Riverside Park is an public park, located in the heart of Riverside, one of the most historic neighborhoods near downtown

Jacksonville Jacksonville ( ) is the most populous city proper in the U.S. state of Florida, located on the Atlantic coast of North Florida, northeastern Florida. It is the county seat of Duval County, Florida, Duval County, with which the City of Jacksonv ...

, Florida. It is the second-oldest park in the city.

History

The area was identified as a 14-acre public park when the Riverside section was platted along the

St. Johns River The St. Johns River () is the longest river in the U.S. state of Florida and is the most significant one for commercial and recreational use. At long, it flows north and winds through or borders 12 counties. The drop in elevation from River s ...

in 1869. The property contained two lakes that were spring-fed and home to numerous waterfowl. However, development did not begin until years later when the land was donated to the city. Some time after 1890, a carriage lane and walking paths were created, stone bridges were constructed, and ornamentals were planted, including

camphor Camphor () is a waxy, colorless solid with a strong aroma. It is classified as a terpenoid and a cyclic ketone. It is found in the wood of the camphor laurel (''Cinnamomum camphora''), a large evergreen tree found in East Asia; and in the kapu ...

trees. By 1907, it was one of the prettiest parks in the southern U.S. with picture postcards capturing the beauty. Tennis courts and a bandstand were built, attracting even more people to the park's natural features. When Margaret Street was laid out, it cut off the southwest corner of the park, and the north side of the property was used by

Interstate 95 Interstate 95 (I-95) is the main north–south Interstate Highway on the East Coast of the United States, running from U.S. Route 1 (US 1) in Miami, Florida, north to the Houlton–Woodstock Border Crossing between Maine and the ...

, reducing the parcel to its current 11.4 acres. A city-owned brick storage warehouse was constructed on the park property along College Street in 1940, which is no longer used. A

camellia ''Camellia'' (pronounced or ) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Theaceae. They are found in tropical and subtropical areas in East Asia, eastern and South Asia, southern Asia, from the Himalayas east to Japan and Indonesia. There are ...

garden was planted in 1967 by the Jacksonville Men’s Garden Club. The Riverside Avondale Preservation (RAP) group, founded in the mid-1970s, made numerous park improvements over the years, and when high winds uprooted and toppled 52 trees in 1997, city employees and RAP volunteers worked together to restore the park. In 2012, many areas of the park were still barren of trees, but the park included a basketball court, playground equipment, picnic tables, benches and two lakes.

References

External links

Official website

Riverside Avondale Preservation website
{{Authority control Culture of Jacksonville, Florida Geography of Jacksonville, Florida Parks in Jacksonville, Florida 1890s establishments in Florida