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Henry John Klutho

Downtown Krawl Map

17 West Duval Street St. James Building 1912

St. James Building (17 W. Duval):

Description: “The St. James Building is a historic building in Downtown Jacksonville, Florida, It was designed by architect Henry John Klutho and opened in 1912. One of many structures in downtown Jacksonville designed by Klutho after the Great Fire of 1901, it is considered his masterpiece.”

Link:  https://digitalcommons.unf.edu/historical_architecture_main/2625/

Link:  https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/159061

Jacksonville’s City Hall

Library of Congress:  https://www.loc.gov/item/fl0266/

47 West Forsyth Street Bisbee Building 1909

The Bisbee office building was owned by William A. Bisbee and was part of the Laura Street Trio. At 10 stories high, it was known as Jacksonville's first skyscraper. It was also Florida's first reinforced concrete frame building and was built by the Southern Ferro Concrete Company and the W.T. Hadlow Company. The building has a limestone and terra-cotta facade, Chicago-style architecture windows, and a copper cornice with geometric ornamentation. 

Source:

Wood, Wayne. Jacksonville's Architectural Heritage: Landmarks for the Future. Jacksonville, Fla., University Press of Florida, 1989, p. 60. 

 

  Image source: University of North Florida Digital Commons. 

  https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en

117 North Laura Street Florida Life Insurance Co. Bldg. 1911

Florida Life Insurance Company Building (711 N. Laura):

Description: “Although the Florida Life Building was Jacksonville's tallest for less than a year, it was and perhaps still is Jacksonville's purest statement of a "skyscraper."  It is a narrow, beautifully proportioned tower that soars vertically, giving an impression of being much taller than its actual eleven-story height.”

Link:  https://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2009-sep-ruins-of-jacksonville-the-florida-life-building

Link (picture): https://digitalcommons.unf.edu/flapostcards/81/

407 North Laura Street YMCA Building 1909

In 1907, members commissioned Henry John Klutho to design a seven-story Y.M.C.A. headquarters building in Jacksonville. This was Florida's first reinforced concrete 'high-rise' structure and was comprised of a two-way slab and beam system...It featured a running track suspended over the gymnasium by cantilevered concrete beams. A swimming pool was located in the basement.1

YMCA, Jacksonville, 1914, (Jacksonville Historical Society Collection)
Architect: Henry J. Klutho. It still stands at (407-9 N. Laura Street)

In Klutho's words, "The new building represents a style of architecture which is neither classic nor Renaissance, but in line with a new style now being evolved in this country typifying the American character, i.e., strong and massive and its general outline, large mouldings, and void of useless ornamentation; square openings, horizontal lines and straightforward in general design. The whole building is conspicuous for its simplicity and dignity."2

Image Attribution: Jacksonville, Florida: Old YMCA Building, designed by architect Henry John Klutho

Ebyabe - Own work

  • CC BY-SA 3.0
  • File:Jax FL old YMCA Building01.jpg
  • Created: 31 May 2011

1. Robert C. Broward. The Architecture of Henry John Klutho : the Prairie School in Jacksonville. Rev. 2nd ed. (Jacksonville, FL: Jacksonville Historical Society, 2003), 54.

2. Ibid.

3. Ibid, 58

219 North Newnan St. Morocco Temple 1911

Click on the image above to view a slideshow of pictures of the Morocco Temple when it was built to the present day. 

Description: Designed in 1910 by H.J. Klutho, Jacksonville's most prominent early twentieth-century architect, the Morocco Temple has a blending of Egyptian Revival detailing and Wrightian massing unique in his oeuvre; it is the home of the oldest chapter of Shriners in Florida.

Source: Historic American Buildings Survey, Creator, Henry John Klutho, Morocco Temple Association, William R Steckert, Carolyn Hamm, Sponsor Florida Bicentennial Commission, and Sponsor Jacksonville Historical And Cultural Conservation Commission, Boucher, Jack E, photographer. Morocco Temple, 219 North Newnan Street, Jacksonville, Duval County, FL. Duval County Florida Jacksonville, 1933. translateds by Price, Virginia Bmitter, and Christianson, Justinemitter Documentation Compiled After. Photograph. https://www.loc.gov/item/fl0262/.