Arthur Gilkes was one of Jacksonville’s most prominent architects when he designed this Tudor-style house for his family in 1903. It originally had a circular fish pond and a sprawling front lawn that stretched all the way to Riverside Avenue. Unfortunately, subsequent owners sold the beautifully landscaped front yard, and an apartment building now obscures the original front entrance. The house still retains its vintage charm, however, with gambrel roofs, half-timbering, and numerous gables, dormers, and balconies. Gilkes’ daughter, Lillian, once explained that the family nickname for the house, “Frogmore,” was a tongue-in-cheek play on the name of the royal mansion near Windsor Castle in England. When the Gilkes’ house was new and there was no bulkhead on the St. Johns River, heavy rains would often cause the river to overflow all the way to Oak Street. This made the land around the house a little swampy, producing a chorus of frogs that often prevented the family from sleeping at night. Lillian Gilkes grew up in the house and went on to become a scholar and author, particularly noted for her biography of Cora Crane.
