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Fire lookout · Duval County, Florida

Southside Forestry Fire Lookout

Also known as Southside

Aermotor tower moved to Jacksonville's Forestry Tower Park in 1938; fire lookout until 1992; standing and not open to the public.

Closed

The site is closed to visitors. Register says the tower is not open to the public. The surrounding grounds are a city park.

Visit & stay

Not rentable. As far as we know, this lookout cannot be booked for overnight stays.

Access

Closed. See the warning at the top of this page.

Can you climb it?
No
Road to the top?
Yes, you can drive up
Staffing
Unknown

Facts

Status
Standing
Type
Cab on a tower100-foot Aermotor steel tower (register); Weebly describes a 100-foot steel towerThe design: Aermotor
Built of
Steel
Built
Unknown
Height
100 ft (30.5 m)
Elevation
59 ft (18 m)
Agency
City of Jacksonville
Land
Unknown
Location
Duval County, Florida
Coordinates
30.28625, −81.54330
This entry
VerifiedResearched, then checked independently. Updated 8 Oct 2026.
Firefinder id
us-fl-southside-forestry

View from the cab

What you see from the cab: every ridge out to about 93 miles, the named peaks in sight, and other fire lookouts within view, worked out from terrain data in your browser.

Downloads about 3.2 MB of terrain data the first time.

Or see what it could see on the map: the ground in its line of sight.

History

Then and now

  1. 1938 MovedMoved to the present site (register, park history). Weebly says erected by the CCC; the Florida chapter report says re-erected there.Sources: nhlr.org, jacksonville.gov, easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  2. No record between 1938 and 1959
  3. 1959 EventRenamed Southside Fire Tower (park history; blog says late 1950s). The register gives 1938 for the rename.Sources: jacksonville.gov, jaxpsychogeo.com, nhlr.org
  4. No record between 1959 and 1992
  5. 1992 ClosedDivision of Forestry closed the operationSource: jacksonville.gov
  6. 1992 Last staffedLast year the tower was used as a fire detection facilitySource: easternuslookouts.weebly.com
  7. 1996 EventDesignated a local landmark after residents and neighborhood associations pushed for protectionSource: jacksonville.gov
  8. 1997 EventCity bought the tract for a parkSource: jacksonville.gov
  9. No record between 1997 and 2015
  10. 2015 Added to the National Historic Lookout RegisterRegistered March 16, 2015; nominated by Bob SpearSource: nhlr.org
  11. TodayStandingIt still stands, as far as our sources know.

Old maps of this spot

USGS topographic maps from the years a lookout stood may show it, often as a small symbol labelled “Lookout”. See the old topo maps around it on the Firefinder map, or find every scanned sheet of this spot on USGS TopoView (click the spot there to list them, with dates and downloads).

Story

Researched 8 Oct 2026, fact-checked.

Southside Forestry Fire Lookout is a 100-foot Aermotor steel tower in Forestry Tower Park, on Beach Boulevard in Jacksonville, Florida.1,2 It did not start on this spot.1 The register says the State of Florida first built it as the Flagler Fire Tower and later moved it to its present site.1 The city's park history says the Civilian Conservation Corps moved it there in 1938.2 A Weebly lookout site describes the Corps erecting a 100-foot steel tower in 1938, and the Florida chapter of the Forest Fire Lookout Association says it was re-erected on this site that year.3,4 A local history blog places the metal tower somewhere between the Depression and the late-1950s rename.5

The sources agree on the 1938 move but not on the rename. The register dates the rename to 1938, while the park history says 1959 and the blog says the late 1950s.1,2,5

The tower was used for fire detection until 1992.3 The Weebly site calls 1992 the last year it was used that way, and the park history says the Division of Forestry shut the operation down that year.3,2 The site also had a residence for the lookout, which later held mobile homes.2

Local residents and neighborhood associations pushed to protect the site, and it became a local landmark in 1996.2 The city bought the tract for a park in 1997.2 The register recorded the tower on March 16, 2015.1

The most recent dated sources, from 2015 and 2016, describe the tower as standing.1,3 The register says it remains in good shape, with its ladders and cab windows intact.1 As of 2016, the Weebly site calls the retired tower the focal point of the six-acre park.3 The register also says the tower is not open to the public.1 The grounds are a city park at 10430 Beach Blvd.2

  1. Southside Forestry Fire Lookout, National Historic Lookout Register, http://nhlr.org/lookouts/us/fl/southside-forestry-fire-lookout/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  2. Forestry Tower Park, JaxParks, City of Jacksonville, https://www.jacksonville.gov/departments/parks-and-recreation/jaxparks/all-parks/forestry-tower-park (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  3. Southside, FOREST LOOKOUTS, https://easternuslookouts.weebly.com/southside.html (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  4. Florida Chapter, Forest Fire Lookout Association Inc., https://firelookout.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/cr-fl-2015.pdf (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩
  5. Fire Tower, Beach Boulevard, Windy Hill, jaxpsychogeo (Tim Gilmore), https://jaxpsychogeo.com/south/fire-tower-beach-boulevard-windy-hill/ (accessed 2026-10-08). ↩

Photos

Photo of Southside Forestry Fire Lookout
Photo: Bob Spear, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source
Photo of Southside Forestry Fire Lookout
Photo: Bob Spear, via National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved · source

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Sources

  1. National Historic Lookout Register (NHLR) Gave us: name, location, county, elevation, type, what it is built of, status, register numbers, agency, dates, photos, links National Historic Lookout Register (nhlr.org) · All rights reserved (American Resources, Inc.); facts extracted only, no prose copied. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  2. FOREST LOOKOUTS -- eastern US (easternuslookouts.weebly.com) Gave us: height, links easternuslookouts.weebly.com · No licence stated; facts only (county, coordinates where the page's own map widget gives them, status, height, design hints, register links). The site's own historical quotes, newspaper citations and narrative are not reproduced. · retrieved 8 Oct 2026
  3. OpenStreetMap -- fire lookout structures Gave us: links © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL 1.0. (c) OpenStreetMap contributors. · retrieved 4 Oct 2026
  4. Firefinder research Gave us: summary, design, height, status, agency, access, visiting details, dates, links, fact-check Firefinder research (sources cited in the story footnotes) · Our own research notes; each fact cites its source in the lookout's story

More about this lookout elsewhere

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