Things To Do in Jacksonville

Unusual for a national park, the 46,000-acre Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve hasn’t been hacked off from the rest of the community and drawn within arbitrary boundaries. Instead, it is a vast, intriguing system of sites (untouched wilderness, historic buildings, and informative exhibits on the area’s natural history) joined by rural roads alongside tumbledown fish camps, trailer parks, strip malls, condominiums, and stately old homes. The park is named for the American Indians who inhabited Central and North Florida some 1,000 years before European settlers arrived.

Entry to all park facilities is free (though donations are accepted). The visitor centers at Fort Caroline National Memorial and Zephaniah Kingsley Plantation (see below) are open daily from 9am to 5pm, except New Year’s Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. The Theodore Roosevelt Area is open daily from 7am to 8pm during daylight saving time and daily from 7am to 5pm during standard time; closed for Christmas.

South of the River

The preserve’s prime attractions are 14 miles northeast of downtown on the south bank of the St. Johns River. Your starting point is the Fort Caroline National Memorial ★★, 12713 Ft. Caroline Rd. (nps.gov/timu/learn/historyculture/foca.htm; 📞 904/641-7155), which serves as the preserve’s visitor center. This was the site of the 16th-century French Huguenot settlement that was wiped out by the Spanish who landed at St. Augustine. This two-thirds-size replica shows you what the original was like. You can see archaeological artifacts and two well-produced half-hour videos highlighting the area as well.

The fort sits at the northwestern edge of the 600-acre Theodore Roosevelt Area, a beautiful woodland and marshland rich in history, which has been undisturbed since the Civil War. On a 2-mile hike along a centuries-old park trail, you’ll see a wide variety of birds, wildflowers, and maritime hammock forest. Bring binoculars, because such birds as endangered wood storks, great and snowy egrets, ospreys, hawks, and painted buntings make their homes here in spring and summer. On the ground, you might catch sight of a gray fox or raccoon. You may also want to bring a picnic basket and blanket to spread beneath the ancient oak trees that shade the banks of the wide and winding St. Johns River. After the trail crosses Hammock Creek, you’re in ancient Timucuan country, where their ancestors lived as far back as 500 B.C. Farther along is the site of a wilderness cabin that belonged to the reclusive brothers Willie and Saxon Browne, who lived without the modern conveniences of indoor plumbing or electricity until the last brother’s death in 1960.
If you’re here on a weekend, take the fascinating 1[bf]1/2-hour guided tour of the fort and Theodore Roosevelt Area, offered every Saturday and Sunday (when weather and staffing permit). Contact the fort for details and schedules.

The Ribault Monument, on St. Johns Bluff about a half-mile east of the fort, was erected in 1924 to commemorate the arrival in 1562 of French Huguenot Jean Ribault, who died defending Fort Caroline from the Spanish. It’s worth a stop for the dramatic view of the area.

To get here from downtown Jacksonville, take Atlantic Boulevard (Fla. 10) east, make a left on Monument Road, and turn right on Fort Caroline Road; the Theodore Roosevelt Area is entered from Mt. Pleasant Road, about 1 mile southeast of the fort (look for the trail-head parking sign and follow the narrow dirt road to the parking lot).

North of the River

On the north side of the river, history buffs will appreciate the Kingsley Plantation, at 11676 Palmetto Ave., on Fort George Island (tel. 904/251-3537). During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, many people came to Florida. Some, like Zephaniah Kingsley , sought to make their fortunes by obtaining land and establishing plantations. Others were forced to come to Florida to work on those plantations, their labor providing wealth to the people who owned them. Some of the enslaved would later become free landowners, struggling to keep their footing in a dangerous time of shifting alliances and politics.

A winding 2.5-mile dirt road runs under a canopy of dense foliage to the remains of this 19th-century plantation. The National Park Service maintains the well-preserved two-story clapboard residence, kitchen house, barn/carriage house, and remnants of 23 slave cabins built of “tabby mortar”—oyster shell and sand. Exhibits in the main house and kitchen focus on slavery as it existed in the rice-growing areas of Northern Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. You can see it all on your own, but 40-minute ranger-guided tours are much more informative. They’re usually given at 1pm Monday through Friday, 1 and 3pm Saturday and Sunday; call to confirm. Allot time to explore the grounds. The well-stocked book-and-gift shop will keep you even longer. It’s open Wednesday through Sunday 9:30am to 4:30pm.

To get here from I-95, take Heckscher Drive East (Fla. 105) and follow the signs. From Fort Caroline, take Florida 9A North over St. Johns River to Heckscher Drive East. The plantation is 12 miles east of Florida 9A, on the left. From the beaches, take A1A to the St. Johns River Ferry and ride it from Mayport to Fort George; the road to the plantation is a half-mile east of the ferry landing.

