Mac Rating: 5.00 | Votes: 1 | Date: 03/07/2026 01:32:00

Duke Ellington and a young Ray Charles played this corner when the neighbourhood was called the Harlem of the South. The Ritz Theatre at 829 North Davis Street in Jacksonville's LaVilla district opened in September 1929, an Art Deco house by local architect Jefferson Powell that became the primary stage of one of the South's great Black entertainment quarters and a key stop on the Chitlin' Circuit. LaVilla thrived from the 1920s through the 1960s as a dense district of theatres, clubs and boarding houses along Ashley Street; the Ritz, seating about 970 in its original form, outlasted its vaudeville-era rivals and ran films and live shows until closing in 1972 as the neighbourhood declined. The rescue came through Mayor Ed Austin's River City Renaissance plan, which committed 4.2 million dollars to the block: the derelict building was largely rebuilt - the original marquee sign and northwest corner were preserved - and the new Ritz Theatre and Museum opened on 30 September 1999. Today's complex pairs a 426-seat theatre hosting music, dance, theatre and film with the 11,000-square-foot LaVilla Museum, whose permanent exhibit Lifting Every Voice in LaVilla recreates 1920s and 30s neighbourhood life in walk-through vignettes. The museum's remit runs deeper than the district - documenting African American life in northeast Florida back before statehood - and honours LaVilla natives James Weldon and John Rosamond Johnson, whose hymn Lift Every Voice and Sing gives the exhibit its name. The theatre now anchors what survives of LaVilla's historic fabric a few blocks from downtown, its red vertical sign one of the last original markers of the district it once entertained. Programming today keeps both halves of the mission running: jazz and R&B concerts, gospel showcases, spoken word and community theatre share the calendar with school tours of the museum, making the corner a working cultural centre rather than a memorial.