W.P. Sumner Company

W.P. Sumner Company

Once part of Jacksonville’s Ward Street red-light district, this brick structure was constructed in 1910 for the W. P. Sumner Company. The company was first founded in 1887 by William and Alberta Sumner as a grocery store mainly dealing with butter and cheese. When William died in 1900, their son Charles took over the business. On May 3, 1903, Sumner’s business, along with over 2,360 buildings, was destroyed during the Great Fire of 1901.

The W.P. Sumner Company reopened on Laura Street, where it quickly grew, leading to the need for a larger facility. This is when the four-story brick building on Ward Street would be constructed. Sumner operated a six-ton ice plant on the first floor; the second floor was used for cold storage, and the third and fourth floors were used for dry storage. While the manufacturing operations were located in the four-story structure, the retail business was done through the connected single-story building. Charles Sumner died in 1915, and the business ceased operations as well.

Jefferson Richard Berrier

Several small businesses occupied the buildings until 1920, when the J.R. Berrier Ice Cream Company took over. By this time, Ward Street had been renamed Houston Street, and the city’s red-light district was now filled with retail stores and wholesale businesses.

Jefferson Richard Berrier had a sketchy history, both as a businessman and as a person. He operated his ice cream company until 1929, when he sold the business to Foremost Dairies. He returned to the ice cream business in the late-1930s, operating a company in Jacksonville and another in Richmond, Virginia. While setting up the company in Virginia, Berrier’s brother was accidentally electrocuted when testing the switchboard that was being installed, killing him. Berrier refused to pay out his late brother’s workmen’s compensation to his wife.

In the early 1950s, with nearly one hundred accounts, Berrier decided the ice cream business wasn’t profitable anymore and stopped delivering to those accounts. This resulted in the loss of only a handful of accounts willing to pick up their goods from the plant. When questioned by the Federal Trade Commission, he claimed his business had declined due to competition from larger companies such as Velda Farms, Foremost, and the now-defunct Borden. He later recanted his statement and explained he was out of town too much to take care of his business properly.

Even though he was no longer in the ice cream business, Berrier continued to operate soda fountains in various locations in Jacksonville. In 1961, his business was picketed by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) due to his refusal to hire any African American girls as waitresses. The picketing ended when a judge declared it unlawful, as it was accompanied by threats and intimidation of customers.

Later Tenants

Back in 1924, Berrier moved out of the Forysth Street building, and Gray-VonAllmen Sanitary Milk Company moved in. The building was once again vacated during the Great Depression and sat empty until the Cunningham Furniture Company began using it for shipping its products. Cunningham Furniture Company was once one of the largest home furnishing businesses in the Southeast and Florida’s oldest furniture company. In 1936, Galinsky Plumbing would be the building’s next tenant, using it to store supplies and plumbing fixtures, and would operate out of there until the business’ closure in 1983.

The 1980s saw several restaurants come and go until 1992, when JoAnn’s Chili Bordello opened. JoAnn’s Chili Bordello was a small restaurant chain founded by Leonard Doctors and JoAnn Perschel. The restaurant was kinda like Hooters, except instead of being a sports bar, it was made to look like an old-fashioned bordello with red velvet, crystal chandeliers, waitresses dressed up in French Corsets and garter belts, and the motto “seventeen varieties of chili served in an atmosphere of sin.”

With a history like this, along with the area’s former history of being a red-light district, it’s not surprising that this building is commonly thought of as an actual bordello in the past. In that regard, it’s interesting to note that the original location on Atlantic Boulevard was a strip club before and after the restaurant’s establishment.

JoAnn’s Chili Bordello operated until 2000, when it was occupied by several bars, such as the Sinclair and the Voodoo Lounge. Although plans were to turn the former W.P. Sumner Company building into another bar, the building has sat empty since 2012.

You can read about the W.P. Sumner Company and many other abandoned places in my books, Abandoned Jacksonville: Remnants of the River City and Abandoned Jacksonville: Ruins of the First Coast.

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