Upcoming Events at The Florida Theatre
Fri Mar 8, 8:00 PM - Fri Mar 8, 11:00 PM
128 E Forsyth St, Jacksonville, FL 32202
Community: San Marco
Description
Christopher Stephen "Chris" Botti, is an American trumpeter and composer. He will be performing soon to Jacksonville. GET YOUR TICKETS NOW!
Event Details
In 1927, on the same day that the Florida Theatre first opened its doors to the public, the World News Service in New York City carried this report: “For the first time men sat in New York and looked 200 miles over a telephone wire at other men in Washington, D.C. Television was pulled out of the dictionary and into the world of fact.” Thus it was that on the same day that the largest theatre in the State of Florida at the time had its Grand Opening, the seeds of its eventual demise as a movie house and resurrection as a nonprofit arts center made news too.
But on the night of April, 8, 1927, however, all was splendid in Downtown Jacksonville, and the next day, the Jacksonville Journal reported, “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. This masterpiece of art is the Florida Theatre, which today became an integral part of advancing Jacksonville, following its dedication last night before an audience that packed the playhouse to capacity.”
Construction on the Florida Theatre began in the summer of 1926, when building permit #1345 granted permission to Southern Enterprises, Inc. to construct a seven-story concrete, fireproof theatre and commercial building with roof garden on the corner of Forsyth on Newnan Streets in downtown Jacksonville. The application indicated that R.E. Hall & Co., Inc. of New York were the architects, with Roy A. Benjamin of Jacksonville as Associate Architect. The George A. Fuller Company of New York was the general contractor, and the building’s value was estimated at $1.5 million. The new Florida Theatre would be the sixth theatre on Forsyth Street alone, where the Savoy, Empress, Imperial, Palace and St. Johns Theatres were all in a row in a four block stretch.
According to the “Jacksonville Journal,” foundation work began around June 20, 1926, and the first steel was erected around August 10. A derrick with a 115-foot mast and a 105-foot boom was used to erect the 1,200 tons of steel that were shipped by rail in over 40 rail cars and 4,500 cubic yards of concrete were poured for the slab. One aspect of the Florida Theatre’s constru
But on the night of April, 8, 1927, however, all was splendid in Downtown Jacksonville, and the next day, the Jacksonville Journal reported, “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. This masterpiece of art is the Florida Theatre, which today became an integral part of advancing Jacksonville, following its dedication last night before an audience that packed the playhouse to capacity.”
Construction on the Florida Theatre began in the summer of 1926, when building permit #1345 granted permission to Southern Enterprises, Inc. to construct a seven-story concrete, fireproof theatre and commercial building with roof garden on the corner of Forsyth on Newnan Streets in downtown Jacksonville. The application indicated that R.E. Hall & Co., Inc. of New York were the architects, with Roy A. Benjamin of Jacksonville as Associate Architect. The George A. Fuller Company of New York was the general contractor, and the building’s value was estimated at $1.5 million. The new Florida Theatre would be the sixth theatre on Forsyth Street alone, where the Savoy, Empress, Imperial, Palace and St. Johns Theatres were all in a row in a four block stretch.
According to the “Jacksonville Journal,” foundation work began around June 20, 1926, and the first steel was erected around August 10. A derrick with a 115-foot mast and a 105-foot boom was used to erect the 1,200 tons of steel that were shipped by rail in over 40 rail cars and 4,500 cubic yards of concrete were poured for the slab. One aspect of the Florida Theatre’s constru
