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Lifestyle:Beach Front Beach View Beach Walking Distance Board Walks Country Clubs Diving Entertainment Fishing Golf Courses Harbours & Marinas Night Clubs Restaurants Roller Blading Shopping Surfing Yacht Clubs Medium Price: up to $150,000 $150,001 - $200,000 $200,001 - $300,000 $300,001 - $400,000 $400,001 - $500,000 $500,001 - $600,000 $600,001 - $700,000 $700,001 - $800,000 $800,001 and more Summer Temperature - Air: bellow 60°F 61°F - 70°F 71°F - 80°F 81°F - 90°F 90°F + Winter Temperature - Air: below 60°F 61°F - 70°F 81°F - 90°F 90°F + Summer Temperature - Water: bellow 60°F 61°F - 70°F 71°F - 80°F 81°F - 90°F Winter Temperature - Water: bellow 60°F 61°F - 70°F 71°F - 80°F --> |
Lifestyle : Beach Front, Beach View, Beach Walking Distance, Board Walks, Country Clubs, Diving, Entertainment, Fishing, Golf Courses, Harbours & Marinas, Night Clubs, Restaurants, Roller Blading, Shopping, Surfing, Yacht Clubs, Medium Price : up to $150,000, Summer Temperature - Air: 81°F - 90°F, Winter Temperature - Air: below 60°F, Summer Temperature - Water: 81°F - 90°F, Winter Temperature - Water: bellow 60°F,
JacksonvilleThe Beginning of FloridaJacksonville is to Florida what Denver is to Colorado — it is never quite what people expect, although it has a charm of its own. And it proudly stands its post as the gateway to something wonderful.Jacksonville does have its extraordinary qualities. It is a center for shipping and insurance, health care and, to a growing degree, high tech. It is the headquarters of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida, Kemper Insurance, Prudential, and Independent Life. CSX Transportation, one of the nation's leading freight railway firms, owes a great deal to Jacksonville's long established connection to the railroads. Alltel Wireless found a home in the River City. In fact, they are the namesakes of Alltel Stadium, home to the NFL Jacksonville Jaguars (as well as the college classic Gator Bowl). You will also find the first non-Minnesota wing of the Mayo Clinic. More than 300 doctors and 3,800 allied health professionals offer specialized medical services for people from all over the southern region of the United States, offering a standard of health care one might not expect in an area like Northern Florida. A new addition to Jacksonville's port activity has been a cruise port, playing host to Carnival and Celebrity cruise ships bound for the Caribbean, Bermuda and even the occasional trip to New York. Just a few miles away are miles of beaches, where many Jacksonville residents make their homes. After all, it is Florida. The signs are everywhere, from the citrus trees to the sun to the occasional bout with some pretty spectacular weather. Jacksonville does, however, seem to be avoided by hurricanes. Some say it is because the land makes a graceful curve inward just as it reaches the area, staying out of the way of the greater parts of the winds. Jacksonville Fast FactsLocation: Jacksonville is located in the far northeast corner of the state at a crossing of Interstate 10 and Interstate 95Total area: 874.3 square miles Population: 735,617 Total housing units: 308,826 Average annual rainfall: 48.96 inches Average temperatures: 90ºF in summer, 44ºF in winter *Information provided by 2000 Census The Largest City in the United States?One thing about Jacksonville that most people don't know is that it's the largest city in the United States -- not in population, but in area covered. In the 1960s, the governments of the city of Jacksonville and Duval County merged their boundaries so that Jacksonville now covers an area of 874.3 square miles. It is also on the banks of America's largest northern flowing river, the St. Johns, which begins in Central Florida and reaches the Atlantic Ocean within the city's boundaries.Jacksonville is the farthest point reached by Interstate 10, the superslab that carries millions of people from downtown Los Angeles to east-west points across the United States. In addition, I-10 ends at I-95, the road that performs the same duty from Miami to Maine. The state of Florida was, for years, very little more than a jungle, hard to traverse cross-country and with very little reason to try and get from one end to the other of it by boat. It was not till 1885 when one of the founders of Standard Oil, a man named Henry Flagler, saw the promise and the profit that an area like Florida could contain that the state took off. Flagler used his influence, money and overall love of Florida to start Florida East Coast Railway. It eventually cut a swath through the state from Jacksonville to Miami, making the unapproachable irresistible and beginning a legacy that now includes everything from citrus fruit to a kingdom so magical that it has turned a small orchard town into one of the biggest tourist attractions in the world. All of this and more are quite easily reached from Jacksonville. This puts Jacksonville in a unique situation. It is the major lynchpin connecting the rest of the Southern states with the Caribbean flair that Florida loves to display. Jacksonville was originally known as Cow Ford when it began as a farming community in the 1700s, because the St. Johns River was shallow enough to allow the crossing of herds of cattle. The name was changed to Jacksonville for Andrew Jackson, a heroic figure in much of the South during the time that he served as territorial governor of Florida. Southern California actually owes a debt of gratitude to Jacksonville. In the early days of the motion picture business, this was seen as a perfect spot from which to make this new form of entertainment. It had the weather; there were very few cloudy days; and when it does rain in Jacksonville, it comes and goes in the matter of an hour or so. It was part of a region of the United States that was just coming into its