History

• The St. James Hotel, accommodating 500 guests and called the most famous hotel in the South, once stood on the site of the new city hall. Opened in 1869, it hosted presidents, royalty, and thousands of winter tourists over three decades. The wooden building was destroyed in the 1901 fire.
  
  
• The St. James reopened on October 21, 1912, after renovations lead by architect Henry John Klutho for Cohen department stores. Two orchestras and more than 28,000 people showed up. They saw the terra cotta pilaster capitals, the magnificent atrium, and -- atop the atrium -- a two-ton chandelier, the second largest in the nation.
  
  
• Generations of Jacksonville residents enjoyed gazing at the window displays of the St. James' most famous occupant this century, Cohen's department store. In its heyday, people brought their families here to shop and to look at the moving Christmas decorations.
  
  
• In addition to Cohen's department stores, offices for doctors, attorneys, and other professionals were located in the St. James Building.
  
  
• Hemming Plaza was originally City Park, a public square set aside by town founder Isaiah Hart. His executors gave the property to the city in 1866. When the St. James Hotel was built, the square was renamed St. James Park. The name was changed again in 1898 when Civil War veteran Charles Hemming donated the monument which still stands today.
  
  
• The St. James building closed in 1987. The City Council agreed to buy the structure in 1993.
  
  
• It has been on the National Register of Historic Places since 1976.

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