Category: Places/Travel

Recently had the opportunity to visit the Western Wall.

~ Tim Jeffers ~ 1 Comment

Western Wall, Hebrew Ha-Kotel Ha-Maʿaravi, also called Wailing Wall, in the Old City of Jerusalem, a place of prayer and pilgrimage sacred to the Jewish people. It is the only remains of the Second Temple of Jerusalem, held to be uniquely holy by the ancient Jews and destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE. The authenticity of the Western Wall has been confirmed by tradition, history, and archaeological research; the wall dates from about the 2nd century BCE, though its upper sections were added at a later date.

Norman Laboratories

~ Tim Jeffers

In the early 1900s, Jacksonville Florida was a busy spot for silent movie-making because it was too snowy in the northern states to work all year long. There is still one studio building standing from those days.

Norman Studios was the only one that filmed silent movies with all Black/African-American casts, in real-life-type roles instead of the stereotypical roles for Blacks that were filmed back then.

The Studios were recently placed on the National Register of Historic Places. A local support organization is raising money to restore the inside as well. There are fundraising silent movie public screenings with a live band accompanying the film, the way it used to be done in the 1920s.

Florida Rail Road Museum

~ Tim Jeffers ~ 2 Comments

The Florida Railroad Museum, Inc. was founded as The Florida Gulf Coast Railroad Museum with the stated goal of preserving Florida’s railroad history. Over the years, the Museum has aquired and restored rolling stock and equipment to operate for the public’s enjoyment. We hope our visitors appreciate the sights and sounds of Florida railroading as it existed in the 1940s and 1950s.

Treaty Oak

~ Tim Jeffers ~ 3 Comments

The Treaty Oak is an octopus-like Southern live oak (Quercus virginiana) in Jacksonville, Florida. The tree is estimated to be 250 years old and may be the single oldest living thing in Jacksonville, predating the founding of the city by Isaiah Hart during the 1820s. It is located in Treaty Oak Park in the Southbank area of Downtown Jacksonville.

The name’s origin is generally believed to be related to some local apocryphal stories about peace accords between Native Americans and Spanish or American settlers signed under its branches. In reality, the name was created by the Florida Times-Union journalist Pat Moran who, in an attempt to rescue it from destruction by developers, wrote an article in the early 1930s claiming a treaty had been signed at the site by native Floridians and early settlers and called it Treaty Oak. Prior to that, the tree was known simply as Giant Oak.