Jacksonville Theatre Ghosts

Theatres, whether they show movies or have a stage tend to have a ghost story or two. For two old Jacksonville Theatres, this is certainly the case.

Theatre Jacksonville

Theatre Jacksonville, also known as The Little Theatre, has been part of San Marco since 1938. Usually, community theaters in the in U.S. are, in fact, converted spaces, made from storefronts or former professional theatre spaces, but The Little Theatre was built specially for Jacksonville's first community theatre group.

The group was formed in 1919 and got funding for the theatre from Carl S. Swisher, cigar magnate and local supporter of the theatre arts. It took a little over ten years from the ground breaking in 1927 for the company to launch their first production in the Art Deco-style building. The façade of the building has remained intact since it was built and it still has the same look that it did all those years ago.

The two story building was designed by Ivan H. Smith, who also designed Jacksonville's City Hall, the Duval County Courthouse and several JU buildings. In '91 the Little Theatre was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places. After 87 consecutive seasons, it's one of the oldest continually producing community theatres in the U.S.

Of course every theatre with a history that long comes with a few ghosts. There are rumors that in the lobby stairwell one can often see a faint shadow of a mysterious man in a bowler hat.

The San Marco Theatre

The San Marco Theatre offers a different sort of entertainment-movies. Finished in the same year as the Little Theatre, the San Marco Theatre was designed by nationally recognized architect Roy Benjamin, who also designed Downtown's Florida Theatre. Instead of sticking with the Italian, Moorish and Spanish influences of San Marco's Square, he built something that reflected the current trends at the time: Art Deco. The structure and architecture has remained basically the same, and the theatre owners have focused on restoration rather than redoing the old building.

An old tale of a former theatre manager dying in the office surfaces from time to time, and former employees speak of spooky happening after hours.

Says former manager Heath Valdez, "Me and a buddy were painting the floors at night...I looked up and I swear I saw someone standing in the manager's office looking down at us. We went up to look, because sometimes, you know people would hide in the bathrooms and stay...but there was no one there."