JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Years in the making, part of Jacksonville’s history is now memorialized.
LaVilla’s new Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing Park, honoring the song known as the Black National Anthem and written by two Jacksonville brothers, is connecting generations to the past and inspiring the future. It's located between West Adams Street and Houston Street in downtown Jacksonville.
Lloyd Washington, president of the Durkeeville Historical Society, said he had been working to make the park a reality for 17 years.
“This is a personal project,” he said.
Washington likened LaVilla, the former Harlem of the South, to Beale Street in Memphis.
“It was just unbelievable," Washington said. "The sounds, the smells.”
Washington described multiple theatres he would go to and spots Ray Charles and James Brown would frequent.
"Next door we'd go to Roosevelt Grill and get some fried chicken or French fries," he said. "So it was it was a colorful place.”
Washington also watched LaVilla’s vibrancy fade.
“We ended up watching the Harlem of the South being torn down," he said. "They put up the expressway through the middle of it.”
The new park is seen as a step toward revitalization for the next generation. First Coast News interviewed multiple women who helped bring the park's history to life.
“My children can say my mom was a part of something that was historical,” Ashanta Williamson said.
“I just… it’s deep," said Carla Jones. "That’s all I can say!”
Jones’s family has deep roots in Jacksonville. She said she's a descendant of Joseph Blodgett, one of the first Black architects and first Black millionaires in Jacksonville, and her parents were born in LaVilla.
“It’s another universe now," said Jones's father, Carl Jones. "It’s nothing that I can see that really reminds me of what it used to be.”
Carl Jones said he would like to see LaVilla restored to be better than it was before.
“Seeing the stories that they always told me about kind of come to life and continue that legacy, it just means so much to me,” said Carla Jones.
Between new townhomes being built, the LaVilla Heritage Trail, programming those at the park's opening say they're expecting around the park and, according to Washington, business development in the works, the park is being called a start in restoring the old LaVilla. But for Washington, the real beginning was 17 years ago.
“To be honest with you, I'm glad that it's over," he said. "But it shouldn't be over. It should be just getting started.”