A 1927 Mediterranean Revival movie palace in downtown Jacksonville whose balcony seat E2 is associated with a long-running ghost legend the theater's staff call simply 'J.'
128 East Forsyth Street, Jacksonville, FL 32202
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Ticketed performances; pricing varies by show.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Restored historic theater with seated auditorium and balcony.
Equipment
No Photos
Est. 1927 · 1927 Mediterranean Revival movie palace · One of five surviving Florida high-style movie palaces of the 1920s · NRHP-listed November 4, 1982 · Active live-performance venue in downtown Jacksonville
The Florida Theatre opened to the public on April 8, 1927 at 128 East Forsyth Street in downtown Jacksonville. Construction took roughly a year, beginning in the summer of 1926 under Southern Enterprises, Inc. with R. E. Hall & Co. and Jacksonville architect Roy A. Benjamin as designers. The theater is one of only five surviving high-style Mediterranean Revival movie palaces built in Florida during the 1920s, alongside the Olympia Theater in Miami, the Saenger Theatre in Pensacola, the Polk Theatre in Lakeland, and the Tampa Theatre.
The building seated nearly two thousand patrons at opening and operated as a first-run movie house and vaudeville stage. By the late twentieth century it had transitioned to a live-performance venue. The Florida Theatre is operated today by a non-profit performing-arts organization led by president Numa Saisselin and hosts touring concerts, comedy, dance, classic-film screenings, and community programs.
The theater was added to the U.S. National Register of Historic Places on November 4, 1982 and remains one of the most architecturally significant buildings in downtown Jacksonville. Major restoration work has been ongoing since the late twentieth century, including a recent multimillion-dollar capital project that involved removing and refurbishing the original seating. The seat assemblies — including the long-rumored 'ghost seats' E1 and E2 in section 500 of the balcony — were sent to Michigan for refurbishment as part of that work.
Sources
The Florida Theatre's resident ghost legend has been documented in Jacksonville-area media for decades. According to a 2021 News4Jax feature, staff and patrons have reported a strange unexplained humming inside the building, slamming projection-booth doors, and orbs in photographs of the auditorium. The focus of the legend is balcony seat E2 (and to a lesser extent E1) in section 500, where an older male apparition has reportedly been seen, sometimes appearing in photographs to wave.
Florida Theatre president Numa Saisselin has spoken publicly about the seat lore and refers to the friendly resident simply as 'J.' A locally-circulated theory names the apparition as Joseph Hilton, a 1920s organist at the theater said to have died by suicide, though Hilton's identity has not been independently corroborated by primary historical records. When the theater's original seats were sent to Michigan for refurbishment as part of a major capital project, Saisselin specifically requested that E1 and E2 be preserved so that — in his words — the theater's ghost would not be made 'homeless.'
The legend is independently corroborated by multiple Jacksonville news and broadcast sources. In 2010, the local television program Local Haunts (aired on CW17) filmed the theater and captured what the show's investigators described as a full-body apparition in balcony seat E2 — investigator Steve Christian called it 'the Holy Grail of paranormal investigation.' The footage attracted the SyFy Channel's Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files, which conducted its own investigation using infrared cameras, thermal imaging, and EVP recorders; the show documented heat signatures at the orchestra section and the balcony seat but found 'zero proof' that the Local Haunts footage had been fabricated. WJCT News 89.9 (Jacksonville's NPR affiliate) and Action News Jax both covered the return of the refurbished ghost seat in reporting on the theater's 2020 capital renovation. According to WJCT, a psychic consultant named Jill Cook-Richards who worked with the theater in 1997 described making contact with the spirit and receiving a request to be called 'J' for Joy.
The Florida Theatre treats the lore with affection rather than as marketing, and seats E1 and E2 continue to be discussed as the focal point. The Joseph Hilton attribution remains an unverified local theory; the documented ghost tradition centers on 'J' as described by theater staff and captured by broadcast media.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Attend a touring concert, comedy show, film screening, or community event at the restored 1927 Mediterranean Revival movie palace. Balcony seats E1 and E2 are the focus of the venue's longstanding 'J' ghost lore.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Ashland, KY
The Paramount Arts Center opened September 5, 1931 in Ashland, Kentucky as one of the first movie palaces purpose-built for sound film. Designed by Rapp and Rapp, the theater closed in 1971 and was rescued from demolition by the Greater Ashland Foundation, reopening as a performing-arts center in 1972.
El Paso, TX
The Plaza Theatre opened September 12, 1930 on Pioneer Plaza in downtown El Paso. Developer Louis L. Dent commissioned the Spanish Colonial Revival movie palace in 1927, and the inaugural night drew a crowd of 2,410. Its lavish interior was designed to evoke 'the fabled beauty of Old Spain and the charm of Old Mexico.' After decades of decline, the theatre was extensively restored and reopened as a performing-arts venue, now home to the Plaza Classic Film Festival and a wide range of touring performances.
Tucson, AZ
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