Matt Soergel - Florida Times-Union
Featured image for “The 1859 Mayport Lighthouse: Unvisited but not unloved”
May 22, 2023

The 1859 Mayport Lighthouse: Unvisited but not unloved

The Mayport Lighthouse Association hopes the public one day will get access to the lighthouse before the Civil War.

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Featured image for “Volunteer lifeguards to return to duty at Jacksonville Beach”
April 18, 2023

Volunteer lifeguards to return to duty at Jacksonville Beach

After months of negotiations, volunteer lifeguards will once again help patrol Jacksonville Beach this summer, keeping alive a 112-year-old tradition.

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Featured image for “Who’s buried in St. Augustine graves marked ‘Six Unknown Indians”?”
February 21, 2023

Who’s buried in St. Augustine graves marked ‘Six Unknown Indians”?

Researcher Amy Larner Giroux is investigating two burial sites in St. Augustine National Cemetery marked with a headstone reading “Six Unknown Indians.”

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Featured image for “Eastside may be bound for national historic designation”
November 7, 2022

Eastside may be bound for national historic designation

The six tiny shotgun houses that sit snugly together along Oakley Street are faded, chipped and sagging, showing every bit of their long lives. But Suzanne Pickett sees the potential in them, just like the Eastside neighborhood where they were built 118 years ago. Pickett is head of the Historic Eastside Community Development Corp., which works to lift up the

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Featured image for “Atlantic Beach bans smoking at beach and parks”
October 26, 2022

Atlantic Beach bans smoking at beach and parks

In Atlantic Beach, it’s now illegal to use the beach as a giant ashtray. Citing health and environmental concerns, the City Commission this week unanimously passed a ban on smoking cigarettes in public parks, on the beach and at beach accesses. Atlantic Beach was able to make the move after Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bipartisan law that allowed municipalities

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Featured image for “Meet Moxi, Baptist Health’s friendly new robot”
October 12, 2022

Meet Moxi, Baptist Health’s friendly new robot

April Gray gave a big smile as Baptist Heath leader Michael Mayo and a bright-eyed companion passed by her desk inside the hospital’s Southbank Jacksonville complex. “There’s my main man!” she cried out. Mayo looked over. “Not you,” Gray said to her boss, smiling some more. No, her main man on this day is Moxi, a delivery robot with perpetually upbeat,

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Featured image for “Old Holy Rosary church in Springfield restored in time for centennial”
August 9, 2022

Old Holy Rosary church in Springfield restored in time for centennial

A timeworn 99-year-old Catholic church in Springfield is being renovated by members of a traditionalist Catholic group whose congregation has outgrown its small church a few miles away. Saving the old Holy Rosary Catholic Church is a victory for preservationists concerned about the disappearance of historically significant buildings across Jacksonville. And — once all the work is done —it will

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