A Brief History of Arlington

The history of “Old Arlington” is not as obvious when you drive around as that of SaintXAugustine or Fernandina. But!! You will find remnants of old plantations from the same time frame as the Kingsley Plantation at Fort George Island. In reality the Arlington area has “as much” history as any other part of the state, the highlights of which are discussed below. More definitive information is being researched and will be posted as it is developed.
Arlington occupies the western portion of a unique rolling peninsular with high bluffs, which is bounded on the north and west by the St. Johns River, and on the east by Pablo Creek. Going back in time, the river formed a natural moat, and the high bluffs provided lookouts for advanced warnings of unwanted visitors. The area is dotted with small lakes, springs, and fresh water creeks, which provided drinking water, refrigeration and safe harbor for early settlers to hide boats from view of the river. Also in the second Spanish era, it provided the hydro-power to operate a combination, saw, and gristmill and a cotton gin for the Francois Richard Plantation on Strawberry Creek. The temperatures are softened by the ambient winds from the river and ocean.

Arlington was one of the more active areas occupied by the Native Americans who had permanent villages and advanced culture. Proof of this can be found at the Timucuan Preserve Headquarters. There are also remnants of Indian mounds in the vicinity of Hartsfield Road and Ft. Caroline and in the Beacon Hills area. One historian believes that the SaintXJohns Bluff area was one of the largest Indian Council grounds in the Americas.

The first European settlement in the Americas was founded May 1, 1562 by Ribault of the French Huguenots at SaintXJohns Bluff, and was known as Ft. Caroline. SaintXJohns Bluff through time has been the natural rampart to protect the first coast against invasions from the ocean. The Huguenot settlement was short lived and the Huguenots were conquered by the Spaniard, Don Pedro Menéndez de Avilés (ca. 1565), who also founded the ancient city of SaintXAugustine. The Spanish patrolled the entire area from SaintXAugustine and maintained a small fort at SaintXJohns Bluff until 1763 when Spain relinquished the territory of Florida to the English. The English named the bluff “Hestor’s” Bluff and established a community known as SaintXJohns Town in the area with a population of about 1,200.

During the English occupation, a large grant was given along the river to Samuel Potts for a plantation, hence the name Pottsburg Creek. It can be surmised that the Indians, French, Spanish, and English all traversed the Arlington area in their search for food, drinking water, and firewood, as well as for agriculture and for defense. The area remained English only a few years until 1783 when Florida was returned by treaty to Spain for what is known as the “second” Spanish period. This period has the best documentation of the early development of the Arlington area.

The Spanish Governor encouraged worthy settlers to the area even if they were not Spanish Catholics. The largest grant of approximately 16,000 acres in the Arlington area was was a composite of grants from ca. 1795 to 1817 issued to an Italian named Francois Richard who came to Florida by way of the Dominican Republic. Richard had a sugar cane plantation in Dom. Rep. and was married to a Dominican. He arrived in Florida with his own ship and workers after a Dominican revolution. They were his slaves from his sugar cane plantation and warned him of the uprising so he could escape. Richard made his home along Strawberry Creek and his plantation was called Strawberry Hill.

Richard was given a special grant of 250 acres for the purpose of damming and flooding Strawberry (Mill) creek and Red Bay Branch to create the water power to operate a saw mill, a grist mill and a cotton gin. The remains of the dam can be seen as the roadbed of Arlington Road where it crosses Strawberry creek. The mills were located over the creek bed and the lumberyard was located on the south bank. The creek was channelized down stream to the Arlington River for transporting goods to and from the mills. The water depth was held at approximately ten feet at the dam. If you stand on the Arlington Road bridge and look east you can see the remains of the mill pond. To get the full effect of what it looked like you have to visualize the water level 10′ higher than it is now, which would create a lake approximately the width of Arlington River. The lake stretched up stream surrounding what is now Tree Hill on the north fork and to what is now Century Boulevard on the East fork.

The mill was operational in 1820 and was operated by the Richard family in the beginning. There was reportedly a shipbuilding venture in the Clifton area, which built seagoing vessels from timbers cut at the mill. The Richards hired an overseer for their operation whose name was John Sammis. Sammis was from New York and was married to Mary Kingsley, daughter of Z. Kingsley and his wife Anna, a princess from Africa. Another of Anna’s daughters, Martha was married to another New Yorker, Oran Baxter, who was a ship builder. The Baxters lived in the area just north of what is now JU known as SaintXIsabel.