own. And it was far easier to reach than Miami, to which only a railroad line or two had been cut through the Florida brush. In 1910, there were more than 30 motion picture studios in Jacksonville, and there was no sign that the trend would let up. Then, in 1917, the people of Jacksonville voted to throw the industry out of town because it was too rowdy and drawing the wrong elements. Next stop: a bunch of orange groves now known as Hollywood. Because of its physical size, Jacksonville has taken advantage of the open boundaries, spreading out over the area from the Atlantic Ocean to the Intercoastal Waterway. And around it are all the trappings of Florida and the South, an odd collection of modern and old-time rural cities. The downtown landscape is dominated by the Independent Life building, the tallest and most distinctive in the region. It also shows how strongly this region was controlled by the insurance business for many years. While it is still a large insurance contingency in the city, there are other industries making their way into its basic makeup. And the port, while it has existed for many years (it was blockaded during the Civil War), is gaining more strength every year. Not far from the center of town, you find Five Points, a district that is somewhat of an arts center for the city. There is also North Shore, a well-to-do residential district with stores that have been written up in Gourmet Magazine and other places you might not have expected. The port area, known as Jaxport, is a major entrance point for a wide variety of goods, including many of the foreign automobiles sold in the southern region of the country. One cannot discuss Jacksonville without talking about the St. Johns River. It is quite beautiful, especially at night, with the lights of downtown glistening off its surface. But this was not always so. In the '70s, the river had become extremely polluted, and very few things could grow within its banks. Fish were almost non-existent, and the dolphins and manatees that had once been a part of it legacy had moved to other shores. This was not just the result of industry; from its headwaters to its mouth, the St. Johns (often misspelled as St. John's) drops only 30 feet from its beginning in Indian Springs County to the Atlantic ocean, 310 miles way. The water moves so slowly that it has come to be called the “laziest river in the world.” After a massive cleanup operation, the river is now far cleaner than it had become, and sightings of dolphins close to the downtown area are becoming increasingly common, as are the “watch for manatees” signs out near the Dames Point area. This is also home to the Dames Point Bridge, considered by many to be one of the 10 greatest bridges in the world, along with the Golden Gate and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. At Dames Point Park, located around its base, you can see manatees feeding their young, bald eagles, and scads of other water birds that have stopped off in the area for a bite to eat. At just about two miles, Dames Point Bridge is the longest cable-stay bridge in the United States, constructed in such a way as to make it as stable as most solid structure links, such as the Brooklyn Bridge. It carries six lanes of traffic on a 106-foot wide deck, which is suspended 175 feet in the air. The two towers that support the bridge grow to 471 feet above the water. Jacksonville, being divided by the St. Johns, is a city of bridges. These are the main choice when someone is trying to get from one side of the river to another (though there is a small ferry, but that's another story). The bridges all have names -- the main Street, the Mathews, the Hart -- but they are known more by the locals by their colors, with each bridge carrying its own distinctive touch: the blue bridge, the brown bridge, the gray bride, and so forth. The No. 1 reason anyone crosses these bridges is to get to the beach (or, in this case, beaches) that are just a few miles from the city's center. There are communities, some actually part of the city, and others in nearby St. Johns County, that are the places where many of the people in Jacksonville want to live. As one heads east, and then south down U.S. Highway A1A, you visit:
This is the hole you often see pictured when professional golf is talked about, with a green that extends out into the middle of a lake. Many golfers refer to number 17 as the hole that can make or break a tournament, and Esquire Magazine has named the course as one of the “Essential 18.” As long as you are on the road, why not head the 12 miles or so to St. Augustine? You will be driving along one of the most beautiful and unspoiled pieces of waterfront highway in the United States, as you watch brown pelicans fly just at the height of your car window only 30 feet away. Pull over, and you can listen to the ocean, and unless there is some sort of special event (such as the TPC championship), there is hardly another car in the whole area. By the time you get to St. Augustine, you will be relaxed and ready to take a real look at the official oldest town in the United States. Started by the Spanish in 1565, it has been lost in history because of the dominance of the English who wanted to think of Jamestown as the first settlement, even though it came along a good 42 years later. It does have some Florida kitsch, including an actual alligator farm, but the history is still there. You can walk the streets of the original city and visit Castillo de San Marcos, a beautiful fort that was built as a defense against the British. Or visit the St. Augustine Lighthouse, which has been certified as haunted by the leading experts in the world. If you continue down A1A, you will end up in Daytona Beach, home of the Daytona 500 and one of America's largest Spring Break parties covered start to finish by MTV. If you are lucky, along the way, you