Jack_07132016

PHOTO: COURTNEY CLARK FOR JACK
The Florida Theatre
PHOTOS: PROVIDED FOR JACK
The Florida Theatre
Downtown’s historic theater
on Forsyth Street was built in the
1920s on land that had housed an
old jail. Listed on the National
Register of Historic Places, the
likes of Elvis Presley graced the
theater’s stage back in its heyday.
And according to local lore, the
auditorium is home to some guests
who haven’t left the building.
Steve Christian’s CW17 show
“Local Haunts” explores haunted
places in and around Jacksonville,
and he says he has seen ghosts
here on two occasions.
The first time,
Christian says his
crew caught an
apparition of a
man on camera.
The video, which
is available on the
“Local Haunts” channel on
YouTube, seems to indicate a man
sitting in Section 500, Row E, Seat
2. When Syfy Channel’s “Fact or
Faked” tried to debunk the video,
the cable-channel’s crew found
even more evidence to support
paranormal activity, Christian says.
For his second visit to the
theater, Christian added Pamela
Theresa to the crew. Theresa, who
bills herself as a Medium in the
Raw (and has a CW17 show by
the same name), told the “Local
Haunts” cast and crew that the
spirit of a little girl was in the
theater. The girl, according to
Theresa, died from a fall off the
STEVE CHRISTIAN
balcony.
“We were shooting promo
footage and the stage was the
backdrop,” Christian says. The
crew didn’t even know the girl
was there until Theresa mentioned
her. “Pamela knew she was there
and commented she was there.” It
wasn’t until the crew reviewed the
footage after the fact that they
saw the girl appear on
camera.
What was visible
to them was only the
tip of the iceberg.
Christian explains
that Theresa can see
and interact with all
the spirits that occupy
the theatre, a number he placed at
about 50.
And high school rules
apparently apply in the afterlife.
“There’s a hierarchy of ghosts,”
Christian says. “Pamela says
whoever comes to the theater had
to have some sort of tie to the
theater. They run out anyone who’s
not tied to it.”
Downtown’s Underground
Not many people know about
the series of tunnels that used to
connect a portion of Downtown
Jacksonville. Although time
and progress have sealed some
entrances, the tunnels were used by
banks as early as the late 1800s for
massive vaults that stored transport
money.
Gary Sass, a tour guide for Ad
Lib Tours and River City Haunts,
often visits one particular tunnel
and vault located beneath 121
Atlantic Place.
“We’ve had things move in
here,” he says about the strange
CONTINUED ON PAGE 22
Pamela Theresa
Medium in the Raw
JULY 13-26, 2016 | jack 5