Ortega

Ortega is a neighborhood located in Jacksonville, Florida, on a peninsula off the western bank of the St. Johns River, south of downtown Jacksonville. Ortega is one Jacksonville’s wealthiest neighborhoods and contains many historical homes and buildings. The peninsula that Ortega is located on is bordered by the St. Johns River and the Ortega River, and is bisected by Roosevelt Boulevard, a six-lane highway on the west side of Jacksonville. The area east of Roosevelt Boulevard is called Old Ortega and the area to the west is known as Ortega Forest. In 2004, the National Register of Historic Places, the U.S. federal government’s official list of places and objects deemed worthy of preservation for historical significance, designated a section of Old Ortega as the Old Ortega Historic District.

Ortega’s history began in 1763 when Spain ceded Florida to England. Colonel Daniel McGirtt moved into the Jones Plantation in 1780 and fought against the British with rebel troops in Georgia. After a few battles, McGirtt later changed sides and joined the British, plundering and stealing from the rebel troops. Later on, he formed a band of outlaws that terrorized both the rebels and the British. Eventually, he was caught and jailed at Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine by the British Governor, but in the end, he managed to escape. You can find both a road and a park named after him in the Ortega neighborhood of Jacksonville.

In 1902, millionaire banker J. Pierpont Morgan helped finance what is now modern-day Ortega. In 1908, the Ortega Company completed a wooden bridge across the Ortega River, connecting the neighborhood to Avondale, another community in Jacksonville. Henry Bacon, famed architect of the Lincoln Memorial, also designed and built a clubhouse in Ortega which unfortunately no longer remains. The final burst of construction happened during the 1920s, and Ortega remained a neighborhood with affluent businessmen and older families.

Ortega has several different sections, each with its own characteristics. The riverfront area has multimillion-dollar mansions, while Ortega Point has old wood-framed Tudor homes surrounding Bettes Park. Towards the southern interior of the peninsula, you’ll find Ortega Terrace, which has large stone and brick houses in a variety of architectural styles. There is also quite an extensive park system in the neighborhood, and many of the residents set up trust funds to help maintain the parks.
There are also two schools that service the Ortega area of Jacksonville: Ortega Elementary School and St. Mark’s Episcopal Day School. The neighborhood is characterized by a robust family-oriented environment, and many of the children are safe to walk or ride bikes to school. Residents in the Ortega area are often members of the Florida Yacht Club or the Timuquana Country Club and enjoy boating or sailing due to easy access to the water.

Ortega is a beautiful neighborhood and is an asset to the city of Jacksonville with the amount of history it contains and the generations of families that have lived and currently still live there.