(Source of image: Florida Collection, Main Public Library, Jacksonville, Florida)

PINK STRAWBERRIES -- Here's a nifty cutaway view of the first floor of Furchgott's Department Store.  About fifty years ago, Jax residents made tracks to busy downtown department stores.  For amusement, moreover, white residents frequented the downtown movie theaters along "The Great White Way," nicknamed in honor of New York City's show district.  This Jax  entertainment area was a brightly-lit portion of Forsyth Street between Main and Newnan streets.  (African Americans enjoyed the theaters and night spots that operated in the vicinity of "The Great Black Way," that is, Ashley Street in La Villa.)

Except for the Florida Theater, the downtown area has lost its cinemas and department stores, for they eventually went out of business or moved to suburban malls.  Furchgott's, for instance, shuttered its downtown location in March 1984.  And the next year, the company also closed its branches at the Roosevelt, Regency Square, and Orange Park malls.  But the pink strawberries haven't been forgotten!  The funny fruit used to adorn Furchgott's bags.

Other River City department stores drew shoppers to the urban core, but these downtown businesses have also gone the way of the dinosaurs.  In recent years, their names included Grant's, Penney's, Woolworth's, Levy-Wolf, and May Cohens, located in the St. James Building, now the City Hall.  Please see below for more.

CLICK HERE for a marble entrance

CLICK HERE for another store door pic

CLICK HERE for "The Pause That Refreshes"

CLICK HERE for Furchgott fashions

SHOPPING WITH OUR PARENTS & GRANDPARENTS!  --  Let's take a tour of a now-defunct River City store, thanks to a really swell brochure from the 1940s.  The name may sound offbeat today, but "Furchgott" used to be one that Jax shoppers knew by heart.  One former customer remembers its very attractive displays. 

Furchgott's Department Store could boast of a long history, tracing to a downtown retail outlet founded by Leopold Furchgott in 1868.  Over the years, the store was said to be Jacksonville's first to offer elevators, the first to introduce home deliveries by automobile, and the first to employ women on its sales staff.  Along with such places as Ivey's and May Cohens, Furchgott's was considered more upscale than other local department stores.

In 1941, Furchgott's opened a new mercantile building on the southeast corner of Adams & Hogan, one block south of Hemming Park.  It occupied the former spot of the wonderful old marble post office.  Floor by floor, a Furchgott brochure from the Forties furnished details about the "scientifically-designed" structure, specially created for your shopping pleasure & convenience.  The first story really didn't offer any radical surprises, though.  According to the brochure, "It's a floor that is as typically American as 'cheese and apple pie.'" Buyers there could examine such diverse items as tuxedos, topcoats, diamonds, silverware, costume jewelry, gloves, neckwear, lingerie, umbrellas, gifts, and pens & pencils.  Patrons could also frequent a "hat bar" and a rental library. 

Nowadays, pedestrians walking by the Furchgott building usually don't look up above the street level.  The old structure stands mostly empty, except for first floor eateries that mostly cater to lunchtime crowds.  The best known establishments include Pizza Italiano, located where the section for men's furnishings was situated, and Akel's Delicatessen, in the former area for sportswear, neckwear, and gifts.  Gliding past the empty floors above is the Skyway monorail on its Hogan Street track.