JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – When you hear the word Durkeeville, you might immediately think of JP Small Stadium, where Hank Aaron played baseball and The New Stanton, but it’s also a community investing in its history and growing future generations.
In a map of Jacksonville in 1887, the border of the town was right near Durkeeville.
Durkeeville is steeped in rich history -- JP Small Field, beautiful brick homes, a Black-owned streetcar system, Emmett Reed Park, and Mount Herman Cemetery, where civil war troops rest in peace -- and bordered by the oldest HBCU in the state of Florida: Edward Waters University.
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Dana Michelle Maule is the founder of Northside Pride, and she’s one of many keeping the history alive.
“What I’ve done is try to amplify those stories through the work that we do with Northside Pride,” Maule said.
Maule has bike and walking tours through Durkeeville and other Northside communities.
“JP Small Stadium is where Hank Aaron broke the color lines in the minor leagues,” said Maule.
It’s the same community where the father of rock and roll, Little Richard, was singing in an unexpected place at Mount Ararat Baptist Church.
It’s the same community where a popular lunch spot, Durkeeville and Co., calls home.
The community is pursuing historical designation. A revitalization study was conducted with $250,000 from the city.
“And while it doesn’t have a legal historic designation, there are two sites that are on the National Register of Historic Places and those are the AKA House and Durkee Gardens. And Durkee Gardens is a public housing community,” said Maule.
The oldest public housing community in the state of Florida.
The AKA House is a Jeffersonian-style mansion, which is like the last remains of Sugar Hill, where 8th street and I-95 meet; where one of the most wealthy Black communities was destroyed for the interstate, which began the destabilization of the community.
Not far from where Sugar Hill once existed is a program that is bringing structure back.
MaliVai Washington attended the University of Michigan and pursued a professional tennis career; training brought him to Jacksonville.
His love for tennis overflowed into founding the MaliVai Washington Youth Foundation program in Durkeeville on West 6th Street.
It started out as a tennis program but has blossomed into a program that instills dignity and character.
“I wanted to try to introduce kids to the sport of tennis, let them experience what I was able to get from the sport now that I have been playing for 51 years. My hope was that they would grow,” said Washington.
And it has grown so much, children have become adults and now they are bringing their children to the same program.,
“I want to be an organization, and I think we are today, that 10, 20, 30 years from now, any of our supporters can drive through Durkeeville and say, ‘Wow, that program is still going,’” said Washington.
There is a new generation of people creating culture and character in Durkeeville for generations to come.