Lynyrd Skynyrd Birthplace — Shantytown, Jacksonville, Florida

Lynyrd Skynyrd coalesced in the working-class Jacksonville neighbourhood known as Shantytown in the late 1960s, where Ronnie Van Zant, Gary Rossington, Allen Collins, and their friends grew up in adjacent streets and formed the band that would define Southern rock. Van Zant and Rossington lived close enough to walk to each other's houses, and the neighbourhood's hard-edged, blue-collar culture — the opposite of the pastoral Southern mythology their music would eventually invoke — gave the band its toughness. They rehearsed obsessively, played local venues, and cycled through dozens of lineups before settling on the classic formation.

The name came from Leonard Skinner, a physical education teacher at Robert E. Lee High School who reportedly repeatedly disciplined band members for their long hair. The band adopted a sardonic variation of his name as a kind of badge of honour against authority. By 1973 they had signed to MCA Records and released their debut, (Pronounced 'Lĕh-'nérd 'Skin-'nérd), which contained 'Free Bird' and 'Gimme Three Steps' — two songs that would define them permanently.

The Shantytown neighbourhood of west Jacksonville has been subject to decades of urban change. No formal museum marks the band's origins there, though Jacksonville has increasingly embraced its Lynyrd Skynyrd heritage. The broader west Jacksonville area, including the streets where Van Zant and the others grew up, is accessible to visitors willing to explore.