Dyal-Upchurch Building, Chicago School architectural building in Jacksonville, Florida.
The Dyal-Upchurch Building is a six-story office structure in downtown Jacksonville located at East Bay Street. It displays the characteristic features of Chicago School architecture with large windows and a clear, functional design.
The building was constructed in 1902 and was among the first new structures after Jacksonville's Great Fire in 1901. It played an important role in the downtown reconstruction following this devastating disaster.
The building's name comes from the Dyal-Upchurch Investment Company, a Georgia firm that moved to Jacksonville after the 1901 fire; Frank Upchurch dealt in turpentine and lumber, Benjamin Dyal owned a sawmill. The company stopped operating in Jacksonville after 1924. The Atlantic National Bank opened on the ground floor in May 1902 and stayed until 1909.
The building stands at 4 East Bay Street, a corner site in downtown Jacksonville a short walk from the St. Johns River waterfront. It is an office building rather than a museum, so visitors see the exterior and lobby only during weekday business hours. The 1981 restoration and later work kept the six-story facade in use.
Author Stetson Kennedy worked from this building in the 1930s while operating under segregated conditions for a major documentation project. This connection reveals how important cultural work and difficult social realities coexisted in the city's past.
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