Pasadena Playhouse

Architect: Elmer Grey
Year: 1925
Style: Spanish Colonial Revival
City: Los Angeles, CA

Pasadena Playhouse grew out of the Little Theatre Movement when actor-director Gilmor Brown began producing plays at a renovated burlesque theatre in 1916, forming a community association that raised funds in 1924 to build a permanent home at 39 South El Molino Avenue. Completed in 1925, the 686-seat theatre was designed in Spanish Colonial Revival style by Pasadena architect Elmer Grey, with a fire curtain painted by local artist Alson S. Clark.

the building

The fire curtain. The theatre's fire curtain was painted by Pasadena artist Alson S. Clark, an original 1925 detail that ties the Playhouse's community-theatre origins to Pasadena's own art scene.

the style

Elmer Grey designed the Playhouse in Spanish Colonial Revival style, giving the community theater the tower and facade associated with civic buildings of 1920s Pasadena.

the architect

Elmer Grey was a Pasadena-based architect who designed the Playhouse for the community theater association founded by Gilmor Brown.

significance

Pasadena Playhouse is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

nearby

First Trust Building and Garage 370 ft · Mediterranean Vernacular · 1927
Singer Building 0.1 mi · Spanish Colonial Revival
Odd Fellows Temple 0.2 mi · Spanish Colonial Revival · 1918
Edmund Blinn House 0.3 mi · Prairie School · 1905
Miss Orton's Classical School for Girls 0.3 mi · Colonial Revival · 1900
Theodore Parker Lukens House 0.4 mi · Queen Anne

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