Historic Preservation
Historic Designation.
Preservation is how we protect what generations built.
in 2023, that legacy was formally recognized when the Eastside Historic District earned listing on the National Register of Historic Places, protecting more than 675 contributing resources that tell our story in brick, timber, and streetscape. As the southernmost anchor of the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor and home to a Florida Main Street designation along A. Philip Randolph Boulevard, the Eastside carries a weight of history that deserves more than a marker — it deserves stewardship. Preservation here isn't about freezing the past in place; it's about ensuring that as Jacksonville grows, the people and structures that have always been here have a future too.
Historic Preservation
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Heritage Trail
HECDC is developing an Eastside heritage trail in our transitional neighborhood, that will serve as a harbinger of change. A chance — and sometimes it feels like a last chance with investor interest on the rise — to record modern history, before our neighborhood’s demographics and storefronts are reborn.
The project includes murals, markers and public art projects that depict the history of Eastside residents, patrons and historians. The trails will help ease the inevitable tensions of gentrification by visually recording stories of the Eastside, building pride as the community transitions so that newcomers understand this place that they now find so attractive to live.
View the African American Heritage Jacksonville Legacy Magazine here. This legacy magazine features the stories of Mayor Alvin Brown, Kingsley Plantation, Brewster Hospital, brothers James Weldon Johnson and John Rosamond Johnson, Dr. Eartha Mary Magdalene White, Eartha M. M. White/Museum, Zora Neale Hurston, Asa Philip Randolph, Bessie Coleman, Norman Film Studios, J. P. Small Park, Life in Jacksonville, The Ritz Theater and Museum, Abraham L. Lewis, Afro – American Life Insurance Company, Robert Lee “Bullet Bob” Hayes, A. Philip Randolph Park, Oakland Park, Florida C. Dwight Park, Hemming Plaza, Bethel Baptist Institutional Church, Mount Zion A.M.E. Church, Mother Midway A.M.E. Church, Mount Olive AME Church, Local Heroes, Edward Waters College, Nat Glover, L. Lawton Pratt, Noted African American Performing Artists Associated with Jacksonville, Multicultural Historical Timeline, and the Old City Cemetery.
What We Preserve.
Preservation is how we protect what generations built.
Our commitment is to preserve the history, heritage, culture, and physical character of Jacksonville’s Historic Eastside—known as OUTEAST to generations of residents.
Established after the Civil War, the Eastside grew into a thriving African American working-class community and remains the last historic neighborhood directly bordering Downtown Jacksonville. Much of the neighborhood’s defining development occurred between 1868 and 1947, leaving a distinctive collection of frame vernacular homes, bungalows, churches, businesses, and community landmarks.
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For us, preservation is not simply about saving old buildings. It is about protecting the people, places, stories, culture, and legacy that make OUTEAST irreplaceable.
PILLAR PROMISE: Protect what makes Eastside, Eastside.
MEANING: Preserve our historic places, cultural identity, and community legacy.
ACTION: Restore homes. Preserve historic structures. Protect cultural assets. Document our stories. Keep legacy connected to place