Jacksonville has plenty of shopping opportunities, including the upscale mall The Avenues, south of town at 10300 Southside Blvd.; St. John’s Town Center, 4663 River City Dr.; and a number of flea markets. At Beach Boulevard Flea Market, on Beach Boulevard/Florida 90 (tel. 904/930-4149), more than 600 vendors show up Saturday and Sunday from 9am to 5pm to sell their wares in the partially covered facility. Some booths are open other days of the week as well.

San Marco Square, at San Marco and Atlantic boulevards, south of the river, is a quaint shopping district in the middle of a stunning residential area. Shops housed in meticulously refashioned Mediterranean Revival buildings sell antiques and home furnishings, in addition to clothing, books, and records.

Another worthwhile neighborhood to explore is the Avondale/Riverside historic district, southwest of downtown on St. Johns Avenue between Talbot Avenue and Boone Park, on the north bank of the river. More than 60 boutiques, antiques stores, art galleries, and cafes line the wide, tree-lined avenue. The Riverside Arts Market (tel. 904/554-6865), located under the Fuller Warren Bridge near downtown, is the largest free weekly arts and entertainment venue in the state and is open every Saturday from 10am to 3pm.
Nearby, the younger set hangs out at the historic Five Points on Park Street at Avondale Avenue, where used-record stores, vintage clothiers, coffee shops, and funky galleries stay open late.

Like St. Augustine, Jacksonville is a mecca for chocoholics. In 1983, Phyllis Lockwood Geiger opened her first chocolate shop in the San Marco neighborhood. Geiger’s mission was to bring back the art of European chocolate making, and that she did. With 25 locations all over Florida now, Peterbrooke Chocolatier (tel. 904/398-2489), has three locations in Jax, including one in downtown at 110 W. Bay St.

In addition to the spots recommended below, check the listings in the “Shorelines” and “Go” sections of Friday’s Florida Times-Union and FolioWeekly, the free local alternative paper available all over town. Another source is jaxevents.com.

The Performing Arts in Jacksonville, Florida

Jacksonville has plenty of seats for concerts, touring Broadway shows, dance companies, and big-name performers at the 15,000-seat VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena, 300 A. Phillip Randolph Blvd. (tel. 904/630-3900); the 4,400-seat Jacksonville Center for the Performing Arts, 300 Water St., between Hogan and Pearl streets (tel. 904/633-6110); and the Ritz Theatre (tel. 904/807-2010). A good website of event listings is jaxevents.com.

The Bar and Live Music Scene in Jacksonville, Florida

You won’t go thirsty here. Downtown has a fabulously old school speakeasy, The Volstead, 115 W. Adams St. (📞 940/274-2832), where, on some nights, there’s swing dancing and live music. In San Marco, Sidecar Jax, 1406 Hendricks Ave. (tel. 940/527-8990), an urban beer garden and cocktail lounge let’s you do some good while you tipple: order the drink special and part of the proceeds goes to local charities (hooray!).  The Grape & Grain Exchange,  2000 San Marco Blvd. (tel. 904/396-4455), is a combination of three businesses: a wine store (for takeaway bottles), a craft cocktails bar, and, past the "secret" door that everyone knows about, a speakeasy with known as The Parlour.  Over in Riverside’s King Street district, things get fun at Rogue Bar, 927 King St., (tel. 940/551-1350), because of its large array of  whiskeys bar and regular trivia and blackjack nights. (We also love the old school bathtub here harkening back to the bootlegger days—climb in for a selfie).

Out at Beaches Town Center, at the ocean end of Atlantic Boulevard, Ragtime Tavern at 207 Atlantic Blvd. (tel. 904/241-7877) is a winner, a craft brewery with live jazz and blues Wednesdays through Sundays. Also there, Poe’s Tavern (tel. 904/241-7637), which pays homage not necessarily to the horrors of Edgar Allen Poe, but to the tavern culture of the Poe-era, with over 50 craft beers and food like Edgar’s Drunken Chili.

For ocean views, The Lemon Bar, 2 Lemon St., Neptune Beach (tel. 904/372-0487), is a landmark beach bar that’s almost always standing room only. A venerable dive bar from 1933, Pete’s Bar, 117 1st St., Neptune Beach (tel. 904/249-9158), was the first bar to legally open in Duval County after Prohibition was repealed.

Rooftop bars are also especially popular, like River & Post, 1000 Riverside Ave. (tel. 904/575-2366), on the 9th floor in a  prominent Riverside building. Cowford Chop House, 101 E. Bay St. (tel. 940/862-6464), with an open-air rooftop bar and a surf and turf menu;  the up high Hoptinger Bier Garden & Sausage House, 1037 Park St. (tel. 904/903-4112) in the Five Points area; and modern American Coop, 303 at Beaches Town Center. (tel. 904/372-4507).  Lastly, the self-professed Jax-Mex mini chain Burrito Gallery, has a rooftop bar at the Brooklyn Station location in Riverside, (tel. 904/822-8035).