Jeffrey K. Graf elected JHS President

On May 23, following a membership vote to elect new board members, the JHS board of Directors elected Jeff Graf as President for the upcoming society year, June 2016 until May 2017. Jeff is immediate-past JHS Vice-President and has chaired, or served on, most of JHS’s committees during his time on the board. Recently he took on the role as Co-Chair of JHS’s Strategic Planning committee.

Jeff grew up in Tampa, and is a 1973 graduate of the University of Florida. A career move brought him to Jacksonville in 1977, and he has resided in the Avondale area of the city since 1983. Now retired, Jeff spent his career in various aspects of banking, commercial real estate management and sales.

Most recently, he was a Senior Vice President at Hobbs Madison, a Boston based financial services consulting firm. Prior to that, he worked for a few years with Murphy Land and Retail Services, a Jacksonville based commercial real estate firm specializing in the brokerage of properties for retail entities.

Earlier in his career, Jeff was President of Real Property Solutions Group, a local consulting company that specialized in delivering tailored real estate solutions to new and emerging businesses. Jeff spent the majority of his career with Barnett Banks, and its successor, Bank of America, where he held strategic planning, retail product management, real estate management, and branch office network planning positions.

Jeff’s community service experience includes membership on the Riverside Avondale Preservation (RAP) board where, in his term as Vice Chair, he was part of a team that developed RAP’s first strategic plan. In addition, he headed RAP’s Governance Committee which guided board building and education as well as the development of RAP’s Policies and Procedures. He was also involved with the creation of RAP’s sister organization, the Riverside Arts Market.

Jeff and his wife, Kathy, are the parents of two grown sons who continue to live in Jacksonville. When not busy with their volunteer commitments locally, they enjoy spending time in their summer home in the mountains of western North Carolina.

June 10, 1927: The 50th and final commencement of Duval High School is held on this day. Schools set to open to replace Duval High were Jackson, Lee, and Landon.

Duval High School, founded in 1875, was the first public school in Florida to offer courses beyond the elementary grades. The building, located at Liberty Street and Church Street, was constructed in 1877, until 1901 when the school was destroyed in the Great Fire.

The school was then housed at the LaVilla Grammar School and then at Central Grammar until 1908 when a new school building was constructed on the east side of Ocean Street, between Beaver Street and Ashley Street. This building remained Duval High School's home for the next 19 years.

Two annexes were added to the original school building to meet growing attendance needs. The north (Beaver Street) annex was completed in January 1920, and the south (Ashley Street) annex was completed in February 1922.

In 1977, the building was sold to the Ida M. Stevens Foundation. Architect Ted Pappas redesigned the building at the cost of $1,700,00, and converted it to fifty-two apartments for the elderly.

June 17, 1871: James Weldon Johnson was born in Jacksonville’s LaVilla neighborhood and embraced learning early on. His mother read the classics aloud to James and his brother, Rosamond. Both boys showed musical talent at an early age, playing a variety of instruments. He was appointed principal of Stanton School at the remarkably young age of 23, and was the first African American lawyer admitted to the Florida Bar post Reconstruction.

Only days after the city’s Great Fire of 1901, Johnson agreed to meet with an out of town female reporter to discuss the fire’s aftermath. Nearly losing his life to an enraged mob that deemed the meeting improper, Johnson realized it was time to leave the city. Yet his affection for Jacksonville was steadfast; he promised the newly elected mayor, Duncan Fletcher, to assist the devastated city. After settling in New York, he arranged a benefit that raised thousands for the ravaged Jacksonville.

Johnson wrote hundreds of songs, including the Negro National Anthem, Lift Every Voice and Sing. He received a diplomatic appointment by President Theodore Roosevelt and tirelessly directed the earliest years of the NAACP. A special legacy for his hometown is his autobiography, Along this Way, offering an extraordinary examination of the city. Jacksonville’s native son was the consummate Renaissance man…a lawyer, educator, civil rights reformer, poet, lyricist, novelist, and teacher.

June 30, 1564: Construction of Fort Caroline by Rene de Laudonniere and the French Huguenots begins on this day.

Fort Caroline was built in the form of a triangle, its base along the river front and its apex drawing toward the south. The westerly side was enclosed by a trench and raised by trusses made in the form of a battlement nine feet high.

Laudonniere named the fort, Caroline, in honor of King Charles,who at at the time was only a boy.

--History of Jacksonville, Florida and Vincinity, 1513 to 1924