Walkable commercial districts: Ortega Village Ortega Village
History The Ortega neighborhood we know today got its start in
1906, when John N.C. Stockton's Ortega Company purchased 5,000
acres of land from U.S. Senator Wilkinson Call. To spur
development, Stockton constructed a wooden bridge over the
Ortega River to connect the project to Jacksonville. As an
incentive to purchase homesites, the Ortega Company promised no
taxes and free water for a certain time period. Between 1910 and
1930, Jacksonville's population exploded from 57,699 to 129,549.
This surge in growth would have a lasting impact on several
sparsely development communities along the Ortega streetcar
line, including Ortega. During the mid-1920s, Ortega Village
developed at the streetcar's Cortez Park turnaround, providing
centralized neighborhood commercial uses to the growing
community surrounding it. Ortega Village Today Cortez Park is
located just south of Ortega Village. It served as the "end of
the line" or turnaround for the 1906 streetc