Neighborhoods of Jacksonville - Eastside

Eastside

Eastside, or East Jacksonville, is a residential neighborhood located directly to the east of Downtown and Springfield. Unlike the areas known as Northside, Westside, and Southside, Eastside does not comprise a large section of Duval County. Eastside contains Jacksonville's sports complex, including EverBank Field, Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena, and the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville.

The original East Jacksonville development was a small residential community located east of Jacksonville along the St. Johns River, which grew up shortly after the Civil War. Two other communities grew up around this time; Oakland and Fairfield. Oakland, located just north of East Jacksonville, was a working-class, largely African-American community. Fairfield was located farther east, along the northward bend of the river. Its attraction was as the location of Jacksonville's first Fairgrounds, which was the source of its name. These included a racetrack, the forerunner to Jacksonville's sports venues. Fairfield was incorporated as a city; in 1887 all three communities were among those annexed by Jacksonville. They soon grew into one continuous neighborhood.

The Eastside has remained the center of Jacksonville's annual Fair and sports complexes, as well as a center of industry in the city. As with other inner city neighborhoods across the United States it underwent precipitous decline since the mid-20th century. For many years, the commercial district on Florida Avenue (now A. Philip Randolph Boulevard) was a major neighborhood center. However, many of its shops were destroyed in a 1969 riot that started when a white cigarette salesman shot a black man he said was robbing his truck. Neither the Avenue nor the neighborhood has recovered, though in more recent times, the Eastside has been the center of urban renewal projects.