When F. Richard Jr. died around 1840, his will stated that his estate would be sold and the proceeds divided among the heirs. The executor of Richard’s will was a man named Bigelow who became the owner of a large tract of land just north of the Richard tract. Sammis purchased some 5,500 acres and build a home in what is now Clifton and it can be seen on Noble Circle today. Richard’s grandson had a home south of Pottsburg Creek and can still be seen on what is now Oak Haven Road on the north side of Atlantic Boulevard. Sammis operated the mill and plantation and became a wealthy man until the coming of the Civil War in 1862. Sammis was a known Union supporter. He sold his land to a friend for a nominal fee and went to New York and Washington DC during the conflict. There is a legend from the 1800s that he buried his gold at “Tree Hill” before he left and never recovered it.

There were other grants in the “Historic” Arlington area, one to John (William) Richard (believed to be the son of Francis) who had a 250 acre farm south of Strawberry Creek in 1805; one to Peter Bagley’s Heirs between “Little” Pottsburg and “Big” Pottsburg; one for 700 +/- acres to Fatio on the south shore of the SaintXJohns where New Castle Creek enters the river north of Ft. Caroline Road; one to George Atkinson for 400+ acres on the east bank of the SaintXJohns at the west end of Ft. Caroline Road; and several small grants along the river to F. Richard including Chaseville Point.

It should be noted that in general the plantation owners traded and relied on each other and with others. Kingsley’s ties to Richard through his son-in-laws are well known; Kingsley had the Ft. George Island plantation and also had the SaintXJohns Bluff (Ft. Caroline) Grant. The community of Fulton just west of SaintXJohns Bluff was a combination of several grants to the Sanchez and A. Atkinson families.  There were two Sanchez grants (brothers) and there was two grants to an A. Atkinson. What is now Queen’s Harbour was the “Don Juan” McQueen grant. Mayport and a large part of the beaches area was the Andrew DeWess grant.

Sammis returned after the Civil war and reverted his title from his friend. His family including the Baxters and Anna Kingsley who had acquired a small plantation called Chesterfield (believed to have been at south end of JU) near the Baxters all lived a fairly peaceful existence in what was to become Arlington considering the racial feelings of the time. Proof of their existence and history can be found in the public records and old Cemeteries. There is a very historic little Cemetery in Clifton within sight of the Sammis home, which contains both marked and unmarked graves of Anna Kingsley and her family. There is also a cemetery on Floral Bluff Road for the Bigelow family, whose mansion could be seen on River Bluff Road until it was destroyed by fire in the early 50s. The Fatio Grant contains the Parsons Cemetery and there is a small cemetery for an old black church on the JU campus. There is a black cemetery at the end of Schakelford Road near Bruce Park from the early days and also one at the Mt. Zion (Lone Star) Church near Mill Creek Road, which is still active.

The reconstruction years

Due to the loss of power after the Civil War, the original families faded out of sight (although descendants still exist in Jacksonville) and in 1873 the Sammis land in Clifton was sold to the Ocean Grove Association, a church colony from New Jersey. This development folded and was taken over by a financier named Matthews. This is where the name “Arlington” appears to have come from in Matthews development “Arlington Bluff” ca. 1873 (see poster pg. 245 of Jax. Arch. Heritage). Sammis home under new ownership became known as the Arlington House. Matthews had a little steamer launch called the “Clifton” that he used to ferry people across the river and riding the Clifton ferry gave the point that name.

There was another religious community that sprang up in the mid 1880s besides the Ocean Grove association. Eggleston Heights, PB1 Page 112, was located on the east side of Chaseville Road centered on what is now Michigan Avenue. Their two-room school, No. 46, was on the other side of Chaseville Road across from the Michigan entrance and was attended by many of the early Arlington residence until the late 1920s. They built a hotel and a church, founded by the Inscape (sp) family. In addition the J.M.&P. railroad ran from Mayport across the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway through Arlington and had a station at Eggleston near the hotel. This community didn’t last and in later years the hotel and church were moved, however there are a few houses that still may be seen in Eggleston that were built ca. 1890.

The community of Floral Bluff was platted in 1887 and ran from the river to Chaseville road (University). It featured a dock and a store on the river and reportedly a post office. It took advantage of a natural landing at the river. Small boat yards have existed for many years just north of the landing, and ship building and commercial fishing were major enterprises of the times for all the residence of the Arlington area. The community of Chaseville at Reddie Point was part of one of the original Francois Richard grants and at one time was occupied by members of the Kingsley family. It had a school and a church shown in early maps and a few of the early residents are believed to still live in the general area.

Turn of the Century

The abandonment of the J.M.&P. railroad and the great freeze both in 1895 hit the east bank communities of Jacksonville hard. Recovery was slow and development halted for more than a decade before resuming. Jacksonville’s great fire of 1901 and the subsequent rebuilding did not affect Arlington.

