The Cotton Club Building

Side One: Soldiers built this wood-frame building in 1940-1941 as a Post Exchange for Camp Blanding in Starke. It was later the Perry Theater, Cotton Club, and Blue Note Club. William and Eunice Perryman, who owned a grocery store on East Depot Avenue (later SE 7th Avenue) in Gainesville’s Springhill community, bought the building in 1946.

They had it moved to this site, closer to their store, and opened it as the Perry Theater, serving African Americans only. A cement projection room was added to the building’s north end, a requirement for theaters that stored highly flammable celluloid movie film. Operating from 1948-1949, the theater only survived a short time because African Americans in Gainesville also patronized the all-black Lincoln and Rose theaters on Seminary Lane (NW 5th Avenue) in a thriving black commercial district.

After the Perry Theater closed, the building became a “big band” club operated by Sarah McKnight, an African American entrepreneur. McKnight and her husband, Charles, named it the Cotton Club after the famous Harlem speakeasy and nightclub. The Gainesville Cotton Club sold food, alcoholic drinks and provided live music and dancing, hosting African American performers working the Chitlin’ Circuit.

Side Two: According to the McKnights, entertainers who appeared at the Cotton Club and went on to achieve broader fame included James Brown, B.B. King, Ray Charles, Brook Benton, and Bo Diddley. In 1952, the City of Gainesville refused to renew the club’s liquor license and the lively run of the Cotton Club came to an end.

From 1953-1959, the building housed another entertainment venue, the Blue Note Club. It had a jukebox for entertainment and beer was the beverage of choice. However, it never attained the popularity of the Cotton Club. When the Blue Note Club closed in the late 1950s, the building was used as a furniture warehouse until 1970, after which it remained vacant.

In 1995, the building, along with the five others on the site, was sold to Mt. Olive African Methodist Episcopal Church, which sits on the southwest corner of the site. In 1997, the Cotton Club Museum and Cultural Center Board was established to oversee the restoration of the original club building.

It was incorporated in 2005 and received non-profit status in 2007. A ribbon-cutting ceremony on November 11, 2018, marked the completion of the building’s reconstruction.