On October 1, 1968, the government of the City of Jacksonville and the government of Duval County were replaced with a new government called the Consolidated City of Jacksonville.
On that same day, Jacksonville’s new City Council passed an ordinance declaring the official seal of the former government of the City of Jacksonville to be the official seal of the new consolidated city.
The seal features an equestrian statue of Andrew Jackson, the man for whom Jacksonville was named. The statue depicted stands in Washington, D.C. and a duplicate now stands in downtown Jacksonville.
The new Mayor’s Office in 1968 soon asked the City Council to authorize the creation of a new city seal for the new city government, but the Council decided to retain the existing official city seal.
The Mayor’s Office developed its own administrative logo, which also included an outline of Jackson on horseback, along with the outline of Duval County and a sunrise denoting the birth of the new government. The administrative logo was used by city agencies in various applications over the years.
In 2004, the Mayor’s Office directed city agencies to replace the 36-year old logo with a new one designed to emphasize the city’s geographic location and historic importance.
However, the seal adopted by the City Council in 1968 remains the official city seal.
The City of Jacksonville’s Official Flag
In 1914, Jacksonville’s City Council decided the city needed an official flag, and proceeded to adopt one.
The Florida Times-Union
Sixty-one years later, in 1975, City Councilman Johnny Sanders introduced a resolution authorizing a public competition to create a new city flag. The contest would be held in conjunction with that year’s Bold CityFest, an annual celebration of the October 1, 1968 consolidation of the previous city and county governments.
The Bold CityFest Committee and the Jacksonville Chapter of the American Institute of Architects organized the event, setting a November 14 deadline. Among the competition rules was: ‘No specific elements will be required in the design. Possible themes…may include the City seal, the St. Johns River, consolidated government, or Andrew Jackson.’
The contest elicited 148 entries.
The AIA conducted preliminary judging and submitted five designs as semifinalists to a judging committee composed of four City Council members, the Area Planning Board director, the Information Services (Public Information) Division chief, and Mayor Hans Tanzler.
Don Bozeman, a Seaboard Coastline Railroad employee, submitted the winning entry, earning a $500 check from the Bold CityFest Committee. The City Council adopted the design as the official city flag on February 24, 1976.
A news release described the new flag: ‘In the three-color flag design, the upper half has an equestrian statue of Andrew Jackson silhouetted in brown over a golden sunburst. The lower half is solid orange, with a silhouette outline of Duval County and the words ‘City of Jacksonville, Florida,’ in gold.’
City Ordinance Code 130.102 addresses the city flag: ‘The official flag of the city shall be a rectangle having the dimensions in the ratio one of (hoist) to one and one-half (fly), divided horizontally into two equal panels: The upper panel has a rampant equestrian statue of Andrew Jackson in silhouette over sunburst; the lower panel has a silhouette of Duval County and the words CITY OF JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA in a recumbent concave arc thereunder, all on a solid field. The rays of the sunburst, silhouette of Duval County and the words CITY OF JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA are gold; the equestrian statue of Andrew Jackson is dark brown, the upper panel background is white and the lower panel field is orange.’
On Consolidation Day (October 1) 1976, Mayor Tanzler raised the new flag in front of the City Hall on Bay Street. Today, Jacksonville’s banner flies on flagpoles at a number of city government buildings.
newspaper described the official standard as consisting ‘of the word Jacksonville in a script across the field of the flag, a brilliant red poinsettia rising above this scrip and on the field below gates suggesting the Florida gateway and the city seal.’