 |
||||||||||||
|
 |
|||||
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
D-45  PLAZA HOTEL 353 EAST FORSYTH STREET DATE: 1903-1904 ARCHITECT: Unknown BUILDER: William F. Ivers NATIONAL REGISTER SITE Dr. August R. Bexley was chief surgeon
for the Confederate Army during the Civil War and was personal friend
of President Zachary Taylor. Sometime before 1885, Dr. Bexley built a
two-story brick home on the corner of east Forsyth and Liberty streets.
By comparing the Sanborn and Koch maps, it can be seen that between
1891 and 1893 a turret and a two-tier veranda were added onto the
front. After the Fire of 1901 destroyed the house, Bexley’s son Robert
rebuilt it on this site using a similar design, except that the
position of the turret was switched from the west to the east side of
the building and fireproof concrete blocks were used for construction
of the walls. One of the earliest structures in Jacksonville to use
molded concrete blocks, it was completed in December, 1904, and was
known as the Plaza Hotel. An advertisement billed it as “a handsome
stone building two blocks from the Clyde New England Pier and one block
from the fashionable Bay Street shopping district. It is situated in
the aristocratic section and designed for refined transient guests.”
The building was used as a hotel until 1913, when the Bexley family
changed it to their private residence. The decorative two-story veranda
that curved around the turret corner was removed in the 1970s, but it
was restored in the 1985 renovation of the building.
|
|||||
 |
|||||
|
Exceprts
of this work may be reproduced for non-commercial purposes
with credit to Jacksonville's Architectural Heritage by Wayne W. Wood. All Rights Reserved, Wayne W. Wood and Ó University Presses of Florida. |
|||||
