Many Delaware eyes turn to Florida in February
Jackson and Sharp Company, according to an article in the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, was an American railroad car manufacturer and shipbuilder in Wilmington in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
“The company was founded in 1863 by Job H. Jackson (b. 1833), a tinsmith and retail merchant, and Jacob F. Sharp (b. 1815), a carpenter who had worked for rail car manufacturers and shipbuilders. Jackson and Sharp built a fabrication plant, called the Delaware Car Works, near the mouth of Brandywine Creek. By 1880 the plant produced 400 passenger cars per year. Through facility expansions on the 12-acre site, the capacity grew to 75 cars, with about 1,000 employees in the late 1880s. At that time it was considered to be the largest rolling stock plant in the Americas. Clients included Great Western Railroad (Illinois), South Side Elevated Railroad (Chicago), Denver and Rio Grande Railway, King Oscar II of Sweden, and Emperor Dom Pedro of Brazil.”
In 1888, the company built this special rolling exposition car for the Jacksonville, St. Augustine & Indian River Railway. It shows an illustration of the Cordova Hotel (now the Casa Monica Resort & Spa) in St. Augustine, Fla.
