Kingsley Plantation: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve, National Park Service

The Jaeger Company

Kingsley Plantation is a cultural landscape located completely within the boundary of the Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve and within the city limits of Jacksonville, Florida, approximately twenty-three (23) miles east of downtown. The fifty-eight (58) acre site encompasses a former plantation house, support buildings and slave quarters that were constructed during the site’s primary agricultural use period. These structures, located on the northwestern tip of Fort George Island, are believed to have formed the nucleus of the antebellum plantation activities of the island. The site also includes buildings and features from the site’s period of recreational and resort era development, as well as modern improvements. The original plantation estate encompassed the whole of Fort George Island—an area of approximately 1,040 acres—that is herein referred to as the Historic Context Area. Of the over 1000 acres of the original plantation estate, the National Park Service manages approximately fifty eight (58) acres on the most northwestern part of the island; this area is herein referred to as the NPS-managed property. The focus of this study is an approximately twenty (20) acre site within the NPS-managed property that includes the plantation and recreation-era structures and landscape features of the site. This area will be referred to herein as the Core Area. Characteristics within the Core Area that convey a sense of the history of the events and individuals that shaped the land and contribute to its potential significance include structures, a circulation system, and vegetation. There are thirty standing structures that are considered contributing to the significance of the historic landscape. The plantation era home (Main House) is located on the bank of the Fort George River, facing north over the marshes and tidal waterways. Associated buildings include the kitchen building (Kitchen House), barn (Barn or Tabby Barn), and two wells. Located approximately 1,000 feet south of the Main House are the remains of twenty-five of an original thirty-six slave quarters (Slave Cabins). The Slave Cabins are constructed of tabby and are arranged in an arc, or crescent, that opens towards the Main House. The surviving Fort George Club Clubhouse and bungalow are two structures within the landscape that are associated with the twentieth century recreational/resort development on the island. The existing pump house is non-historic. Currently, the contributing plantation-era structures are used for interpretation and the clubhouse for staff housing and offices. The bungalow is unoccupied. The primary focus of interpretation on the site is the plantation era from 1760 to 1895. The extant elements of the circulation system retain a high degree of historic integrity and contribute to an understanding of the historic spatial organization and use of the island. Contributing circulation features include Palmetto Avenue, an allée of eastern red cedars marking the original location of Palmetto Avenue, two allées of palm trees denoting historic paths. Non-contributing circulation features include the visitor parking lot, the newly-constructed dock, a bulkhead along the river, and the modern network of roads and temporary walkways used for access to the property. The vegetation immediately surrounding the Main House is manicured in appearance and is dominated by regularly mown grasses and scattered mature deciduous and evergreen trees. There are few foundation plantings and very few flowering species of trees or shrubs. Vegetation is cleared from the area immediately surrounding the Slave Cabins, but views from the Main House to the Slave Cabins are blocked by successional woodland growth.

Kingsley Plantation: Cultural Landscape Inventory, Timucuan Ecological and Historic Preserve, National Park Service

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