by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
It’s not very often that someone gets to spend their entire 25-year career with the City working in the same building. Jobs change, assignments change and it’s not unusual for a whole department to pack up and relocate.
One of the exceptions to the rule is Joe Collier, whose face is probably familiar if you spend any time at all on Forsyth Street near The Florida Theatre. He has worked for the City at the combination theater and office building since it became municipal property in 1985 but Collier’s career at the historic building began quite a while before that.
“When I came to work here in 1977 they were still showing movies in the theater,” said Collier.
The first paycheck he ever collected from working in the building was from Florida State Theaters, a company owned by American Broadcasting Company which, said Collier, operated movie theaters and scenic attractions like Silver Springs and Weeki Wachee in addition to radio and television stations.
Collier can recount the building’s modern history because he has seen it happen every day.
Shortly after he came on board, the theater closed and fell into disrepair, but the attached building remained a hot property.
“This always was valuable office space because it was within walking distance to the courthouse and City Hall,” said Collier, referring to the seven-story office building that opened in 1927 along with the theater. Over the years there has been a steady stream of tenants including some well-known names.
“There have been a lot of attorneys who had offices in the building over the years. Eddie Farah had his first law office right here on the second floor,” said Collier. “Bill Hixon (of Neptune Beach surf shop fame) had his real estate office here in the building.”
Collier remembers the day the movie theater closed in 1979 and the period that began three years later when the Arts Assembly of Jacksonville mounted the campaign that saved and then restored the auditorium. It celebrated its grand reopening on Oct. 1, 1983 and about a year and a half later the City purchased the building.
“I’ve been here through four owners,” said Collier, who was the first person the City hired when the building became the public’s property. “City ownership has been very positive. It has provided resources that weren’t available before.”
Before the City bought the building he was the maintenance supervisor. He became an air conditioning and heating technician via the City’s Human Resources job description format. Erik Hart, president of The Florida Theatre, calls Collier “Joe the Building Guy.”
Collier said no matter how his title has changed over the years, he has always done a little bit of everything to keep the building humming.
“I even repaired a high-heeled shoe one time,” he recalled.
One of the things that has changed over the years that he misses most, Collier said, is the building’s elevator operators. They were let go in 1990 and replaced by a modern push button system. Collier isn’t sure it’s a real improvement.
“I miss a lot of things about those ladies,” he said. “They would stop between floors and tell you the joke of the day.” Before the City stationed a guard at the front door, “They provided the building’s security because they knew who was here and where they went,” added Collier.
He’s planning to retire in October and Collier realizes he’s had a unique work experience.
“I’ve been really lucky to have been able to work in the same place for so long,” he said.
Even though there haven’t been any elevator operators in the building for years, part of the historic restoration involved keeping the original controls.
356-2466