Since 1927 the Florida Theatre has served downtown Jacksonville as a performing arts venue. Opened in 1927, this is one of only five remaining high-style palaces built in Florida during the Mediterranean Revival architectural boom of the 1920s; its siblings are the Olympia Theater in Miami, the Saenger Theatre in Pensacola, the Polk Theatre in Lakeland, and the Tampa Theatre in Tampa. The building was begun in the summer of 1926 by Southern Enterprises, Inc., with R. E. Hall & Co. and Roy A. Benjamin as its architects.
R. E. Hall and Roy A. Benjamin designed it in the Mediterranean Revival style as a seven-story, concrete, fireproof building with a roof garden and a deliberate emphasis on showing movies and hosting live performances. Construction took only one year, and the site had previously held a police station and jail, a reminder of how this block has been reinvented. In recognition of its importance the theatre was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1982, and in 2012 the AIA's Florida Chapter included it on Florida Architecture: 100 Years.
100 Places. Feel the scale and ornament of the façade rising above your head to the roof garden and the surrounding streets.