A Jacksonville couple announced plans to restore a once historic structure in Jacksonville’s Downtown Square.
Rabbi Rob & Lauren Thomas announced on Thursday their plans to rebuild the Strawn Opera House on the south corner of the square. The Strawn Opera House building, last occupied by Trone Appliances, will be dismantled down to the ground and rebuilt and restored back to as close to its original look as modern construction and materials will safely support. Using old photographs of the original building, the Thomases intend to make the ground floor of the building a restaurant, retail, or entertainment space. The upper floors will provide office space and apartments. One addition will be a clock tower, with a clock on all four sides, and placed so it can be seen as one approaches and tours the square.
In 1861, Jacob Strawn provided the funding to build the Opera House, known as Strawn’s Hall and later the Strawn Opera House, at what is now 31 S Central Park. It had seating for 1,000 persons, and hosted famous persons such as Mark Twain in 1869, and Oscar Wilde in 1882. It would burn down on 27 June 1887. The two-story building would continue to see uses as Kline’s Department Store and And Baby Makes Three up until 1988, when the rear portion of the building would collapse. The second story was then scraped off the top of the building and a new roof was installed, and until recently was home of Trone Appliances.
The Thomases say that the construction on the “new” Strawn Opera House will not begin until the Spring of 2025.