Jacksonville History - On June 15, 1822 a group of citizens decided to petition Congress to make Cowford city a port of entry. It was then called Jacksonville. In the early 1820’s the first lay out of the town was made by the city founder Isaiah D. Hart decided to lay out a town for the small river crossing. It was in 1845 that Florida that Florida became a state. In the 1880’s Jacksonville was called the “Winter City in a Summer Land”. It had plenty of visitors to the area, especially in the winter months.

In 1888 the city experienced an outbreak of Yellow Fever, which scared the public because there were board of health warnings, but not for long. Once again by 1990 people were coming to Jacksonville from all over the place.
Shortly after noon on May 3, 1901, a spark at a mattress factory started a fire and in less than a day it destroyed 2,368 buildings in its path. 23 churches and all the Downtown public buildings and Ten hotels were destroyed by The Great Fire of 1901.

In the early 1900’s, Downtown Jacksonville continued to attract vacationers during in the winter months. In 1919 it became a hub for rail transit In the 1980’s and early 1990’s, Jacksonville Landing, a riverfront marketplace modeled on Baltimore’s Inner Harbor helped to make the area even more popular.

Mayor John Delaney in 1995 and the establishment of Downtown Vision, Inc. in 2000 it continues to grow and prosper. Jacksonville is becoming the cultural, sports and entertainment center of the region hosting the Superbowl festivities for the year 2005. People from all over the world are visiting Jacksonville every year to see what all it has to offer.

For more information about the history of Downtown Jacksonville, contact the Jacksonville Historical Society.