Timeline

City of Jacksonville purchases a 6.5-acre tract on Riverside Avenue for $125,000 for a waterfront memorial park. The land had already been bulkheaded along the waterfront and filled by private parties by pumping in sand from the river.

Citizens Committee selects Charles Adrian Pillars of St. Augustine as the sculptor to create a bronze memorial sculpture to be the focal point of the park. Pillars’ idea is to depict the struggle of life and its subsequent victory.

At the suggestion of Harold Hume, a noted horticulturist, Glen Saint Mary, Florida, the Citizens Committee engages the nationally famous Olmsted Brothers of Brookline, Massachusetts to design the park. (James Frederick Dawson (left), Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., (center), and Percival Gallagher (right)) Photo courtesy of National Park Service, Frederick Law Olmsted National Historic Site.)

Pillars, sculptor, submits sketches of the bronze sculpture to Olmsted.

History of Florida: Past and Present, Historical and Biographical, Volume 1, is published in January 1923. Pages 184-201 include an incomplete list of the names of the Florida Fallen as the Citizens Memorial Committee was still compiling names when this book was published. The list contains just 1049 names, five of which were duplicates, as well as 17 names that inadvertently were not included on the scrolls.

Walks are laid, the memorial gates built during the winter months. The landscape planting is done.

Parks Commissioner St. Elmo Acosta determines the park “is 99 per cent finished.”

Morgan Gress seeks advice from Olmsted Brothers regarding lighting for the sculpture.

James Frederick Dawson, the landscape architect and Olmsted Firm partner, dies in Brookline, Massachusetts at the age of 67.

City of Jacksonville Parks Department undertakes a renovation to clear out “dense, straggly growth.”

Park enthusiasts and local philanthropists create Memorial Park Association to preserve and restore the park.

Memorial Park Association receives a matching grant from Florida’s Historic Advisory Council for restoration plans for the park. The job is undertaken by BHR Planning Group, Jacksonville. Two landscape architects participate in the design following the original Olmsted drawings, C. James King and Marty Child.

The entrance gates are rebuilt following the original Olmsted design. The restoration is a gift in memory of William Randle Barnett by his wife and children, Jacksonville architect Ted Pappas assists with this project. Mr. and Mrs. Walter McRae, Mr. and Mrs. Albert Ernest and Mrs. Martin Stein complete the ornamental fence along Riverside Avenue in memory of Guy Botts. Councilwoman Ginny Myrick supplies funds to upgrade lighting in the park, repair the sprinkler system, some architectural repairs and landscape the Riverside Avenue frontage following the original Olmsted plans, designed by Jacksonville landscape architects C. James King and Marty Child and installed by B & L Landscape Co.

Three marble benches, copies of the original benches, are given to the park. One in memory of Harlow Branett by his wife, one in memory of Jaquelin J. Daniel by his wife, one in memory of Mrs. John A. Gilliland’s parents, Mr. and Mrs. W.M. McCrory, and grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Franklin Russell, by Mrs. Gilliland.

For the first time, the Pillars’ sculpture is lighted for night viewing by the Roger Main Foundation.

Mrs. Snead Davis gives two Live Oak trees in memory of her former husband Mr. A.D. Davis.

Phase 2 of landscape restoration begins.

Two marble benches, copies of the original, are given by Mr. Randall Berg in memory of his brother, Captain Henry Challen Berg who died during World War II and by Mr. and Mrs. W.H. Walton and family in memory of Mildred Adams Walton and William H. Walton.

The Association completes a $90,000 fundraising effort for two new bronze eagles.

Memorial Park Association initiates major planning effort to restore/rehabilitate the park to its original grandeur.

The City of Jacksonville City Council adopts the work of David Sacks as the MPA Master Plan to move forward.

First Amendment to Agreement between the City of Jacksonville and MPA is approved.

Third restoration of Life sculpture is done by McKay Lodge of Overland, Ohio.

Olmsted authority Laurence Cotton holds Q&A session after screening of documentary, “Frederick Law Olmsted: Designing America,” at Sun-Ray Cinema.

Hurricane Irma hits Jacksonville as a Category 4 storm, destroys the park balustrade and floods the fountain and most of the park grounds. Pictures of the iconic “Spiritualized Life” sculpture with water over the bulkhead are in newspapers from Los Angeles to London. Memorial Park launches a recovery fund to repair damage to the park lawn, benches and balustrade.

Memorial Park is officially listed in the National Register of Historic Places.

In anticipation of the park’s centennial in 2024, Memorial Park Association unearths the memorial scrolls to learn the names of the Florida Fallen. During the disinterment, the scrolls are discovered to be waterlogged.

Campaign goal of $1.5 million for the first phase of the Spirit of Victory campaign is reached.

City of Jacksonville begins process to secure funds to replace the park balustrade.

City of Jacksonville selects Intron Technologies to create new balusters and rebuild the historic balustrade.

Intron Technologies begins to affix the new 90-lb. balusters to the 560-foot-long stretch of seawall.

Intron Technologies completes the balustrade replacement project.