Lincoln Villas: How a Northwest Jacksonville subdivision offered land, homes, and independence

The useful part

THE JAXSON | Lincoln Villas: A community beyond the city By Ennis Davis Published on August 26, 2026 at 10:09 am Free local news and info, in your inbox at 6 a.m. At the intersection of New Kings Road and Moncrief Road in Northwest Jacksonville lies Lincoln Villas, a neighborhood whose quiet streets trace back to a time when this part of Duval County was still rural countryside. The establishment of Lincoln Villas A 1913 Lincoln Villas sales advertisement by the J.D.

How it works

• On March 23, 1964, 35-year-old Johnnie Mae Chappell, a mother of ten, was searching for a lost wallet along New Kings Road near her home when she was shot and killed by a white gunman.
• However, behind the traffic lies a neighborhood rooted in a much different landscape.
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• Its development reflects a larger story of landownership, self-sufficiency and suburban growth in what has ultimately become known as Northwest Jacksonville since the Jim Crow era.
• Louis, Missouri in 1876, Harnett moved to Mayport during the aftermath of the Great Fire of 1901 and was involved in the lumber industry before going into real estate.

What to take from it

Lots were offered on affordable monthly terms, with prospective buyers encouraged to build the kind of home they wanted while raising vegetables, fruit and chickens. Harnett's business, which was active until December 1936, focused on development of subdivisions for the Black community during segregation. Homesites initially sold for just $25, with terms of one dollar down and fifty cents a week.

Example or evidence

• The community developed during a period when Jacksonville's Black population was building institutions and neighborhoods both within and beyond the city's urban core.
• | Florida Times-Union More than a century ago, Lincoln Villas was promoted as a place where African American residents could purchase land, build homes and establish a measure of independence beyond the...
• | Ennis Davis More than simply an old subdivision, Lincoln Villas represents an important chapter in Jacksonville's history, a surviving reminder that during an era defined by exclusion, landownership...
• Quarter- and half-acre properties were offered along Moncrief Road, providing far more land than families could typically obtain in Jacksonville's densely developed urban neighborhoods.

Details worth keeping

As early as 1913, Lincoln Villas was being marketed by J.D. Harnett & Co, which was founded in August 1912 by James Dudley Harnett. From offices located on Broad Street in LaVilla, the company advertised the Lincoln Villas development as an "exclusive suburb," with Moncrief Avenue passing through the property and the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad expected to establish a nearby station.

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