It is likely most people following “Florida Frontiers”, and hence reading this “Extra”, are of an age to remember, and perhaps miss, printed telephone directories. It might even be a bit disheartening to see them in the collection of a historical society.

  Familiarity with the phone books’ predecessors, the city directories, might be a bit more specialized. They are a well known source for buffs of local history and genealogy, offering names and addresses of residents both rich and poor and details about local businesses, city officials and local history well beyond what was ever included in a typical phonebook:

  Take a close-up look at this close-up look.

   This passage from an 1886 Jacksonville City Directory provides a firsthand account of daily life in the city, at least for the well-to-do tourists.

  This well-worn copy is the oldest Florida directory in the Library of Florida History’s collection. Webb Corporation began publishing in 1876, issuing a new book every two years. You might see the title on the spine says “Jacksonville and Consolidated.” It is consolidated, all right. It basically covers the entire state.

  Why is it centered on Jacksonville? It was the happening place in the state back then. Now, looking at the modern TV markets for example, Jacksonville might almost be considered an ‘also ran’: Tampa/St. Pete/Sarasota is the 11^th largest in the country, Miami/Fort Lauderdale is 16^th, Orlando/Melbourne/Daytona is 18^th. Even West Palm Beach/Fort Pierce is bigger at 37^th, than Jacksonville which comes in at 42^nd, bracketed by Harrisburg, PA and Birmingham, AL.

  Ah, but back then it was a contender.  What began as a cow ford on the St. John’s River was a fishing Mecca, a shipping center, a rail hub and the gateway to the commerce and tourist destinations of central and south Florida for businesses and travelers from the Eastern and Mid Western parts of the U.S. By 1880 it boasted, are you ready, about three thousand permanent residents.

  So Jacksonville was THE place to go if you wanted anything special, which was basically anything you could not grow or make yourself. It was home to the businesses which wanted to reach customers all over the state, so a publication that reached those customers directly was a great place to advertise.

  What could be of more interest than a big thick book that not only had information about my town, even if it was basically a little suburb up along the St. John’s...

... or, even better, had my name and address in it?

  Really, who among us did not check out our own listing when the phone book landed by our door?