The Jacksonville Historic Preservation Commission voted Jan. 24 to grant landmark status to two properties with ties to the city’s Black history.
By unanimous votes, the seven-member commission recommended protections for properties in the Norman Studios complex in East Arlington and to a two-structure property on the Eastside where Dr. Charles McIntosh, Jacksonville’s first Black pediatrician, lived and worked.
The Norman Studios properties, at 6360 Commerce St. and Arlington Road, included a parcel containing a two-story building and a vacant lot that once was the site of a swimming pool. The building was one of five where silent film producer Richard Norman made films in the 1920s that featured all-Black casts in nonstereotypical roles and were aimed at Black audiences.
The city of Jacksonville owns the properties, which first were home to Eagle Films from 1916 to 1920 before Norman purchased the complex. Jacksonville was a leading film production site at the time, home to about 30 silent film studios before the industry centered itself in California.
Plans are underway to restore and reopen the Norman Studios campus as a center for film history, research and tourism. The landmark designation request for the property came from the Historic Commission itself.
The McIntosh property, at 1009 Jessie St., includes a two-story building and a single-family residence. McIntosh conducted research on sickle cell disease in the office building and lived in the residence.
The property is owned by Fatima and Noriko Floyd, who requested the landmark designation. It is in the Eastside neighborhood, about a half-mile north of the Jacksonville Fairgrounds.
With the commission’s recommendation, the landmark requests go to the Jacksonville City Council.
If approved there, the landmark designations would require a review of any request to renovate, alter or demolish the properties to determine whether they met guidelines for historic preservation.
The property owners and developers would have to obtain a certificate of appropriateness from the Historic Commission to work on the properties.