1927-1982 Riverside Theater 1984-1991 River City Playhouse 1991-2004 Club 5 Nightclub 2008-2011 5 Points Theatre 2011-present Sun-Ray Cinema at 5 Points |
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Address | 1028 Park Street Jacksonville, Florida United States |
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Owner | Mike Shad (building) Tim Massett (theater) |
Operator | Tim Massett |
Capacity | 200 |
Current use | Movie theater |
Construction | |
Opened | March 1, 1927 |
Rebuilt | 2004-2008 historic restoration |
Architect | Roy Benjamin |
Website | |
Sun Ray Cinema |
The Sun-Ray Cinema at 5 Points, formerly known as Riverside Theater and 5 Points Theatre, is a historic two-screen movie theater in Jacksonville, Florida. The first theater in Florida equipped to show talking pictures, it opened in March 1927 in the Five Points district of the Riverside and Avondale neighborhood.
The Riverside Theater opened in March 1927, when the Five Points area was emerging as a commercial center for Riverside and Avondale. It was the first in the state, and third in the country, equipped to show talking pictures. The architect was Roy Benjamin, whose architectural firm eventually became KBJ Architects. The theater is part of a much larger Italian Renaissance revival building. Benjamin went on to design more than 200 theaters throughout Florida and the southeastern United States, including Downtown Jacksonville's Florida Theatre. The first "talkie" shown in the theater was Don Juan, starring John Barrymore and Mary Astor. Admission was $1.10, an expensive ticket considering the prevailing wage was less than a quarter per hour.
The building was remodeled in 1949 and renamed the Five Points Theater when the marquee was added, which remains to this day. In 1977 the theater closed for several years and an attempt was made to "modernize" the building in 1978 with the application of stucco. In the early 1980s the movie theater shut down, and the acting group River City Playhouse moved into the space in 1984. In 1991 the building was remodeled into a nightclub, Club 5, which closed in 2004.