San Marco is a small and peaceful riverfront neighborhood with a number of hip bars, bistros, and shops. It’s the laid-back lifestyle that makes this historic district so desirable to city dwellers.
At sunset, the city lights up behind the historic mansions that line the riverfront in San Marco. San Marco is a great place to visit if you like Mediterranean and Italian architecture.
The neighborhood’s association with Venice, Italy makes it the site of the country’s central business district. Visit San Marco Square, the neighborhood’s epicenter, which features a fountain, art galleries, and cocktail bars.
The community of San Marco is widely considered to be one of the safest in all of Jacksonville. It’s a residential area outside of the city with all the advantages of a suburban one.
The area around San Marco Square is primarily a commercial area. At the crossroads of Atlantic Boulevard, Hendricks Avenue, and San Marco Boulevard is a triangular neighborhood that was once marked by a tiered fountain in the square’s plaza.
In 1927, the San Marco Building, a Mediterranean Revival structure, was completed and set the architectural tone for the district’s commercial buildings to follow. The Little Theatre, which is home to Theatre Jacksonville, one of the country’s oldest community theater troupes, is also located on the square. The San Marco Theatre is a single-screen art deco movie theater that opened in 1938.
While originally intended to be San Marco’s commercial hub, the square’s fortunes had fallen dramatically by the 1970s. There is no trace of the former fountain, which featured a compass, now that it has been destroyed. The city of Jacksonville, FL, undertook a major renovation and streetscaping project in the 1990s, during which time the Piazza San Marco-style fountain with its three lion statues was restored. Ever since then, the square’s abundance of shops, restaurants, and bars has made it a bustling commercial hub. The streets were rearranged and the central park, now called Balis Park, was enlarged as part of a 2013 renovation project.
San Marco is home to a number of parks that range in size and function; the San Marco Preservation Society counts fourteen such spaces within the neighborhood. Both Friendship Fountain Park and Treaty Oak Park can be found in the Southbank neighborhood, with the former housing one of the oldest live oak trees in Jacksonville.
The Southbank Riverwalk and the Museum of Science and History (MOSH) are two other attractions in the area. There are two public schools (elementary and middle) and a public library (Southside Branch) that serve the community of San Marco. The San Marco Preservation Society has completed two major restoration projects: the conversion of the former St. Paul’s Episcopal Church into Preservation Hall, a reservable banquet hall, and the restoration of the former South Jacksonville City Hall as the society’s headquarters.
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