Prior to 1912, the Beacon Building lot stood vacant. In 1912, D. Kugelman & Co. bought the lot and hired the S.F. Fulghum &Co., General Contractors to build a new home for their business. In 1921, the Greenhut Company, a wholesale grocer occupied half of the building, until D. Kugelman bought back the building for the National Dry Goods Company. The dry goods company ran the building until the Pensacola Cigar & Tobacco Company purchased the building. Once again, the building changed hands, and the Southern Liquor Distributors Inc. operated out of the building until it became vacant in 1959.

The City of Pensacola bought the building in 1973 and opened the first floor as “The Beacon,” a nightclub for high school students that featured live bands. The club lasted until the building fell into disrepair. Following this period of vacancy the Pensacola Historical Society moved their headquarters from Old Christ Church and into “The Beacon” in order to accomadate their growing archives.

In 2014, both floors of the Beacon Building underwent significant renovations. In October of 2014, the Beacon Building re-opened as the Voices of Pensacola, offering multicultural exhibits for visitors to view, an oral history recording studio, and an archives run by the UWF Historic Trust.

Credits and Sources:

Rachel Riley, “Norman Simons Building: The Beacon,” (Thesis, University of West Florida, 2012).

Photographs courtesy of University of West Florida Historic Trust