Mandarin is a neighborhood located in the southernmost portion of Jacksonville, in Duval County, Florida, United States.
Once called "a tropical paradise" by author and notable resident Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mandarin is known for its history, ancient oak trees draped with Spanish moss, parks, marinas and water views.
[3] In the 19th century, Mandarin was a small farming village that shipped oranges, grapefruit, lemons and other fruits and vegetables to Jacksonville and points north on the steamships that traveled the St. Johns River.
"[4] In 1864, the Union steamship Maple Leaf hit a Confederate mine and sank just off Mandarin Point.
The majority of the land was planted with orange trees for many years, but a freeze in the early 1890s destroyed a lot of the crop.
In 1867, Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom's Cabin, bought a cottage in Mandarin.
Her idyllic sketches of picnicking, sailing, and river-touring expeditions; and simple stories of events and people in this tropical "winter summer" land became the first unsolicited promotional writing to interest northern tourists in Florida.
These include an early 20th-century saw mill and a late 19th-century log cabin belonging to the Losco family, which was part of the largest wine operation in Northeast Florida".