LibGuides: History of Jacksonville, FL: Klutho Park

Klutho Park

Klutho Park, located at 204 W. Third Street, was originally called Springfield Park. Most of the park was created between 1899 and 1901, from land donated by the Springfield Company, a local developer. The city's first zoo was opened in the park in 1914, followed by the city's first municipal pool in 1922.

Image Courtesy J. Grey, CC BY NC

Henry John Klutho

Born in Illinois, Henry John Klutho studied business in St. Louis, Missouri before becoming interested in architecture and moving to New York City. After reading about the 1901's Great Fire of Jacksonville in the New York Times, he moved south to take advantage of the city's newly blank canvas. You can read a bit about his life and his work in Jacksonville in this post from the Jacksonville Historical Society, or watch the video below in which local architect Robert Broward discusses his book, The architecture of Henry John Klutho : the Prairie School in Jacksonville.

Portrait of Henry John Klutho, 19--. Image courtesy State Archives of Florida.

Klutho's Work in Jacksonville

Buildings in Jacksonville designed by architect Henry J. Klutho . 19--. Image Courtesy State Archives of Florida.

The Architecture of Henry John Klutho by Robert C. Broward
Call Number: NA737.K58 B76 1983 (South)
ISBN: 9780813007311
Publication Date: 1984-10-01
[PRINT] A pioneer of modern architeccture in America, Henry John Klutho came to Jacksonville, Florida, in 1901 to help rebuild a city leveled by fire. His greatest architectural works, built before World War I, belong to what was then a radical movement in American architecture, now called the Prairie School. As the photographs, drawings, and text of Robert Broward's book unfold, Klutho's legacy in Florida, far removed from the midwestern center of this movement, provides new evidence of the vitality and influence of the Prairie School in America. When he first met Henry John Klutho in 1950, Broward had just returned from an apprenticeship with Frank Lloyd Wright at Taliesin. Klutho's work intrigued Broward because of its similarity to Wright's early work and to that of Wright's great master, Louis Sullivan, the poetic genius of modern architecture. In The Architecture of Henry John Klutho, Broward documents Klutho's long and productive career and analyzes Klutho's innovations. Klutho was the first to use water-jetted steel caissons for concrete pilings, and his high-rise buildings were the first constructed of reinforced concrete in the South. He often presented ideas for the betterment of his adopted city, including, in 1916, a railroad terminal raised in the air to alleviate the increasing automobile traffic. And over many years he strove to awaken Jacksonville to the possibilities of its beautiful riverfront site.