The Ambassador Hotel originally opened in 1924 as the first upscale apartments in downtown Jacksonville by the name of 310 West Church Street Apartments. Later in 1944 it was converted into a hotel and renamed Three-Ten Hotel. Over the next decade the building did not change much besides the many short lived names adorning the front and side. Only 3 years later in 1947 the Three-Ten Hotel was renamed yet again to Hotel Southland only to be changed again in 1949 to The Griner (shudders at that horrid name) and finally The Ambassador Hotel in 1955. No one knows exactly when this upscale hotel's residents fled and it started to cater to the rent by the week for $80 low income group but most seem to think it was later in its life as The Ambassador which does not seem to fit the character of such a name or building. This six story brick and limestone Georgian Revival style building was created in an H pattern which gave every room a large window view while still being able to house about 110 residents. In 1983 it was added to the National Register of Historic Buildings but it was still headed down an ugly path of dilapidation with code enforcement on the owners back and multiple drug busts and raids scaring its name. In 1997 the residents received notice that the building was no longer in code and that it would have to be fixed in order to remain open. Every single room had a sticker with the date of condemnation on it and all the still readable ones had 7-11-97 or 11-13-97. Soon after in 1998 the building was condemned and closed up. In 2005 plans had been announced to remodel The Ambassador hotel which got put on hold along with the nearby courthouse plans. In 2009 plans got released to change the hotel into "The Ambassador Lofts" which would consist of 50 apartments and some retail space. The plans estimate an $8 million dollar price tag half of which the prospective owner can acquire and the rest he is hoping for city or government help with in the form of grants and low interest loans. Right now he remains hopeful that the project could start within two months and be completed in only a year.

Thanks to artefact_redux, sekhmei, and positivity23 for coming with me and driving me there.

All 124 full size pictures here. http://www.flickr.com/photos/433791.....7622544797826/ The last 41 pix are from my last trip

All of my previous sets are here http://www.flickr.com/photos/48912544@N00/sets/

I could not afford to go pro on my first flickr so i had to get a second which is almost full as well <.< ugh If anyone wants to donate toward getting one my paypal is douglas5 at comcast.net or http://www.flickr.com/gift