Thrifted furniture, some of it gifted by friends, and local art fill the Downtown high rise apartment of Haley Wright | Cole LoCurto
Published on October 7, 2026 at 9:37 am
Free local news and info, in your inbox at 6 a.m. M-F. Sign up for the Jacksonville Today newsletter.
“There’s always an opportunity to add a little color, a little vibrancy, to a space,” says Haley Wright. We’re standing in the galley kitchen of Wright’s home, a cozy, two-bedroom on an upper floor of a Downtown high-rise that she’s furnished with vintage furniture and decorated with thrift store-cribbed tchotchkes, family photos, glossies and other ephemera featuring the countenance of the late Dolly Parton and a collection of local art that would rival CoRK’s annual open studios event.
The apartment’s color palette leans into pastels. But hues of pink pop from every surface and corner. In the kitchen, alone, there’s a pale pink coffee maker, bubblegum pink dish towels and a carnation pink knife block with knife handles to match. There’s a peach-pink art deco table with matching gold-railed chairs in the dining room.
Jacksonville Today thanks our sponsors. Become one.
The pièce de résistance, though – and the furnishing that’s earned Wright’s apartment its festive, period appropriate nickname – is a vintage carousel horse. Outfitted in a shimmery top hat and pink bandana, the found-object installation is the official mascot of Wright’s abode, which friends lovingly refer to as the Pink Pony Club.
“There’s so many opportunities to add whimsy to your life,” Wright says of her interior design aesthetic.
About the pony, specifically, she points out that much of its getup holds personal resonance. Along with the bandana (tie-dyed at a First Wednesday Art Walk), beads from a local Pride event and all-access passes to the St. Johns-adjacent River Jams concert series hang from the horse’s neck. Its disco-tiled hat is a souvenir from a gala held by Downtown Vision, the Business Improvement District organization for whom Wright has worked for the last seven years. In her role as the director of activations, curation and outreach, Wright spearheads Art Walk and (third Thursday) Sip and Stroll, among other events meant to put more eyes on – and boots on the ground in – the city center.
Jacksonville Today thanks our sponsors. Become one.
“All these fun mementos, they all end up kind of falling on her,” she says of the pony’s accumulated attire. “She’s a collector of stories.”
As Wright gives me a tour of her apartment, her roommate Hannah’s cat, Sunny, scurries by to hide under her owner’s bed. The midday sun reflects off the glass facade of 1 Independent Square Tower (the former Wells Fargo Center), which is viewable to the south, along with the Main Street Bridge, from the living room window. It’s a postcard-worthy vision of the city’s Downtown as a true urban center. One that, given the neighborhood’s population of just under 10,000, only 1% of Jacksonville residents can fathom.
“People are always like, ‘Really? You live Downtown?’” she says, adding that her decision to move into the neighborhood grew out of a desire to “put my money where my mouth is,” given her work in helping Downtown reach its full potential.
Considering the quantity of residential units currently proposed and in development, there’s perhaps more optimism about the prospects of a Downtown renaissance than at any other moment this century – if all goes to plan, the residential population of 10,000 could nearly double in the next half decade, according to the most recent State of Downtown Report.
For now, in the Pink Pony Club, Wright’s found her own little urban oasis. “It feels really up-and-coming,” she says, “but also retains a small town kind of feel.”
Been in a BOLD SPACE lately? We’d love to see it and share it with Jacksonville Today readers. Send us a note: matt@jaxtoday.org