In 1912, Frederick Bruce, John Alderman, George Spaulding, and H. L. Sprinkle organized the Alderman Realty Company. Intensive settlement began in the area later known as the heart of Arlington, the blocks to the east and west of the intersection of Chaseville Road, now University Boulevard, and Arlington Road. The company purchased 1,100 acres of land that was part of the original Richard Mill grant north of Strawberry Creek. This property was subdivided into blocks and lots for further development known as Arlington Heights and Alderman Farms. The firm established a ferry service to better market the area to prospective buyers. The ferry landing was located at the west end of SaintXJohns Street, now Arlington Road. The ferry ran to the foot of Beaver Street in Fairfield.

For a short time before World War I, Jacksonville attracted the fledgling movie industry. The first film company was located on the St. Johns River at Clarkson Street in Jacksonville; however, it went out of business after one year. In 1915 one of the companies set up a studio in Arlington in a former cigar factory. In 1916 the Eagle Film Manufacturing Company constructed four new buildings near the former cigar factory. This company declared bankruptcy in 1917. In 1924 Richard E. Norman, Sr., purchased the Eagle Studios and formed the Norman Studios. He believed films were a useful mechanism to overcome racial prejudice and made full-length adventure movies featuring all-black casts. After Norman retired in 1952, his wife used the building as a dance studio until the mid-1970s. The Norman Studios complex has been largely vacant since the mid-1970s. The buildings remain as a reminder of Jacksonville’s time as a movie capitol and are now the focus of an acquisition and a restoration effort.

World War I disrupted trade and the economy nationwide, and Jacksonville was no exception. Following the end of World War I and a period of adjustment, the national and local economies Jacksonville experienced the Florida land boom of the early 1920s. The city changed in 1921 with the completion of the first automobile bridge, the old Acosta Bridge, across the St. Johns River linking south Jacksonville and downtown. Development in Arlington during this time included construction of the Arlington Elementary School, a state-of-the-art educational facility for the time. Community groups lobbied for neighborhood improvements such as installation of electric lights, organization of a volunteer fire department and development of a playground The Arlington Park Cemetery was donated to the community during that time.The largest sub-division created during this period was Oakwood Villas, which was south of Strawberry Creek.

Details of Arlington history through 1924 can be seen by clicking Arlington, Past present and future. This was a promotional document prepared by F. W. Bruce for the Arlington Community Club.

By the end of the boom era, Arlington was a community complete with the infrastructure that defined a community. However, the area we now refer to as Arlington then consisted of scattered communities that did not regard themselves as a part of a larger neighborhood called Arlington. Clifton, Floral Bluff, Eggleston, Gilmore and Chaseville remained distinct settlements connected by roads and separated by wooded and undeveloped tracts and rural areas. The area most closely identified as Arlington was contained within the blocks from University Boulevard to the river on both sides of Arlington Road. Also from University east to Rogero and south along Arlington Road to Strawberry Creek.

Little changed in Arlington during World War II as most of its citizens were in the service, worked in the shipyards or in other war efforts. Towards the end of World War II a mining company known as Humphreys Gold Corporation opened on Mill Creek road and provided jobs for those coming out of the service or being laid off at the shipyards due to the end of the conflicts.

The construction of the Mathews Bridge in 1953 provided a direct link between Jacksonville’s downtown and the Arlington communities. Within a few years the divisions between Arlington’s separate communities became blurred by development and Arlington emerged as one of Jacksonville’s premier suburbs. The main roads were soon lined with gas stations, restaurants, markets and stores and single-family home subdivisions were constructed. In 1950 growth was also spurred by the relocation of Jacksonville University to a large wooded riverfront parcel off University Boulevard. Today the university has an enrollment of 2600 students of which approximately 1200 live on campus. Quite a few subdivisions sprang up between The Arlington Bluffs Subdivision of 1873 and 1953. A list is provided.

Other major developments, such as, the construction of Atlantic Boulevard, Beach Boulevard and Arlington Expressway provided easy access to places east of the river. In 1967, Regency Square Mall was built at the intersection of Atlantic Boulevard and the Arlington Expressway. Regency Square Mall was Jacksonville’s largest enclosed shopping mall at the time. The opening of Regency Square Mall was a first step in Old Arlington’s decline as a retail destination.

Arlington officially became part of Jacksonville with the consolidation of Duval County in 1969. The next year a group of concerned citizens put forth an effort to save the woodlands now known as Tree Hill which was put up for sale due to an increase in property tax.

Our Old Arlington group was founded by Melanie Cross in 1993 to preserve our history and published a document “Arlington A New History” by William R. Adams, April 1997. Most of the information from the turn of the century forward was taken from this document.

The Old Arlington Study Area is currently facing problems that are common to suburbs built during the first part of the twentieth century, also known as first tier suburbs. Issues include aging populations, flight of the middle class to newer developments and deteriorating commercial corridors.