{"id":140099,"date":"2025-08-12T16:28:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T16:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/140099\/"},"modified":"2025-08-12T16:28:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T16:28:09","slug":"floridas-playground-an-amusement-park-once-stood-in-san-marco-over-100-years-ago-now-only-one-piece-of-it-remains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/140099\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Florida\u2019s Playground,\u2019 an amusement park, once stood in San Marco over 100 years ago. Now, only one piece of it remains"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.<\/strong> \u2013 Believe it or not, many decades ago, Jacksonville was once home to a vast amusement park.<\/p>\n

Once known as \u201cJacksonville\u2019s Greatest Resort\u201d and \u201cFlorida\u2019s Playground,\u201d according to Debra Webb Rogers, author of \u201cImages of America: San Marco,\u201d Dixieland Park was the place to be in what is now called the San Marco neighborhood.<\/p>\n

The park opened over 115 years ago on March 9, 1907, bringing a renewed vibrancy to the area years after the Great Fire of 1901 ravaged downtown Jacksonville.<\/p>\n

Patrons gathered by the entrance of the skating rink (Jacksonville Historical Society)Photo of Dixieland Park (Jacksonville Historical Society)<\/p>\n

Long before hotels, skyscraper business offices and high-rise condos lined the St. Johns River of Southbank, 21 acres of land shaped the entertainment scene for Jacksonville residents in the 20th century.<\/p>\n

Dixieland stretched from Flagler Avenue, nearly reaching Miami Road, now known as Prudential Drive, Rogers said. It was open from 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most delightful place in all Florida to pass an afternoon or evening. A beautiful place by daylight. It becomes a blaze of beauty at night when lighted by its 18,500 electric lights,\u201d a flyer for the park read.<\/p>\n

A picture of a flyer for Dixieland seen in the “Images of America: San Marco” book. (Debra Webb Rogers, “Images of America: San Marco”)<\/p>\n

In true 20th-century fashion<\/a>, the women were draped in modest, floor-length, loosely fitted dresses with corsets that cinched the waist. Extravagantly decorated hats sat on top of pinned-up hairstyles.<\/p>\n

The men, however, had their high-top hats and formal three-piece suits.<\/p>\n

Patrons at Dixieland Park (Jacksonville Historical Society)A photos of Dixieland visitors aboard a ferry boat across the St. Johns River (Jacksonville Historical Society)<\/p>\n

Visitors would take a ferryboat across the St. Johns River to reach the park.<\/p>\n

The lay of the land looked very different compared to modern-day amusement parks with roller coasters, interactive 3D rides, and attractions for all ages. But Dixieland had a 5,000-square-foot skating rink that doubled as a dance hall, a swimming pool called \u201cThe Plunge,\u201d restaurants, and a well-known theater called \u201cDixie Theater.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cafe and Dancing Pavilion in Dixieland Park (State Achieves of Florida)<\/p>\n

\u201cDixieland catered to every taste with its ice cream shops, restaurants, a theater and, yes, even \u2018baby incubators\u2019 a few shops down from the skating rink,\u201d reads a photo attribution in \u201cThe Jacksonville Family Album\u201d book written by Wayne W. Wood and others.<\/p>\n

The Dixie Theater took a $30,000 bill to build \u2014 equivalent to over $1 million today \u2014 and became one of Jacksonville\u2019s largest structures, Rogers said.<\/p>\n

The Dixieland Theater (Jacksonville Historical Society)<\/p>\n

It only took one nickel for park patrons to take a 160-foot drop down the Dixie Dewdrop slide, and for double that price, patrons could have received a scare at the Mysterious House, as noted in the book \u201cThe Jacksonville Family Album.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dixieland Park opened in South Jacksonville to draw winter tourists from the North.The Dance Hall at Dixieland Park (Jacksonville Historical Society)<\/p>\n

Other attractions included \u201cThe Flying Jenny\u201d merry-go-round, hot air balloon rides, and a toboggan ride.<\/p>\n

One year after it opened, a baseball park was added. It was used for spring training by many major league teams, Rogers said. The legendary Babe Ruth was one of the notable players to pass through the park as well.<\/p>\n

However, the thrill of the park was short-lived as Dixieland hit a gradual decline just a year after opening its doors, Rogers said.<\/p>\n

It faced a hailstorm, and numerous fires broke out, leaving major damage to different attractions. Attendance started to decline, and eventually, Dixieland faded away by 1909 with vestiges of the park hanging on until 1916, Rogers wrote.<\/p>\n

The last remaining remnant of the lost attraction is Treaty Oak, which stands inside the Jessie Ball duPont Park off Prudential Drive.<\/p>\n

The big Live Oak Tree at Dixieland Park now known as Treaty Oak (Jacksonville Public Library)Postcard Collection (https:\/\/www.floridamemory.com\/photographiccollection\/disclaimer.php)<\/p>\n

Jacksonville also had the potential to become the home of the \u201cHappiest Place on Earth.\u201d <\/p>\n

Walt Disney set his eye on acquiring land in the River City to place his Disney World roots in 28,000 acres of Northeast Florida soil, but local business tycoon Ed Ball, who owned a vast amount of land, shot down those chances in the \u201960s. <\/p>\n

The Tallahassee Democrat<\/a> reported that during Disney\u2019s visit to Jacksonville, Ball made him wait outside his office for hours before he had his secretary hand Disney a note that said, \u201cWe don\u2019t deal with carnival people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Believe it or not, many decades ago, Jacksonville was once home to a vast amusement…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":140100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,718,8314,3188,723,7310,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-140099","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-community","10":"tag-duval-county","11":"tag-fl","12":"tag-florida","13":"tag-jacksonville","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-united-states-of-america","16":"tag-unitedstates","17":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115016742268248555","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/140100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}