Guide to the George W. Simons, Jr. Planning Collection
Collection Number: M09-1
Title: George W. Simons, Jr. Planning Collection
Dates: (Inclusive) 1899-1993 (Bulk) 1940-1970
Size: 36 linear ft. (44 boxes)
Repository: Manuscripts and Personal Papers, Thomas
G. Carpenter Library, University of North Florida
ABSTRACT
The Collection contains the personal papers and business / professional
files of George W. (Washington) Simons, Jr., a prominent Jacksonville,
Florida, city planner active in the Southeastern United
States in the twentieth century. His preparation of Florida's
first comprehensive municipal plan (Jacksonville, 1929) launched
his professional career as a municipal consultant, and over a forty
year period he was retained by over seventy municipalities to
prepare city, county, regional and zoning plans, reports and studies.
His plans for major Florida cities include: Tampa, Orlando,
Pensacola, Fort Lauderdale, and Miami Beach.
Publications and printed materials
form the majority of the collection. The project files of Mr. Simons
provide added depth to the planning documents, and a wide range
of subject files show his broad interests in various planning topics.
The collection in totality provides rare insights into Florida's
urban history, and an overview of the work and contributions
of a major urban planner during Florida's century of unparalleled
growth and development.
LANGUAGE: English.
ACQUISITION
The collection was donated to the Library in 2005 by the Northeast Florida
Regional Council, and
Christian Simons LaRoche, the late daughter of Mr. Simons.
ACCESS TO THE COLLECTION
The collection is open for research. For
information relating to Mr. Simons and to make an appointment to
view the collection, contact E. Brady at 904-620-1533; email: ebrady@unf.edu
PREFERRED CITATION
George W. Simons, Jr. Planning Collection, Thomas G. Carpenter Library,
University of North Florida, Jacksonville, Florida.
ADDITIONAL GUIDES
Descriptions
of individual items and photographs are available in the Simons
Container List.
RELATED MATERIALS
Biological studies / by the pupils of William Thompson Sedgwick. Boston : Printed at the University of Chicago Press, 1906.
"FPZA History: George W. Simons, Jr.," The Florida Planning & Zoning
Association Overview, v. 6, no. 2 (Fall 2009): 7.
Whipple, George Chandler. State sanitation : a review of the work of the Massachusetts State Board of Health. Cambridge : Harvard University Press, 1917.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
George W. Simons, Jr. was born in Portland, Oregon, on
February 23, 1891. Upon the death of his mother, he was raised by his
grandmother in Rochelle, Illinois. He attended
Beloit College (Beloit, Wisconsin) for his undergraduate education,
graduating with a science degree in 1912. After taking classes at Harvard
University, he obtained a bachelor of science degree in civil engineering
from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1915, and briefly
worked on the M.I.T. teaching staff.
Mr. Simons moved to Jacksonville, Florida, in 1916, where he resided
for the remainder of his life. His professional engineering career
began when he was hired by the Florida State Board
of Health to establish the Bureau of Sanitary Engineering in 1916.
He served as Chief Engineer of the Bureau for nine years. During
this time, he founded the first Anti-Mosquito Association of Florida,
and was appointed to Jacksonville's first planning board in 1922.
In 1925, he resigned his state position and joined the Consolidated
Development and Engineering Corp. of Jacksonville, a private company
active in land development during the region's construction boom
of the 1920s. Named Chief Engineer of the Company, he was instrumental
in the development of the Jacksonville residential subdivisions,
Venetia and Lake Forest, and the Woodlawn subdivision in St. Petersburg,
Florida.
His lifetime work for which he was to become known
- as a planning, zoning and municipal consultant - commenced in
1928, when he was hired by the City of Jacksonville to develop a
comprehensive city plan and zoning ordinance. The following year,
the city of Miami Beach hired him to prepare its first zoning ordinance.
Over the next forty years, he was retained by over seventy municipalities
to prepare planning documents and reports.
He also created economic and marketing studies for Jacksonville
and Wilmington, North Carolina.
His professional affiliations were
numerous: Past President and Fellow of the Florida Engineering Society;
life member of the American Society of Civil Engineers, American
Institute of Planners, and the American Society of Planning Officials;
honorary member of the American Public Works Association; and a
member of the Institute of Traffic Engineers, National Housing and
Redevelopment Association, and the National Society of Professional
Engineers. During World War II, he was appointed as
a special consultant to the Federal Reserve Bank in Atlanta, and
later served as Coordinator for the Florida State War Production
Board. He retired from professional life in 1970.
His prodigious civic service, contributions, and memberships in associations
and organizations in Jacksonville were varied and extensive over
a sixty year span. He assumed a leadership role in many of them,
including two years as President of the Community Chest-United Fund,
twelve years as a Commissioner / Member of the Housing Authority,
seven years as President of the Civic Music Association, Trustee
of the Jacksonville Public Library, President of the Council of
Social Agencies, Little Theatre of Jacksonville, and Torch Club.
In particular, his association with the Civitan Club, on both a
local and national level, was a life-long involvement.
He frequently attended national Civitan Club conventions, and served
as International President in 1930 and 1931.
Religious affiliations were particularly meaningful to Mr. Simons,
and he maintained a strong and vigorous membership with the Riverside
Presbyterian Church in Jacksonville. He served as the Men's Bible
Class teacher for 32 years, and Elder of the Church and Board of
Trustees. From 1962-1977, he wrote a weekly Sunday School column
in the Florida Times-Union newspaper.
He was married to Marion Guest Simons and had
two children, a daughter, Christian, and a son, George Guest Simons.
After an extended illness, Mr. Simons died on July 8, 1977, at the
age of 86.
SCOPE AND CONTENT NOTE
The collection contains correspondence, publications and printed
materials, project and subject files, and photographs relating
to Mr. Simons' personal and professional activities throughout his
adult life, from his college years until his retirement in 1970.
The chronology begins with documentation of his higher education activities,
including class notebooks, his thesis (Massachusetts Institute of Technology,
1915) and correspondence with professors. His professional career as
a planning, zoning and municipal consultant is well-documented with
extensive business files, including contracts and agreements, notes,
correspondence, and working papers for many of the municipal planning,
land use, and zoning projects undertaken by Mr. Simons. One strength
of the collection is its depth of project publications, reports and
plans created by Mr. Simons over a forty year professional career,
1928-1970. Subject files also show Mr. Simons' broad-ranging interests
in various urban planning and financial topics.
The Jacksonville, Florida, connection is well-documented in his personal
papers. Mr. Simons was a longtime resident and civic leader in Jacksonville
with broad personal interests,
and the collection contains printed materials, including ephemera,
relating to his numerous memberships in local clubs and organizations,
and his religious affiliation with Riverside Presbyterian Church. Also,
included are rare photographs of early Jacksonville residential construction
scenes (Venetia), snapshots of Jacksonville landscapes and buildings,
city parks, and numerous group photographs from Mr. Simons' participation
in professional and social organizations.
ARRANGEMENT
Alphabetical by series; chronological within folder.
INDEX TERMS
The following terms have been used to index the description of
this collection in the Library's online catalog:
Simons, George W. 1891-1977
City planning--Florida
City planning--Florida--Jacksonville
City planning--Florida--Jacksonville Beach
City planning--Florida--Tampa
City planners--Florida--Jacksonville--Biography
Zoning--Florida
Zoning law--Florida
Jacksonville (Fla.)--Biography
Jacksonville (Fla.)--History
CONTAINER LIST
The Container
List provides
a full listing of individual items in the Collection.
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