Jones Brothers Furniture Company

City/Town: • Jacksonville

Location Class: • Commercial

Built: • 1926 | Abandoned: • N/A

Status: • Under Renovation

Photojournalist: • David Bulit

Table of Contents

Jones Brothers Furniture Company

The Jones Brothers Furniture Company was founded in 1902, following the boom that occurred after the Great Fire of 1901. It was owned by brothers Washington Geiger and Michael K. Jones, who employed their younger brother Robert Lester Jones to work in the store. Up until the 1950s, Jones Brothers Furniture operated out of a building at 114 West Bay Street, which was later demolished in the 1960s.

Standard Furniture Building

By 1910, Robert Jones started a rival company, Standard Furniture. In 1926, he developed this building located at 520 Hogan Street, one story taller than his brothers’ six-story building, to house his prospering business. Designed by Jefferson D. Powell, the building was constructed out of reinforced concrete and features Mediterranean Revival detailing at its upper level, as well as originally having a suspended canopy over the main entrance. Other notable features include prism glass above the street-level entrance, the seventh-floor windows with their wrought-iron balconies and spiral columns, and a decorative wrought-iron staircase visible from inside the lobby.

Sometime in the 1950s, Jones’ sons purchased their uncle’s Jones Brothers Furniture Company and merged the two companies together, forming one of the largest family-owned businesses in the city. They kept the Jones Brothers name and continued operating out of the Hogan Street building.

Havertys — The original Jones Brothers Furniture Co. Building (later Haverty’s), on Main Street. W.B. Camp designed the building. It was demolished in the 1960s. *The Prairie School Traveler*

Advertisement in the September 11, 1942, issue of *The Southern Jewish Weekly*. Standard Furniture Company would become Jones Brothers Furniture Company in the 1950s.

Jefferson Davis Powell, the Architect

Jefferson Davis Powell was born in Decatur, Georgia, on December 3, 1891. Powell relocated to Jacksonville around 1907 to begin an architectural apprenticeship. After gaining experience with several local firms, he earned his state architectural license in 1919.

Following licensure, Powell joined the prominent Jacksonville firm of Benjamin and Greeley, led by Roy Benjamin and Mellen C. Greeley. He remained with the firm until its dissolution in 1924, after which he established his own independent practice—a career that spanned into the 1960s.

Powell’s contributions to Jacksonville’s built environment were substantial. In addition to the Jones Brothers Furniture Company Building, de designed the original section of Norwood Elementary School (1926), Old First Federal Savings and Loan Building (1940–41) at 331 West Forsyth Street; the YWCA Building (1950) at 325 East Duval Street; and the Ritz Theatre (1929) at 825 North Davis Street. In the Riverside-Avondale area, he designed several private residences including the Witschen Residence (1927) at 1822 Edgewood Avenue, the Bucci Residence (1926) at 1856 Edgewood Avenue, and the Max Knauer Residence (1928–29) at 3404 St. Johns Avenue, as well as the Fire Department Drill Tower (1936–37) at 625 Stockton Street.

His work also extended to Jacksonville Beach, where he designed the now-demolished City Hall and the Red Cross Life Saving Corps Station (1946–47) at 2 North Ocean Front. He was also responsible for the design of the Imeson Airport terminal (now demolished) and numerous elementary schools and fire stations throughout the city.

Powell was active in civic and professional circles, serving as president of both the Jacksonville City Planning and Advisory Board and the North Florida Chapter of the American Institute of Architects. He also served as supervising architect for the State Hotel Commission.

His architectural work spanned various popular styles of the early 20th century. For Norwood Elementary School, Powell employed a variation of the Colonial Revival style, drawing from the earlier Adam style, which was common from the 1780s to the 1840s. This influence is seen in the building’s symmetrical façade, decorative entryway, semi-circular fanlight over the main entrance, and the original use of divided-light sash windows.

1949 Sanborn Jones Brothers — 1949 Sanborn Insurance Map of Jacksonville, Florida. The building is labeled as Standard Furniture Company. *Library of Congress*

Future Plans for the Jones Brothers Furniture Building

The building, now empty and neglected, had previous plans to be converted into an office complex for attorneys frequenting the nearby courthouse. However, those plans never materialized. As of 2020, ACE JAX LLC, managed by Elias Hionides and Andy Allen from Atlantic Beach, aims to renovate the first floor into a residential lobby, a restaurant or coffee shop, and office spaces. The second floor will feature a fitness center, while the second through seventh floors will include one-bedroom apartment units of varying sizes.

You can read about the Jones Brothers Furniture Building and many other abandoned places in my books, Abandoned Jacksonville: Remnants of the River City and Abandoned Jacksonville: Ruins of the First Coast.