Jacksonville prepares to transfer historic Norman Studio to federal park system
Source URL: http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2011-01-20/story/jacksonville-prepares-transfer-historic-norman-studio-federal-park
By Timothy J. Gibbons
For decades, Jacksonville activists have fought to save the old Norman Studio buildings, a connection to the city’s heyday as an epicenter of African-American filmmaking.
Now those dreams are moving a bit closer to reality: The city decided this week to take the first step toward transferring the historic moviemaking site to the National Park Service, a move that will save the almost-century-old site.
In coming days, Mayor John Peyton will ask the City Council to pass legislation that would begin the transfer process, which would eventually allow the federal government to pay for restoring and operating the buildings.
“I almost fainted when I heard,” said Rita Reagan, education outreach director for the Norman Studios Silent Film Museum Inc., a nonprofit that fights to preserve the site. “I’m just ecstatic. This is the highest and best use.”
The transfer won’t happen soon: Having a donation accepted by the Park Service is a long and involved process that will stretch on for at least two years and possibly longer.
The Park Service is interested in the gift, though, said Shauna Allen, its local chief of resource stewardship. Last year, the service did a preliminary survey of the studios and came away with a recommendation for Congress to fund a more in-depth look at the old movie studios.
“It’s a wonderful example of a resource that is significant in history,” Allen said.
The Norman Studios were built for the Eagle Film Studios back in the days when it appeared Jacksonville might become the moviemaking town that Hollywood later became.
Those dreams faded, and in the 1920s, Middleburg businessman Richard Norman bought the facility.
Norman Studios soon became one of the first moviemakers to break the color barrier, filming silent pictures with black crews, writers and casts, including black actors who portrayed cowboys, aviators and heroes.
Throughout the 1920s, Norman made a number of short films and about half-a-dozen feature films, including “The Flying Ace,” the only film from that period known to have survived.
Preserving that history is important, Allen said, not only for its local importance but for where it fits into the national narrative.
“It’s interesting for us in Jacksonville,” she said. “When you put it in the context of what was going on in the country at time, the significance grows.”
Having the federal government take over the site will allow it to be turned into the museum and educational site it should be, Reagan said.
Although the city has spent hundreds of thousands on fixing up the exterior of property on Arlington Road, the inside has not been refurbished — a project neither the city nor the museum group has been able to afford.
Fixing it up will provide an economic benefit as well as an historical one for the Arlington neighborhood where the studio sits.
“We get a tremendous number of people who want to see it,” Reagan said.
timothy.gibbons@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4103
Links:
[1] http://jacksonville.com/sites/default/files/Arlingtonhistoricstudio0122.jpg
[2] http://jacksonville.com/sites/default/files/Arlingtonhistoricstudio.jpg
[3] http://jacksonville.com/sites/default/files/97Arc_29035.JPG_.JPG
[4] http://jacksonville.com/sites/default/files/aaa_silent02.jpg
[5] http://maps.google.com?q=30.334200 -81.593597 (6337 Arlington Road, Jacksonville, FL, , us)
[6] http://maps.yahoo.com/maps_result?addr=6337 Arlington Road&csz=Jacksonville, FL&country=us
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