Jacksonville Architecture

On the spot where once stood an unkempt police station that had housed in its sordid career many of the riff-raff of the world, there has come into being a thing of beauty, a palace of dreams.

Thus reported the +++Jacksonville Journal following the opening night of the Florida Theatre, the fifteenth movie house in Jacksonville and undoubtedly the most lavish. The Florida Theatre was part of the short-lived American phenomenon of fantasy-inspired movie palaces that began with New York's opulent Regent Theatre in 1913 and was spread by theatre promoter S. L. "Roxy" Rothafel. Every major city in the U.S. (and many small towns as well) built grandiose downtown movie theatres, whose ornate auditoriums were designed to heighten the escape from reality that was projected on the silver screen. In the 1930's the Great Depression brought an end to the construction of these glittering show places, and the flight to suburbia and decline of downtown areas throughout the U.S. in the 1950's and 1960's doomed many of them to extinction.

But the capacity crowd at the Florida Theatre opening on April 8, 1927, had no reason to foresee any gloom. Theatre-goers were dazzled by the lavish interior, the theme of which was a Moorish courtyard at night. Fountains, dramatic balconies, coffered ceilings and a grand proscenium arch were embellished with polychromatic sculpted ornamentation. The program began with a fanfare from the American Legion Bugle Corps, followed by a live stage show "Pageant of Florida." An eighteen-piece orchestra, which slowly rose into view on its movable orchestra pit, added to the spectacle. This was followed by the movie feature, a silent two-reel comedy titled "Let It Rain," accompanied by Robert E. Mitchell on the "Mighty Wurlitzer" pipe organ. After the program, patrons danced to orchestra music on the open-air rooftop garden, overlooking the city lights and riverfront from the seventh-story level.

The building itself was nearly as much of a marvel as the surreal movie auditorium inside. Over one-million bricks were used in its construction, and they were laid in a record twenty-one days using ready-mixed mortar for the first time in the South. The exterior walls were given an unusual texture by laying the bricks "with headers advancing." Colorful ornamental terra-cotta was used to frame some of the windows at the second, third, and seventh-story levels. The Mediterranean Revival style facade was designed with a central Baroque parapet framed by twin towers, and it was originally topped by a mission-tile roof. The ground floor was faced with polished limestone and featured several retail storefronts, as well as the entrance to nearly 20,000 feet of upstairs office space, denoting the true mixed-use function of the building. (The roof garden was enclosed in 1938 to provide additional office footage.) The structural framing of the theatre is unique, with two-thirds of the massive balcony supported by only two steel trusses, each of which spans ninety feet and is approximately 8 1/2 feet deep. During construction it was reported that one of these girders alone weighed sixty-five tons. Another interesting technical aspect of the theatre is that it was fully air-conditioned at the time of its opening, a rarity in 1927. The basic components of this air system are still operational today. The theatre also had central heating and a central vacuuming system.

The Florida Theatre survived the Depression by using innovative features such as "Screeno," a bingo game projected on the great screen, and "Bank Night." Perhaps the most widely noted event in the theatre's history occurred in 1956, when Elvis Presley made his first appearance on an indoor stage in this state. +++Life Magazine did a feature article on the performance due to the watchful presence of Judge Marion Gooding, who threatened to throw Presley in jail if his pelvic gyrations were too suggestive.

In 1980 the Florida Theatre closed after dwindling attendance had relegated it to showing largely "B-grade" movies. However, the Arts Assembly of Jacksonville purchased the building in the fall of 1981 and, after two years of painstaking restoration efforts, reopened the theatre as a performing arts center in 1983. The Florida Theatre thus joins over fifty other grand movie palaces nationwide that have been restored, including the Tampa Theatre and the Orpheum in Miami. The preservation of the Florida Theatre assures that future generations will be able to experience the grandeur of a bygone spirit of entertainment, as well as to enjoy one of Jacksonville's great interior spaces.