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Jacksonville's Architectural Heritage: About The Book

Written by Dr. Wayne W. Wood, with research assistance from Joel McEachin and Steve Tool, Jacksonville's Architectural Heritage is the most comprehensive work ever published on Jacksonville's architecture.

It is published by University Press of Florida, which also features many other publications about Florida history. 

The Jacksonville Historic Landmarks Commission is now known as The Jacksonville Preservation Commission, a city government body which administers ordinances for the protection of historical resources in Duval County.

Out of print for several years, this best-selling book is now available through the Historical Society.

Limited quantities are available! Purchase your copy now
and have it personally autographed by author Dr. Wayne Wood!
Proceeds go to The Jacksonville Historical Society.

In 1989, a book went on sale in Jacksonville that became an overnight sensation.  It was a book that spoke to citizens from all walks of life in a way that few publications before or since have ever accomplished.  It was a book that told our city’s history through its buildings.  It examined the lives of the men and women who have shaped Jacksonville, telling their stories in a way that made history come alive.  Both scholarly and entertaining, lavishly illustrated and artistically designed, this book now rests on more coffee tables than perhaps any book in Florida.  It has simply become Jacksonville’s book.

A decade later, Jacksonville’s Architectural Heritage: Landmarks for the Future is still a best-selling book and an often quoted reference work used by teachers, journalists, researchers and a broad cross-section of north Florida’s citizens.

The book’s author, Dr. Wayne Wood, is the founder of Riverside Avondale Preservation, Inc.  In 1994 Wayne wrote another book, The Living Heritage of Riverside & Avondale, and is currently working on  new book about the Great 1901 Fire of Jacksonville.

Assisting Wood in the production of Jacksonville’s Architectural Heritage were research geniuses Joel W. McEachin and Stephen J. Tool, Jr.  A majority of the nearly 1,000 photos in the book were taken by  Judy Davis.

This 424-page volume about the  history of this city's architecture went on sale in December of 1989 and was sold out in ten days.  The book has won numerous awards.  After being out of print for nearly two years, it was re-published in its fourth reprinting in December, 1996 and was on the local Best Seller list for over a year, including three months as the number-one book.

The book and its author have won numerous honors and awards:

• The Florida Trust for Historic Preservation – Preservation Education Honor Award
• Jacksonville Historic Landmarks Commission – Outstanding Community Service Award
• Jacksonville Historic Landmarks Commission – Best Preservation Publication Award
• American Institute of Architects Jacksonville Chapter – Community Service Award of Merit
• Arts Assembly of Jacksonville Outstanding Individual Award
• Jacksonville Historical Society's Achievement Award
• The book was on the Florida Times-Union’s "Best Seller’s" List for over one year, including being the number-one best seller in Jacksonville for many months.
• On the University Press of Florida’s Best Seller List.

• The National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Historic Preservation Magazine (". . . . provides a handsome model for other cities.")
• The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians (". . . .a strong statement for preservation.  It is a welcome addition to the body of scholarly works on Florida’s architectural heritage.")
• The Florida Trust for Historic Preservation’s Florida Preservation News (". . . . an important accomplishment in the field of preservation education in Florida . . . . an outstanding example of preservation scholarship.")
• The Florida Times-Union (". . . . an effort to make the future worth inhabiting.")

Folio Weekly (". . . . a fascinating excursion through the city’s history.")