can see flocks of wild flamingoes taking off from the salt marshes that lie inland from the road. And if you want to make a day of it, the trip from Jacksonville to Orlando, home of all things fun and relaxing, only four leisurely hours away. But if you head north when you reach the ocean instead of south, you will not be too far from the Georgia border, where there is an amazing place that draws its own brand of visitors looking for a place in the sun and away from the madding crowd. Amelia Island has been called “one of the 1,000 places you must see before you die.” The island is for a large point uninhabited. But the one town on the northern end, Fernandina Beach is on the National Register of Historic Places. Just 25 miles from the Jacksonville airport, one can stay at the Ritz-Carlton, Amelia Island, and stroll among historic buildings that date back to the island's heyday, when it was home to families with names like Firestone and Pulitzer. There are cobbled streets and a wonderful stretch of ocean and beachfront. There are turn-of-the-century-style restaurants and a saloon that, having been built in 1878, calls itself “Florida's Oldest Watering Hole.” Amelia Island is very calm and quiet. You can still ride horseback on the beach and watch the seabirds — ospreys, cranes, pelicans and more — playing elegantly in the wind. RestaurantsThe restaurants in the Jacksonville area tend to range from the casual-type place where you would have to wear a tie if you were not at the beach, to the real Florida-style place where you are just as likely to get sand between your toes.The Oasis is a wonderful place just the other side of St. Augustine that used to be a roadside stop. It now has been enclosed as a restaurant of sorts. Here, you will find ice-cold drinks and phenomenal conch fritters (conch dipped in batter, fried and served with a hot sauce that will make your eyes water), another sign that you really are in Florida. There is also a local style of restaurant called the “fish camps,” with names like Harry's and Bubba’s. These tend to be on the edge of town and are more or less the Jacksonville version of a joint. The main dish is smoked mullet, a Florida fish that lives in both fresh and saltwater. Great fun! Now here's a bit of a curve ball (or, possibly, a googly). On U.S. Highway 1 between Jacksonville and St. Augustine, there is the King's Head, an English pub that seems to have been lifted out of the center of London and carefully placed in a deserted spot on the road. Inside, a surprising number of the patrons are English. The atmosphere here is almost too much for a tourist. You might see a customer wearing a monocle -- not as a costume, but as an alternative to glasses. There is a very serious dart board and an even more serious menu featuring Scotch eggs, toad-in-the-hole and other delicacies from across the pond. Be careful if you look for it, however; it is very easy to drive right by. Closer to the city, you can find some great places such as the Wine Cellar on Prudential Drive, close to downtown. The food is excellently prepared, and the décor is unique. The walls are constantly being covered with new wine corks as the bottles from the excellent selection are opened. A favorite of locals and visitors alike is Ragtime in Atlantic Beach. The ambiance is supposed to remind one of New Orleans, but it has enough going on its own that it does not need to borrow. Unusual appetizers, great entrees and, when they are available, that Florida classic: stone crab claws, something you must try. The Bonefish Grill is a newcomer to the Jacksonville Beach area, serving (as do most Jacksonville restaurants) an excellent selection of seafood. When you are in Fernandina Beach, you might want to try the 1878 Grill. The surroundings are as wonderful as the food. The Naval ConnectionIf you take the Buckman Bridge out of Jacksonville proper, you will head in another direction, toward Orange Park and the Naval Air Station.Naval Air Station Jacksonville is one of the two locations that make Jacksonville a solidly Navy town. The Naval Air Station is a major Naval Air facility and one of the largest on the east coast. The other Navy connection is the Mayport Naval Base, home to several ships, including the aircraft carrier USS John F Kennedy. What about Mayport? Besides being the center of a large Naval operation, it is a great place to find seafood at its freshest. There are small stores on the docks, where you can join huge white cranes and brown pelicans as you actually watch the fish you are going to buy (or, in the birds’ case, smuggle) being off-loaded. EducationJacksonville public schools are, as in most parts of the country, struggling to maintain the highest possible academic standards. Probably the best symbol of this is the Douglas Anderson High School for the Arts. This is part of Jacksonville's magnet school program, bringing together students who have a particular talent relating to acting, singing, painting, sculpture — virtually anything in the artistic field. The school is given extra support by the business community to keep it afloat.The building in which it is housed was an all-but-forgotten old school that was completely gutted and revamped by architects as a study in how to improve public school structures on a budget. As a result, the school offers the light, sound quality and even technical stage benefits that you might expect from a private school of this type — but because of some people's thinking outside the box, it is available to anyone who has the talent (though grades in regular subjects must also be kept up). Jacksonville is also home to the University of North Florida, an extremely well-respected school among the regional university category. Maps of Jacksonville
Written by Stephen Heller exclusively for CoastParadise.com.
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