impoverished when a gigantic fire ravaged its architectural legacy in 1901, destroying more than 2,000 buildings.
Following the fire, builders and architects rushed to replace the 146 city blocks. Over the following decades, many people — including famed architect Henry John Klutho — stamped their marks on Jacksonville.
Perhaps because of its architecturally patchwork past, it’s essential that the city preserve the structures of significance that remain. They tie the city to its roots, no matter the century.
Wayne Wood arguably knows the city’s architectural heritage better than anyone. After all, he wrote a book about it for the Jacksonville Historic Landmark Commission in 1989.
He’s fought to save many buildings from the wrecking ball, and he’s well aware of those still endangered. Wood can even reel off a list of the buildings he considers most threatened.