A Home Overrun

Earlier this year I heard from Roy Moneyhun of Jacksonville FL, who took me to task for my description of the Florida Old Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Home. (You’ll see a thumbnail description of the sixteen lasting homes when you click on the “Confederate Soldiers’ Homes” link at the upper right corner.) I wrote that the Florida home opened in 1893 on ten acres outside Jacksonville.


Roy (and his friend Lloyd Hendry) had recently visited the site of the Home He gave me a good-natured scolding, saying that the site was certainly not “outside Jackson”, but on a waterway not far from the city center. (Here’s a lesson for writers of history: Readers question every fact.)

Turns out we were both right. Over the last century the city grew out to the little farmstead, overrunning the area with industrial development.

Here’s a picture of the Florida Old Confederate Soldiers and Sailors Home from about 1898:

And here’s a link to the Google Streetview of the location at 2336 Talleyrand Avenue today:

Roy also sent me this link to the Jacksonville’s SCV Kirby-Smith Camp #1209 (“The Largest SCV Camp in Florida!”) website and a page that tells a little more about the Flordia Home than I have in my thumbnail sketch.