San Marco- a 1920s Mediterranean Revial Inspired Urban Community in South Jacksonville

The South Jacksonville community emerged after the American Civil War and was incorporated in 1907 With the opening of the St. John’s River Bridge in 1921, linking the neighborhood to Dwtn, development in San Marco exploded. Telfair Stockton developed 80 acres of the neighborhood as a planned Mediterranean inspired community strongly influenced by the City beautiful movement using more winding streets, planted mediums, and intentionally reserving space for parks. The development was centered on San Marco square, which was inspired by its namesake in Venice. In 1932, the municipality of South Jacksonville was annexation into Jacksonville.  The portion of San Marco north of I-95 was increasingly integrated into Downtown Jacksonville’s urban fabric and in the 1980s officially was designated part of the Central Business District. The neighborhood began to decline under the pressure of suburban sprawl but the residents fought back by embarking with a major historic preservation movement in the 70s, revitalizing the San Marco Square commercial district, building a new public library and park complex, and converting the former South Jacksonville City Hall into a Police headquarters. San Marco is now one of urban Jacksonville’s most expensive and desired communities.

This and Riverside are arguable Jacksonville’s best urban neighborhoods. But there are still major improvements needed before I would considered this to be a premiere urban district starting with densifying the neighborhood so it can become more walkable and amenity rich. The San Marco commercial districts could be upzoned and single family zoning could easily be abolished throughout most of the neighborhood. I’d also like to see more affordable housing options and walkable schools.

Click here to view my San Marco album on Flickr

URBAN STRENGTHS:

• Excellent access to Dwtn across all modes of transit even including a bike lane. 30 min bus ride and 10 min drive to Dwtn.
• Decent public transit access and better than most inner city Jacksonville neighborhoods
• Overall a very safe community with limited blight.
• For sale housing is on the pricy side but still pretty good diversity. Few 1-bed condos however. 2-beds sell between 100K-650. 3&4 beds sell btwn 175K-1.5 M. Some larger mansions even sell for more.
• Excellent park amenities with several small-medium sized parks well distributed throughout the neighborhood. Also a Community Center, which functions as a mini-recreation center and a town square in the heart of the commercial district.
• About 70% of all San Marco streets have sidewalks and most of those that have sidewalks have modern ADA curb cuts.
• Great historic architecture especially the 1920s Spanish Renaissance biz district.
• Decent urban-infill which generally has pretty good urban form. Not wild about the architecture style itself of the in-fill.
• Several urban commercial districts in San Marco the best being the San Marco Square. Further towards dwtn along San Marco is a decent multiple commercial district and Henricks Street is semi-urban for several blocks. Atlantic St is the emerging biz district center on the public Shoppes East San Marco but this feels like a poor attempt at new urbanism as its not mixed-use and has too much surface parking. Kings Ave is a highway but has been tamed recently with a bus only lane.
• Good cultural amenities including lots of restaurants, bars, cafes and breweries, a couple live music venues& art galleries, a community theater, several events centers, and night clubs.
• Excellent retail amenities including a supermarket, several drug stores, lots of boutiques/gift shops, several antiques & home good stores, plenty of banks, a book & toy store, tons of dessert joints & gyms, a hospital, public library and some churches.”

URBAN WEAKNESSES:

* Low density for an urban district but on par with other inner-city Jacksonville neighborhoods.
* Racial diversity is pretty limited as this is a 3/4s Caucasian community.
* A well rated public middle school and small Montessori school  are the only schools within San Marco but several quality schools on the edges of the neighborhood.
* Decent # of rentals but pretty pricey. 1-beds lease btwn 1K- the low2Ks. 2-beds btwn the mid 1Ks-2Ks. Some 3-bed product too that lease in the 2Ks & 3Ks.