Christmas lights in Riverside & Avondale, Jacksonville

Riverside and Avondale are Jacksonville's historic river neighborhoods southwest of downtown, inside the City of Jacksonville and its roughly 253,000 detached homes. The Riverside Avondale Historic District is one of the largest in Florida, and the housing shows it: early-1900s bungalows with deep front porches, two-story Prairie and Colonial Revival houses, Mediterranean Revival homes with tile roofs, brick streets and live oaks big enough to cover the road. That is a very different job from a suburb. The star here is the porch — columns, railings and the porch roof — usually in warm white, with a lit wreath on the door and garland on the rail; the main roofline is often steep and high, and many owners skip it in favor of the porch and the oak in the yard. Older wood trim and historic details mean clips that do not mark the paint and never a nail or staple in the woodwork. Outdoor outlets can be scarce on old houses, so we plan runs from what you have and never touch the wiring. Five Points, Murray Hill and Ortega next door are on the same route, and these streets are among the best December drives in the city.