Gone but Not Forgotten: 8 Jacksonville Places We Still Miss, From the Landing to the Coliseum and Wolfson Park

Every city has places that live on mostly in memory. In Jacksonville, that list includes a riverfront mall, an arena where Elvis and Lynyrd Skynyrd played, a ballpark where the Suns played for four decades and a train station that greeted generations of travelers.

Here are eight Jacksonville places we still miss, what made them special and what's on the spot today.

At a glance

1. The Jacksonville Landing (1987-2019)

For three decades, the orange-roofed Landing was downtown's front porch on the St. Johns River.

Its end came in 2019. In February, the City Council voted 15-1 to approve an $18 million deal with the Landing's operator, Sleiman Enterprises, News4JAX reported. The deal broke down like this:

• $15 million to settle the city's lawsuits with Jacksonville Landing Investments
• $1.5 million to end the tenants' subleases
• $1.5 million for demolition and site work

Demolition contractor D.H. Griffin was tearing down the two-story, 178,838-square-foot building by December 2019, the Jacksonville Daily Record reported. By May 2020, News4JAX reported, the Landing was completely gone.

There now: the city has turned the site into a riverfront park.

2. The Jacksonville Coliseum (1960-2003)

If you saw a big concert in Jacksonville before 2003, you probably saw it here.

The Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Coliseum was dedicated Nov. 24, 1960, after two years of construction and $3 million, The Coastal's history of the city's arenas says. Its first event was the first hockey game ever played in Jacksonville.

Over four decades, the Coliseum was home to five pro hockey teams and two basketball teams, including the ABA's Floridians in the 1970s. It also hosted concert tours from Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley to Led Zeppelin and Lynyrd Skynyrd.

Performers came to dislike its acoustics, and its small size limited how much a show could earn.

The end: the Coliseum was imploded in 2003. It was replaced by the Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena, built for the Better Jacksonville Plan.

There now: VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena, the renamed version of that 2003 arena.

3. The old Gator Bowl (1928-1994)

Before the Jaguars, Jacksonville's big stadium grew one section at a time, NCAA.com's history of the Gator Bowl says:

• 1927-28: It was built as Fairfield Stadium, with 7,600 seats, mainly as the home field for three new high schools: Lee, Jackson and Landon.
• Jan. 1, 1946: The first Gator Bowl game was played there. Wake Forest beat South Carolina 26-14 in front of 7,362 fans.
• 1948: The stadium was expanded to 16,000 seats and renamed the Gator Bowl.

The end: demolition began right after the Jan. 1, 1994, Gator Bowl, to make way for a stadium built to NFL standards for the new Jaguars.

There now: EverBank Stadium, which opened Aug. 18, 1995. It's home to the Jaguars and the TaxSlayer Gator Bowl.

4. Wolfson Park (1955-2002)

For almost half a century, minor league baseball in Jacksonville meant Wolfson Park, near the stadium.

• Opened: March 16, 1955, with about 8,200 seats
• Named for: local team owner Samuel W. Wolfson
• Teams: the Jacksonville Braves (1955-1960), Jets (1961) and Suns (1962-1968 and 1970-2002)

The end: the park closed after the 2002 season, when the team moved to the new ballpark next door, today's VyStar Ballpark.

There now: the old ballpark site is used as practice fields for the Jaguars.

5. The Cohen Brothers department store downtown

For generations of Jacksonville shoppers, "going downtown" meant Cohen Brothers, later May Cohens, in the St. James Building at 117 W. Duval St.

The building was designed by Henry John Klutho, the architect who rebuilt much of downtown after the Great Fire of 1901. The National Register of Historic Places lists it as the Cohen Bros. Department Store and dates it to 1912.

There now: the store is gone, but the building survived. The State Archives of Florida notes that it's now Jacksonville City Hall. If you've been to a City Council meeting, you've been inside the old department store.

6. Regency Square Mall (indoor mall closed June 1, 2025)

Arlington's Regency Square was Jacksonville's big suburban mall for decades.

Newer shopping centers gradually pulled shoppers away, and the big stores left one by one. The mall's last two indoor tenants closed May 31, 2025, and the interior closed for good June 1, the Jacksonville Daily Record reported. Stores with their own outside entrances could stay open.

There now: Blackwater Development bought most of the mall property on April 9, 2025, and plans to redevelop it, the Daily Record reported. Dillard's, which owns its own building, runs a clearance center there.

7. The Haydon Burns Library (1965-2005)

This bold modern building was downtown's main public library for 40 years.

• Opened: November 1965, replacing the old Carnegie library
• Architect: Taylor Hardwick, who designed everything down to the furniture and graphics. The building is known for 88 concrete "fins" along its Ocean and Adams street walls.
• Named for: W. Haydon Burns, Jacksonville's mayor for 15 years, who later served two years as Florida's governor

The end: the library closed Sept. 3, 2005, when the main library moved to its current building on Laura Street.

There now: the Jessie Ball duPont Fund bought and restored the building. It reopened in 2015 as the Jessie Ball duPont Center, home to dozens of local nonprofits, the Jacksonville Daily Record reported.

8. The Jacksonville Terminal (1919-1974)

For decades, train travelers arriving in Jacksonville stepped off at the grand Jacksonville Terminal in LaVilla, designed by architect Kenneth M. Murchison.

The end: the terminal closed Jan. 3, 1974. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1976.

There now: the Prime F. Osborn III Convention Center, named for the former CSX leader who pushed to save the building. Osborn died in 1986, the year the convention center was completed, Visit Jacksonville says.

What we kept

Not every story here ends with a bulldozer. The St. James Building is City Hall, the Haydon Burns Library is a nonprofit center, and the Jacksonville Terminal is a convention center.

The places that were torn down left new ones behind: VyStar Arena, VyStar Ballpark and EverBank Stadium.

Quick answers

When was the Jacksonville Landing torn down?
Demolition was underway by December 2019. News4JAX reported the building was completely gone by May 2020.

When was the Jacksonville Coliseum torn down?
It was imploded in 2003, after the new Veterans Memorial Arena was built.

What happened to Regency Square Mall?
The indoor mall closed June 1, 2025. Blackwater Development bought most of the property and plans to redevelop it.

What is the old May Cohens building now?
Jacksonville City Hall, in the St. James Building at 117 W. Duval St.

What Jacksonville place do you miss most? Tell us at [email protected], and we may include it in a future story.

How we did this

Jax Times rebuilt this story on Oct. 24, 2026, from these sources:

• News coverage at the time: News4JAX, the Jacksonville Daily Record and Jacksonville Today.
• Official records: the State Archives of Florida and the National Register of Historic Places.
• Histories: NCAA.com's history of the Gator Bowl, The Coastal's history of the city's arenas and Visit Jacksonville.

Earlier versions of this story relied on Wikipedia and included two more places: the Jacksonville Tea Men soccer team and Durkee Field. We cut them because we couldn't confirm their details in these sources.