For bicentennial, a thick new snapshot of Jacksonville's architecture from Wayne Wood

When I walked across Jacksonville, I asked Wayne Wood to join me as I neared the original city boundaries — the 18 acres that Isaiah D. Hart purchased 200 years ago.

Wood was a natural walking partner, particularly for this part of what grew into, and remains, the largest city in the contiguous United States.

While his career was in optometry, Wood has spent decades looking at Jacksonville’s architecture — researching, writing and thinking about what used to be, what remains and what could be.

We started that leg of my walk north of those original city limits so Wood could show me what he described as “one of the least-known, strange, cool buildings in Jacksonville” — a structure in Brentwood Park that looks like a miniature Parthenon.

Mark Woods:A (Founding) Father's Day walk with Wayne Wood

Mark Walks Jax:Times-Union columnist Mark Woods walks across Jacksonville

From there, we headed through Springfield, checking out the bungalows built in the early 1900s; making a detour to a house on 9th Street that architect Henry Klutho built for himself in 1909; walking through Klutho Park; passing through what was then known as Confederate Park; noting the Klutho building that once was home to the Claude Nolan Cadillac dealership; meandering by some of the old buildings and new ones in the heart of downtown; eventually reaching the foot of one of the city’s most distinctive structures, the Main Street Bridge.

"Ninety percent of the buildings built after the Great Fire are gone," he said as we walked on Main Street. "This used to be a street of skyscrapers. Now we have parking lots."

That was six years ago.

Even in that relatively short time in Jacksonville’s history, a lot has changed all over this city. So imagine just how much has changed since 1989 — when Wood’s book, “Jacksonville’s Architectural Heritage: Landmarks for the Future,” first came out.

33 years later, a book for Jacksonville's bicentennial

That book sold out in three weeks. In the last 33 years, there have been six more printings with some minor revisions. But it has been out of print for eight years, one of the reasons I wrote my name inside the copy I had sitting on my desk.

Other books could be replaced if they walked away. Copies of this one became even more coveted.

It begged not only for another printing, but for what Wood created for the city’s bicentennial: a completely new “Jacksonville’s Architectural Heritage.”

He’ll unveil it Thursday evening with a presentation and book signing at the Church of the Good Shepherd.

That church — notable not only for its grand exterior and sanctuary, but for its 100-year-old swimming pool — was in the first book and is still standing on Stockton Street, not far from the 1913 Riverside home where Wood lives.

But 21 percent of the buildings that were in the 1989 book have been demolished — including some we passed six years ago on our walk.

“Most of those are small buildings,” he said. “The one thing that happens is there will be a good building, it's not a Taj Mahal, but it's a good, beautiful house that is worthy of going in the book. And it gets torn down. And the house next door to it gets boarded up. And gradually, we not only lose a house, but we lose a street. And then we lose a block. And then we lose a neighborhood.”

He says that to him, these smaller buildings are as important as the grand historic ones that we often think of when talking about preservation.

While those buildings are gone, he has added nearly 400 sites to the book – including one we passed on our walk.

It’s a small fire station. While I might have noticed it — the mere act of walking makes you notice much more than when you’re in a car — I probably wouldn’t have thought twice about it. But I remember Wood did. And it turns out he made a point to learn more about it.

“It’s just beautiful,” he said. “And it reflects the craftsmanship of the time. So that building is in the new book.”

What we build today becomes part of our story

One structure we passed on our walk that remains standing — and because of that also remains the center of much controversy: the Women of the Confederacy monument.

For the latest book, Wood has a separate section for structures that aren’t architecture. One of them, he says, can be seen from outer space: the Treaty Oak. Others are statues and monuments — like the Women of the Confederacy monument that he believes should come down.

“But once you tear them down, they're gone,” he said. “You lose an opportunity to have them speak about what happened, why it was put up, and why it was wrong. And so I would like to see that bronze sculpture preserved and maybe put in mothballs for a decade, and then bring it back at some point for public display in a way that explains what that was about.”

He says the part of the latest book that he’s proudest about involves more than 75 African-American sites that weren’t in the previous editions. They include the house where Zora Neale Hurston lived and others that, while maybe not architectural specimens are culturally significant.

Every building, he says, tells a story – including the ones we have built recently.

Don’t get him started on the Duval County Courthouse (“a monstrosity that will be here for another 50 or 100 years”) or the exterior of the Main Library (“beautiful soaring spaces inside, but the overall building killed the life of the entire street”).

Do get him started about the significance of the Laura Street trio and riverfront to the future of Jacksonville.

To some degree, he’s been working on this since the 1970s, when he started out planning to do a pamphlet on historic buildings in Jacksonville. At the time, he said it would be done by Christmas.

“I didn’t say which Christmas,” he says.

That first book took 12 years to complete. And almost instantly parts of it changed, as some buildings went down and others rose. That is the nature of such a project. In some ways, that is the goal of it. Capture a moment in history.

Thirty-three years later, at age 77, Wood has finished 15 books about Jacksonville history. He views this one as his magnus opus, a snapshot — with more than 1,000 new photos, a thick snapshot — of the city at its bicentennial.

“I want us to not only look at the buildings of the past, but to look at what we’re building today and think about how that will translate into the future,” he said.

'Jacksonville's Architectural Heritage' Event

When: 6-8 p.m. Thursday (free admission). Book signing 6-6:45 p.m.; slide presentation 6:45-7:30 p.m.; another book signing 7:30-8 p.m.

Where: Church of the Good Shepherd, Betsy Lovett Hall, 1100 Stockton Street, Jacksonville

Books: $64.95, all proceeds go to Riverside Avondale Preservation and the Jacksonville Historical Society.

mwoods@jacksonville.com

(904) 359-4212