Spotlighting 2024 SMPS Beautification Award Winner:
1939 Hendricks Ave.

1939 Hendricks Ave. has lived in infamy by several names, and serves an important role in Jacksonville’s history. The SMPS seeks to preserve our neighborhood’s history, and tell its story.

Constructed in 1952, the nearly 11,000 square foot, two-story building sits on a lot of slightly more than 20,000 square feet. It was built for the Peninsular Life Insurance Co. The building was designed by W. Kenyon Drake, engineer, and constructed by G. A. Auchter, Sr. with the George D. Auchter Company. 

For more than 40 years, the building served as a bathhouse, primarily serving a gay, bisexual, and transgender clientele. It first opened in 1973 as Roman Spa, a spa and gym owned by Gary Causey, Fred Rhoden, and Edward Olson. Charles Deskin purchased the spa in 1979 and the business became Club Jacksonville (a.k.a. Club Jax), which operated until early 2019.

Communal bathhouses were common throughout world history, but fell out of favor when showers and baths became standard features in American homes fitness clubs. Membership-only social clubs remained popular in LBGTQ+ communities around the world through the 20th century. 

During its four decades of existence, Club Jacksonville served as a safe place for men to meet at a time when being out came with huge social stigma and even personal danger. Today, as societal acceptance of homosexuality has become broader and the internet has made LGBTQ+ dating easier, institutions like the bathhouses and so-called gay bars that once provided safe haven for the LBGTQ+ communities have declined. Club Jax fell victim to this trend; with its membership base declining, it finally closed in 2019 due to compounding code citations stemming from long-neglected deferred maintenance.

A former patron claimed that when it closed, it was the longest-running bath house in the United States. And although the club and the concept outlived their usefulness, the site itself is historically significant to the LGBTQ+ community in Jacksonville. 

In 2021, plans evolved to develop the 70-year-old San Marco property for lease to part-owner and local San Marco business Group 4 Design. Group 4 principals Karie Kovacocy, Leigh Gunn, and Jamie Jaxon were 50-50 partners in the property with project developer Bill Ware. Urban Partners Construction was the General Contractor and Talia Wyns was the Project Manager. Ware renovated the two-story building into Class A office space, restoring its mid-century modern architecture by preserving the 12-inch shell of brick and clay blocks, concrete slab floors, and original beams and columns. They kept the existing exterior openings to the building. The only new opening created in the renovations was an exit door between the first and second floors in the back stairwell. There were no windows visible when the work began, because they had all been boarded and covered with stucco during the building’s use as a bathhouse. Those windows were restored and new glass installed, allowing natural light to flow into the two second-floor work studios. Group 4 Design added about 800 square feet for bathrooms on the first and second floors near the back of the building.

Towards the back of the building on the first floor is the “Rainbow Room.” It’s a bathroom with a small shower tiled in a rainbow sequence. It not only comes in handy for employees, but is a nod to both Jacksonville’s LGBTQ+ community and the important role the building played in its history.

Construction took place in 2022, Group 4 Design moved into its new office space in February 2023, and the entire 1939 team was recognized with an SMPS Beautification Award at its annual meeting in 2024.

Congratulations to Bill Ware and Group 4 Design on this magnificent restoration of an historic space.

Photos by Group 4 Design & C2 Design Group