The Whetstonian: Ordinance before City Council protects 'masterpiece of outsider art'

A pair of buildings that a late LaVilla folk artist turned into his eclectic version of the Smithsonian Institution would be protected as historic landmarks under legislation advancing through Jacksonville City Council.

The Whetstonian Building at 801 N. Jefferson St. and the neighboring Atlanta Life Insurance Co. Building at 821 N. Jefferson St. would be designated as city landmarks under Ordinance 2024-0771 and Ordinance 2024-0772.

The buildings were purchased in 1998 by Walter Whetstone, a Jacksonville native who rose from being a Western Union bicycle messenger in his youth to a Gulf Life Insurance Co. agent who was inducted into the company's hall of fame.

Whetstone collected antiques, artifacts and art, some of it salvaged and some purchased from thrift shops, garage sales, etc. He used the buildings to display them.

Local historian Tim Gilmore inventoried some of Whetstone's collection in a 2012 post on his website, Jax Pyscho Geo.

"Hats. Clocks. Neon beer signs. Dark brick and frosted glass cubes and green paint and copper. On outside balconies hang mannequin arms. In windows hang wagon wheels. Against the brick walls, welcome signs accompany succulents in pots and chairs. Mr. Whetstone sits just inside the fence he built. He doesn't know you, but he says, 'Come on in,'" Gilmore wrote.

Whetstone coined the name for the building, Gilmore reported.

"He says if (James) Smithson can have his Smithsonian, then he can have his Whetstonian," he said.

Downtown commuters and Jacksonville Jaguars fans who take Union Street off of Interstate 95 to work and games are likely to recognize the buildings. The Whetstonion sits at northeast Eighth and Jefferson streets.

Whetstone died in 2018. His wife, Dorothy, sought the landmark designation through an agent, Amon D. Whetstone.

On Sept. 11, the Jacksonville Historic Preservation Commission recommended approval of the ordinances. The ordinances were introduced to the City Council on Sept. 24.

Planning and Development Department staff reports state that besides being home to Whetstone's collection, the buildings are among a cluster of structures that "reflect the once vibrant commercial and institutional uses found in this part" of LaVilla. The neighborhood was largely razed in the 1990s in the name of urban redevelopment.

Businesses that operated in the Whetstonian building through the 1970s included grocery stores, restaurants, a pharmacy, a TV shop and an investment company. By the late 1980s, the building had been condemned and was slated for demolition when Whetstone bought it.

According to the staff report, the mid-century modern-style Atlanta Life Insurance Co. Building was built in 1965 from a design by Jacksonville architect Emilio Zeller III.

"Originating from the Atlanta Benevolent and Protective Association formed in 1905, the Atlanta Life Insurance Company was founded in 1922 by former slave, Alonzo Herndon, who became Atlanta's most wealthy African American," the report states. "As part of their expansion into other states, the Atlanta Life Insurance Company acquired Jacksonville based, Afro-American Life Insurance Company in the 1990s."

If approved, the ordinances would require that any alternations, additions, new construction, relocation and demolition that would be visible from the public right-of-way would be subject to approval by the Jacksonville Historic Preservation Commission.

Gilmore called the Whetstonian "a masterpiece of outsider art." He described an outsider artist as one with "no formal art education or training who produce works for the sake of expressing their creativity rather than necessarily for money or fame."

"Elephants and ceiling fans hang from its balconies. Lions and welcome signs grow from its sidewalks. Ghosts from every year of these buildings' history clutter its walls. I'm sorry to be only a poor pilgrim who has walked across and through the Whetstonian. Though the artist does not seek it, the Whetstonian has the right of every preservation the world can offer him," he wrote.

The ordinances went before Council for a public hearing on Oct. 22. No one spoke, although Dorothy Whetstone filed a card stating she was in support of the legislation. A public hearing on the ordinance is scheduled Nov. 6 before the Council Land Use and Zoning Committee.