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23-582: Following Jacksonville's Great Fire of 1901 , the building was the first multi-story structure built in the barren downtown area and the first design by Klutho in Jacksonville. Construction began on a five-story building, but demand for office space spurred the addition of a sixth floor. As the name states, Dyal–Upchurch was a Georgia investment company that moved to Jacksonville after the fire. Frank Upchurch had interests in turpentine and lumber, while Benjamin Dyal owned

46-526: A Florida flair. Buildings designed by Klutho were Dyal-Upchurch Building (1902), Carnegie Library (1905), Bisbee Building (1909), Morocco Temple (1910), and the Florida Baptist Building (1924). While many of Klutho's buildings were demolished or abandoned by the 1980s, several of his creations remain, including his most prominent work, the St. James Building . The Jacksonville City Hall currently uses

69-797: A financial advice company. Noted Florida author and folklorist Stetson Kennedy had his office here in the 1930s when he worked for the Federal Writers Project. He explained that the white staff members worked in the Dyal-Upchurch Building while the "Negro Unit" was based in the Clara White Mission in the LaVilla section of town. When the building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1980, it became eligible to use rehabilitation tax credits when restoration work

92-613: A home in Jacksonville and a farm and timber holdings in Clay County near Middleburg. In 1905, he was appointed by Governor Napoleon B. Broward as general counsel for the Internal Improvement Fund , the state agency responsible for administering public lands. The new governor also favored the development of the Everglades, so in this position, which Jennings held until 1909, he was able to continue leading drainage activities in

115-407: A local school claimed, however, that firemen tried to save the fire from spreading to a white neighborhood, allowing black parts of town to burn down in the process: "We met many people fleeing. From them we gathered excitedly related snatches: the fiber factory catches afire - the fire department comes - fanned by a light breeze, the fire is traveling directly east and spreading out to the north, over

138-667: A sawmill. The company ceased business in Jacksonville after 1924. The Atlantic National Bank was founded shortly after the Dyal–Upchurch building opened in May, 1902 and was located on the first floor until their own building was constructed in 1909. Other tenants have included an office of the National Weather Service , a regional office for the Connecticut General Life Insurance Company, law offices and

161-650: A trustee of Stetson University during the first decade of the twentieth century and was involved in the controversy over whether the Florida Baptist Convention would elect the trustees of the university. At one point, the controversy became so heated that Jennings and Lincoln Hulley, the president of the university, engaged in a fistfight in the lobby of the Leon Hotel in Tallahassee, Florida . Jennings died on February 27, 1920, in St. Augustine, Florida , and

184-514: The 1906 San Francisco fire . In 1901, Jacksonville was a city which consisted mainly of wooden buildings with wood shingled roofs. The city itself had been suffering under a prolonged drought, leaving the building exteriors across the city dry and fire-prone. At around noon on Friday, May 3, 1901, workers at the Cleaveland Fibre Factory, located on the corner of Beaver and Davis Streets, left for lunch. Several minutes later, sparks from

207-644: The Everglades. Jennings met May Mann at her father's home near Brooksville, and began a courtship. May's father, Austin Mann, had been a Florida Senator and had just won election to the state house of representatives. When the legislative session began in January, 1891, May went to Tallahassee to serve as her father's aide, with responsibility for her father's appointments, correspondence and hosting social events. Jennings went to Tallahassee to continue his courtship. He married May Mann on May 12, 1891, and they were escorted down

230-615: The Florida House of Representatives in 1895. After his term ended, he served as a colonel in the Florida militia, was president of the Brooksville town council and chairman of the Democratic committee. Jennings campaigned for and was elected governor in 1900, taking the oath of office on January 8, 1901. During his term in office, he introduced the statewide primary election system, replacing

253-850: The St. James Building. Local charity Fresh Ministries recently restored the Klutho Apartments, in Springfield , and converted them into office space for the Community Development Corporation's Operation New Hope. Jacksonville has one of the largest collections of Prairie Style buildings (particularly residences) outside the Midwest. 30°20′03″N 81°40′03″W  /  30.3342°N 81.6674°W  / 30.3342; -81.6674 William S. Jennings William Sherman Jennings (March 24, 1863 – February 27, 1920)

