Once a highlight of Gainesville culture, the Florida Theater spent years sitting unused, its face covered in dirt and graffiti. Now, following much work and planning, the theater is starting a new life.
The theater is currently undergoing renovations to fix the wear it has sustained over time. The project, which began in 2018 after the building entered new management, aims to turn the building back into a music venue. Current renovations include redoing the building's facade and removing trash and debris from inside.
Since its September 1928 opening, the Florida Theater has lived many lives. What began as a movie theater would eventually become a full-time music venue called The Great Southern Music Hall, and it later became a dance club.
The 20-plus years it spent as a nightclub took their toll on the building, and it fell into disrepair.
The city added the theater as a landmark on the Local Register of Historic Places in 2025, which prevents the building from being charged ad valorem taxes for the next decade.
Bill Bryson, the theater’s 60-year-old owner, bought the building in 2017 and began restoration the following year by gutting the building’s interior, which was long-worn down with seating stripped and trash scattered
The project was halted in 2020 since Bryson was unsure whether the concert industry would survive the pandemic. Efforts to restore the building picked back up in 2024.
Bryson moved to Gainesville in 1992 with the specific goal of opening his own music venue. Until 2000, he operated The Covered Dish, a rock club that hosted artists like Sublime and Green Day.
Bryson said he hopes to use his experience to transform the theater into a successful music venue once building renovations are completed. He decided to finally purchase the building after seeing what he believed was a need for new event space in the downtown area.
“I really sought to get it in my hands so that nobody else could knock it down or knock the block down and build condos or something like that,” Bryson said. “I think its best use is as a venue, and it's got a deep history as being a concert venue.”
Bryson hopes the project will be completed by 2028 in conjunction with the building’s 100-year anniversary. The project is currently in its first phase, which focuses on repairing the building's facade.
Facade renovations aim to keep the building's exterior as true to its history as possible, he said. The project is being completed by Gainesville-based Joyner Construction Partners.
The project received $100,000 dollars from the Gainesville Community Reinvestment Area to go toward work on the building's facade
Bryson hopes the theater will draw more people downtown and give the community a new place to see live music, he said.
“It's been gone for so long that I don't think the community at large really even realizes what's missing,” he said.
Part of the restoration includes replacing its marquee, a lit display that will announce each event at the theater and a sign reading “Florida” in bright red glowing letters.
The marquee is being built by Gainesville Neon and Signs and will utilize faux neon to maintain energy efficiency while giving it a classic theater look. The local business has been working on the project for around two months, said Matt Russo, a 27-year-old project manager and estimator.
“It is really cool to work on this project specifically because we get to give back to the community in a sense,” Russo said. “We have a lot of UF alumni here. We have a lot of Gainesville natives that work here as well, and so it's really cool to see that we get to put a helping hand in one really historic project in Gainesville.”
Gainesville Neon and Signs hopes to install the new sign by the end of October, Russo said.
Jane Ellis, a 69-year-old Gainesville accountant, has many fond memories of seeing everything from concerts to foreign films at the Florida Theater.
Ellis moved to Gainesville in 1975 to attend UF. The theater was in its second year as The Great Southern Music Hall, which stayed in business until the mid 1980s. At the time, Ellis considered Gainesville newer and more exciting than her hometown of Titusville, Florida.
During its time as the Great Southern Music Hall, the venue boasted musicians ranging from Jimmy Buffet to Ray Charles. Because of its popularity, it was featured in Billboard Magazine in 1979.
“I remember seeing Melissa Manchester there once,” Ellis said. “She made us wait for an hour while she got her piano tuned.
An upstairs bar was a big draw for students who had few other places to buy a drink since UF’s campus was dry at the time, as stated in The Florida Theater designation report.
Ellis remembers the bar as a place where people could lounge, she said, and a regular crowd would get together to play and listen to music.
“This guy's name was Kurt Lang –– and he was kind of a ne’er-do-well, but he was a great jazz pianist,” Ellis said, “and he would always put a little band together.”
The Great Southern Music Hall was always bustling with activity, Ellis said, and she’s looking forward to seeing what a renovation project could mean for the venue. Before its years of neglect, she said she remembers the building as a beautiful space.
“Over the years, it's been just a place that people were really drawn to, and I'm excited to see something getting done with it,” she said. “I hope it goes back to what it was: [a] center of activity.”
Contact Brandy Sumner at bsumner@alligator.org.
Brandy Sumner is an anthropology and English junior at UF and the music and reporter for Fall 2026. This is their second semester on The Avenue. Brandy enjoys reading, going to shows with friends, and writing in their free time.
