Kathryn Hanna Abbey Park of the City of Jacksonville in Florida is a surviving piece of the forest that used to be, the coastal hammock, meaning that the old forest has sustained growth over generations on sandy higher ground near the ocean. This cathedral-like scene in the 447 acre park shows the predominance of palms, many tall and some bush-like and low, and live oak with the familiar spanish moss. Below is a pond on the road to the campground with a layer of aquatic algae.
The park includes almost two miles of Atlantic ocean shoreline and a large lake. The cool shade of its seemingly ancient jungle-like forest contrasting with the ocean beach and lake areas. Florida’s coast is so heavily residential that it is a lovely change to have a park like this within a short foot-path of an ocean, lake, swamp and creek.
The historian (1953-63), Kathryn Abbey Hanna actively sought to protect wild lands and natural eco-systems from the predation of development in Florida. An environmentalist before it was popular to be so, she wrote books such as Florida, Land of Change and, together with her husband, Alfred Jackson Hanna, Florida’s Golden Sands, Lake Okeechobee: Wellspring of the Everglades, as well as Confederate Exiles in Venezuela, also Napoleon III and Mexico: American Triumph over Monarchy. The Jacksonville Historical Society has a useful article on her contribution. As the head of the Board of State Parks from 1953-63 she was instrumental in preserving the 447 acres that constitute the park and carry her name.
A little less than 100 years ago, parking was permitted here at Jacksonville Beach, Florida, the Finest Beach in the World in 1928.