Vintage Times-Union: Oceanfront Hanna Park and the Bold New City of the South

Matt Soergel, Florida Times-Union
·2 min read
Beachgoers crowd Hanna Park in the summer of 1974, before driving was banned on the sand.
Beachgoers crowd Hanna Park in the summer of 1974, before driving was banned on the sand.

Fans of Jacksonville's Kathryn Abbey Hanna Park sometimes wonder out loud how many U.S. municipalities would envy such an oceanfront refuge within their city limits.

But they already know the answer: All of them.

How the park came to be: A small gift leads to big Hanna Park

Hanna Park has been largely left to nature, as this 2007 aerial photo shows.
Hanna Park has been largely left to nature, as this 2007 aerial photo shows.

Hanna's 450 acres has a big stretch of wild beach with high dunes, deep forests, a lake, a park for kids, some fine camping, plenty of hiking trails and the area's best surfing and mountain-bike trails.

And this is a pretty good time of year to check all that out.

Manhattan Beach: A resort for African Americans, once flourished in Hanna Park dunes

Segregated Jacksonville: New marker helps restore history of Manhattan Beach

In 1927 Mack Wilson's pavilion was a central feature in Manhattan Beach, a segregated resort for Black beachgoers where Hanna Park is now.
In 1927 Mack Wilson's pavilion was a central feature in Manhattan Beach, a segregated resort for Black beachgoers where Hanna Park is now.

For several decades, starting about 1901, part of what's now Hanna became Manhattan Beach, a refuge for Black beach-goers in segregated Northeast Florida. It was a bustling place that included pavilions and boardwalks, swimsuit rentals, concessions and vacation homes. By the mid-1930s it was mostly gone.

During World War II, as Naval Station Mayport was developed to the north, artillery units manned big guns in the dunes.

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Campsites at Hanna Park got so popular that some people stayed and stayed ... and stayed. One newspaper story told of two women from New York who had lived at the campground for 20 months, so long that they planted small gardens and provided daycare, art classes and church services. This 1982 photo, meanwhile, shows a woman and her 16-month-old daughter who'd lived in the park for more than a year. Time limits were eventually put in place.

After that, it was mostly unpopulated, with a back road to the Navy base, driving and drinking on the beach and some wild times in the woods, no doubt.

Then in the late 1960s, consolidated Jacksonville, newly crowned the Bold New City of the South, actually took some bold steps and began buying up the land, which in the next several years began to take recognizable shape as today's Hanna.

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On Father's Day in 2004, Darryl Washington carries his daughter Nysich and niece GiGi Walker into the kids' splash park at Hanna.
On Father's Day in 2004, Darryl Washington carries his daughter Nysich and niece GiGi Walker into the kids' splash park at Hanna.

Of course, some developers and real estate people didn't like the idea and fought against it: Think of all the houses and golf courses that could go there.

Just be glad they lost that battle.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville's oceanfront park, Hanna Park, was work of Bold New City