Timeline

Photo courtesy of Jacksonville Historic Society

Historic information has been obtained from the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; the Olmsted Historic Site, Brookline, Massachusetts; the Memorial Park Association archives held at the Jacksonville Historic Society, and the Jacksonville Public Library, and other sources around the country.

Park Timeline

November 12, 1918

Movement started by the Jacksonville Rotary Club to honor Florida’s dead in World War I begins with an idea proposed by George W. Hardee, Rotary president.

June 1919
June 1919

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.

1919-1920
1919-1920

A Citizens Committee is appointed to work with the City to plan the park and raise funds for the memorial: Morgan V. Gress, Chairman; George W. Hardee, Vice Chairman; Mrs. Arthur G. Cummer, Treasurer; Miss Edith Gray and Mrs. McGarvey Cline, Secretaries

1920
1920

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.

1920

Citizens Committee raises $52,000 for the sculpture and park.

1921-1922
1921-1922

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.)

February 3, 1922

Ninah Cummer invites the Olmsted Brothers to discuss a design for the park.

Spring, 1922

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

October 1922

Preliminary improvements for the park begins. Soil is hauled in to raise the level and furnish a place for planting. Oak trees are planted.

January 1923

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.