This is the two-story film set building on Commerce Street when Eagle Studios used it. The building also had an outdoor film stage, as seen in this early 1900s image, as well as a pool, now buried along Arlington Road. | Norman Studios Silent Film Museum
Published on September 5, 2024 at 11:55 am
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The city of Jacksonville has purchased a two-story film stage off Arlington Road, the last piece needed to preserve one of the last fully intact silent film studios in the country.
On Jan. 18, the newly named Rita F. Reagan Film Set will officially open at the Norman Studios museum with a performance of James Weldon Johnson’s 1930 poem, St. Peter Relates an Incident of the Judgment Day, with live musical accompaniment.
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Reagan was a preserver of Jacksonville’s historic communities who then became a vocal supporter of the historic silent film studio’s preservation as co-founder of its nonprofit operations group, and its executive director. Just weeks after she attended the opening of Norman Studio’s newly renovated museum just over a year ago, Reagan died at age 83.
The city bought the studio site in 2002, minus the film set, to preserve it as a museum. Reagan co-founded the Norman Studios group in 2007 to preserve and manage the museum that operates there.
A total of $1 million in city funding was used in 2019 to renovate the main building with air conditioning, a handicap-accessible ramp and other necessities for museum use. The old film stage in back, converted years ago into a sanctuary, remained under church ownership until the city bought it a few years ago to complete ownership of the entire studio complex.
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Now the dream pushed by Reagan and others to keep the entire studio under city ownership has been accomplished, and her name will grace the actual film set.
“We are thrilled about that, and we of course whole-heartedly supported the effort to name it after her,” said Barbara Wingo, president of Norman Studios Silent Film Museum Inc. “It is a very fitting tribute, and she would be thrilled that it in fact happened. She was able to come to the opening of the museum. At that time, the sale had not been consummated between the church and the city, and it is a very fitting tribute to her.”
Silent films history
The five wood-framed buildings at 6337 Arlington Road share a role in Jacksonville’s history as the film capital of America from 1908 to about 1917. More than 30 silent film studios operated then, featuring acting legends like Rudolph Valentino and Oliver Hardy, until moviemaking moved to Hollywood.
One was Eagle Studios, started in 1916 on Arlington Road. Richard Norman bought it in 1920 and began making and selling silent and early sound movie equipment. The white film producer also produced high quality silent films with Black actors between 1920 and 1928, including a World War I epic called The Flying Ace.
The white wooden buildings were used for other purposes including a dance studio run by Gloria Norman, the owner’s wife. Hugh Smith bought most of the property in 1974, but not the stage.
When Old Arlington Inc. formed in the mid-1990s to preserve the area’s history, it campaigned to save the studios. The city bought and renovated four of the five buildings in 2002, and the film museum group formed in 2007 to continue preservation as it raised funds for more renovation and upgrades.
The entire complex is designated a National Historic Landmark, said Ihsan Amanatullah, assistant programs manager at the National Film Preservation Foundation. In fact, it is likely “the most intact silent film studio complex” in the country, she said in an email.
“There are various silent film studio facilities that are still in use today, such as the Kaufman Astoria Studios in New York and Studio Babelsberg in Potsdam, Germany, along with various locations in Los Angeles,” Amanatullah said. “But these have been continually remodeled for modern production methods. And while there are silent film studio facilities that have become museums, such as the Wharton Studio Museum in Ithaca, N.Y., and the Hollywood Heritage Museum, these do not have as many original facilities as the Norman Studios.”
Some of what remains at the Norman Studios complex is the old screening room and projection booth in the main building on Arlington Road, plus the old generator building, wardrobe and property garage behind it. A studio pool, where filming occurred back in the day, remains buried just off Arlington Road. But behind the buried pool is the two-story film set, once used by the Circle of Faith Ministries as a sanctuary and chapel.
Norman Studios preservation
For years, the nonprofit Norman Studios Silent Film Museum group raised funds to buy the film set on Commerce Street. Church officials were willing to sell to see it join the rest of the properties as a complete studio facility.
The building also remained much as it had when built a century ago, albeit with some changes. The film stage once had folding doors to allow natural light for shooting scenes, but those were modified at some point into a normal wall. The interior catwalk, once used to access lights hung overhead, was modified into upstairs church offices. A sprinkler system and chandeliers also were added.
The City Council approved purchase of the film set building July 25, 2023, for a negotiated price of $384,000. Then City Council members Ron Salem, Ken Amaro, Matt Carlucci and Michael Boylan proposed renaming it for Reagan.
Now it will be used for studio gatherings, including possible resumption of Silent Film Sundays, where movies are displayed to the public, Wingo says. But the big event will be the performance Jan. 18 of St. Peter Relates an Incident of the Judgment Day, set to music by Nansi Carroll and performed by the Ritz Chamber Players.
Johnson and his brother, J. Rosamond Johnson, were Jacksonville natives who wrote and composed Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing, known popularly as the Black national anthem. Their birth site at Lee and Houston streets in historic LaVilla is now the “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” park to honor the brothers, who composed more than 200 popular musical pieces.
Fundraising continues for the basics that the museum still needs, like seats and display cases. And fundraising will also be done to fully prepare the two-story film set for the larger events that the museum building cannot host. The museum staff has also moved into the studio’s office space, as plans to “bring back a little of the set configuration” are worked on, Wingo said.
“The next step is to bring back something of the way that building looked in 1925,” Wingo said. “So we have been discussing this with the city because there needs to be some renovation done to the outside of the building anyway. … There was this large deck where you would film, and I have photographs of all this. Part of that could be recreated and it would also make a very nice event space for us. That’s part of the overall plan.”
The Norman Studios museum is open at 11 a.m. on the first and third Saturday of each month, admission free.