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276-502: The aisle by the full legislative membership. The newlyweds lived in Brooksville in the William Sherman Jennings House . The couple had one child, a son, Sherman Bryan Jennings. Politics and the law were prominent in his family. In addition to his brother, who was a lawyer and state attorney, he was a first cousin to William Jennings Bryan , congressman and three-time Democratic presidential nominee. Jennings served as

299-409: The chimney of a nearby building started a fire in a pile of Spanish moss that had been laid out to dry. First, factory workers tried to put it out with a few buckets of water, as they had frequently done on similar occasions. However, the blaze was soon out of control due to the wind picking up out of the east. A brisk northwest wind fanned the flames, which "spread from house to house, seemingly with

322-474: The city was returned to civil authority on May 17. Seven human deaths were reported. St. Andrew's Episcopal Church , built of bricks in 1887, was the only major church in the city to withstand the fire. The Duval County Courthouse and all its real estate records were destroyed in the fire. To this day real estate deeds in Duval County refer either to "the current public records of Duval County, Florida" or, if

345-529: The cost of exterior work and one-fifth of interior work with a $ 1 million cap per building. That was sufficient incentive for Husk Jennings to begin a $ 1.72 million restoration of the rest of the building, for which the city kicked in almost $ 340,000. Cameron Kuhn, a commercial developer from Orlando, Florida , purchased the building in December, 2005 for $ 4.5 million, but defaulted on the mortgage when his company declared bankruptcy in 2008. The Dyal–Upchurch building

368-420: The district where the bulk of Negroes in the western end of the city live - the firemen spend all their efforts saving a low row of frame houses just across the street on the south side of the factory, belonging to a white man named Steve Melton." Florida Governor William S. Jennings declared martial law in Jacksonville and dispatched several state militia units to help. Reconstruction began immediately, and

391-441: The previous method of nominating candidates for political office at a convention. The first statewide primary election was conducted in 1902. It was also Jennings idea to drain and develop the Everglades by cutting the natural rock dams in the rivers of south Florida. His term ended on January 3, 1905. He moved to Jacksonville , then Florida's largest city, where he established a successful law practice. He divided his time between

414-604: The rapidity that a man could walk". In eight hours, the fire burned 146 city blocks, destroyed more than 2,367 buildings, and left almost 10,000 residents homeless, including the Afro-American Insurance Association, the first insurance company in the state. It is said the glow from the flames could be seen in Savannah , Georgia, and the smoke plumes in Raleigh , North Carolina. James Weldon Johnson , principal of

437-622: The records predate the fire, "the former public records of Duval County, Florida." It is the only county in Florida for which that is the case. The only existing pre-Fire real estate records are title abstracts saved by Title and Trust, a title company that still charges for their use. New York City architect Henry John Klutho helped rebuild the city. He and other architects, enamored by the " Prairie Style " of architecture then being popularized by architect Frank Lloyd Wright in Chicago and other Midwestern cities, designed exuberant local buildings with

460-590: The supervision of his brother, Charles E. Jennings, who was the State Attorney for Marion County. He came to Florida in 1885 and settled in Brooksville, Florida . In 1887, he was appointed circuit court commissioner, and became county judge of Hernando County, Florida , in 1888. Jennings resigned his office as county judge in 1893 to serve in the Florida House of Representatives , eventually becoming Speaker of

483-555: Was an American politician who served as the 18th governor of Florida after being a lawyer, county judge, and state representative. He was born near Walnut Hill, Illinois , and attended public schools in Marion County . Jennings graduated from Southern Illinois University in 1883, then studied law at the Union College of Law in Chicago (now named Northwestern University School of Law ). He finished his law studies in Chicago under

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506-509: Was performed in 1981, the first building in Jacksonville to do so. The Husk Jennings advertising company bought the building in 1998 for $ 1.6 million and spent $ 600,000 to renovate the top floor, where the firm relocated. In May, 2002, the city established the Downtown Historic Preservation and Revitalization Trust Fund with $ 7 million to assist companies that purchase and restore old buildings. The fund could pay up to half

529-585: Was repossessed by The Jacksonville Bank in January, and sold on February 28, 2009 for $ 3.73 million to A. Duda & Sons of Oviedo, Florida . Great Fire of 1901 The Great Fire of 1901 was a conflagration that occurred in Jacksonville, Florida , on May 3, 1901. It was one of the worst disasters in Florida history and the third largest urban fire in the U.S., next to the Great Chicago Fire , and

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