College Theatre

Also not to be confused with the College Theatre that was located across the street from the Vista Theatre, possibly where a Blockbuster Video now sits. That College Theatre was in business in 1925.

The College Theatre was part of the Bard's Theatre chain. The Bard's Theatre chain included the Hill Street (later the Town)& the Olympic in Downtown Los Angeles, Vista in East Hollywood, Academy in Pasadena, Glen in Glendale, Garfield in the Alhambra area and the West Adams (Fox Adams)in Los Angeles.

Was there ever a college near this theatre? How did it get its name?

At one time there were at least two colleges in downtown Los Angeles. One of them, St. Vincent's, was probably gone by the time this theatre opened. It was located on the block of 7th Street between Broadway and Hill, where Bullock's Department store was later built in 1905 or 1906. The college left its name to the alley that ran between Bullock's two buildings, St. Vincent's Court.

The other college might have still been downtown, though. This was one of the California State Normal Schools (teacher's colleges) and was originally located on the block where the central library was later built. I'm not sure when it moved, but it was relocated to the Vermont Avenue site that is now the campus of Los Angeles City College. The State Normal School became Los Angeles State College, and the two schools shared the Vermont Avenue Campus until the state college moved again, to its current site adjacent to the Long Beach and San Bernardino Freeways, where it was eventually renamed California State University at Los Angeles.

Of course, there is USC just down Figueroa. It is the largest employer in the City of Los Angeles.

But USC isn't anywhere near West 4th and Hill.

UCLA was on Vermont in South Los Angeles before moving to Westwood. That campus was later occupied by Pepperdine before they moved to Malibu.

The ornate front of Bard's College Theatre can be seen in this July, 1928 photograph of Hill Street north from 5th Street, from the USC digital archive. The building to the theatre's left is the old California Club, at the northwest corner of 5th and Hill, demolished to make way for the 1930 art deco Title Guarantee Building. The theatre may have been demolished at the same time.

OK, Joe, I need your help again. This photo is supposed to 7th and Broadway in 1927. The theater isn't the Town, nor is it the College, as seen in your picture above. Was there another Bard's on Broadway? I would like to post this photo on the correct page:
http://tinyurl.com/qxn8c

ken: It's another case of a mislabeled photo. The view is west along Eighth Street from Broadway, and the theatre is Bard's Eighth Street, later called the Olympic. stevebob already posted a link to this photo there in a comment on November 30th, 2005 (about halfway down the page.)

OK, thanks. I wasn't sure where to look.

Some of the USC links have expired, so here is Joe's 1928 photo again:
http://tinyurl.com/jp6rz

Here is a 1917 lawsuit involving the College:
http://tinyurl.com/y8yp89

I don't know if this has been posted, but the USC site has been changed, so here's a good photo of the College Theater:

http://digarc.usc.edu/search/controller/asset/chs-m17905/CHS-6975

I've wandered around the huge parking lot at 5th and Hill/Olive looking for traces of the College and the Philharmonic building. If I walk around in circles for too long, people start giving me their spare change.

I think this would have been where the new building is attached to the Title Guaranty Building on the Hill side. I've been watching them clean that building every day and its pretty amazing how new it looks with all the dirt gone.

The Title building is on the corner. The other tall white building, name unrecalled, was at 437 or 439 S. Hill, I think. The College and some other little buildings were on either side of the tall building. I think those little buildings disappeared pretty early.

The College Theatre was immediately adjacent to the old California Club building which was demolished to make way for the Title Guaranty Building.

Here's another picture where you can see the edge of this theater.

http://digarc.usc.edu/search/controller/asset/examiner-m2592/EXM-P-S-LOS-ANG-CIT-BUI-060

Take a look at the house that was there before the theater:

http://digarc.usc.edu/search/controller/asset/chs-m2074/CHS-2465

The building I was trying to recall was the Bank of Commerce. Here's a 1920 photo. The College is between the bank building and the Subway Terminal:
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics37/00068252.jpg

Ken: that picture is much later than 1920. I don't think that Walker & Eisen's National Bank of Commerce Building was completed until 1928. It replaced the old Masonic Temple, which was demolished early in 1925. The site was then used as a temporary location for P.E.'s Hill Street Station while the Subway Terminal was being built. After the terminal opened, the Bank of Commerce Building was built.

But the California Club is still on the corner....could it have been demolished and the Title Guarantee built by 1929-1930 if the photo is that late?

The California Club occupied the building at 5th and Hill from 1904 until 1930. I think construction of the Title Guarantee building began in 1930 and it was completed in 1931.

The library has this .pdf of a brochure on Art Deco Los Angeles published by the L.A. Conservancy. It gives the dates of development for the Title Guaranty building as 1929-1931.

You can see both the College and what may be a Peoples theater in this USC photo:
http://tinyurl.com/yrhj8u

This photo had me stumped for a while. If you compare it to the one directly above, it appears that the smaller buildings were the site of the Subway Terminal building, which was completed by 1928 if the date on the preceding picture is correct. The College unfortunately would be a little further south and is out of the picture:
http://tinyurl.com/2enk47

ken mc & joe vogel....I'd like to share an overlay map I'm working on for the stretch of Main from Alameda to Olympic in six sections. If you're interested, send me an email. It's in pdf form. It's 1906 overlayed on 2007. jeff@vokoban.com

ken mc & joe vogel....I'd like to share an overlay map I'm working on for the stretch of Main from Alameda to Olympic in six sections. If you're interested, send me an email. It's in pdf form. It's 1906 overlayed on 2007. jeff@vokoban.com

Two pictures of the Hill St. College Theatre about nine-tenths of the way down at

http://www.csulb.edu/~odinthor/socal8.html

The earliest references to the College Theatre in the California Index cite mentions in The Rounder, a weekly magazine. The September 17, 1910 issue features the theatre on its cover and on page 16 (my guess would be that this was on the occasion of the theatre's opening), and the October 15 issue that year announces the appearance at the College Theatre of the Lillian May Lancaster Orchestra. Sounds as though it was not yet a movie house.

The only reference I can find on the Internet to a Lillian May Lancaster is one naming her the composer, lyricist and performer of a song called "Laura" published in 1907, and giving her the aka Maude Leota Byrd. Well, now she'll have a reference at Cinema Treasures, too. Hey, Lilly May fans!

Here is a 1923 architect's sketch of the Subway Terminal building. It looks like they photoshopped the theater out of the drawing:
http://jpg3.lapl.org/pics50/00074553.jpg

This is an April 1928 ad from the LA Times. Not much to do with the College, saving that Mr. Bley's office was a block away, but it's an interesting snapshot of pre-Depression America.

THEATER

Be a movie theater owner. Big opportunity. Moderate capital required. Houses low as $1500. Easy terms.

MEL BLEY PROPERTIES. THEATERS AND LEASES SINCE 1889. WE WILL FINANCE YOU.
345 So. Hill Street, Ground floor.

"WE WILL FINANCE YOU". Try and get a deal like that today.

Judging from this photo, probably taken between 1928 and 1930, it looks as though the College Theatre might have been converted to retail use even before the old California Club (foreground, on the corner) was demolished. At least the facade of the building (adjacent, to the right of, the California Club) had been flattened and de-decorated, and it looks like there are ordinary store awnings in front, rather than a theater marquee.

Photo is another from the Dorothy Peyton Gray Transportation Library and Archive.

The market may be the former theater in this 1955 photo from the USC archives:
http://tinyurl.com/c3atky

Here is the location today:
http://tinyurl.com/qu8mc6

The market in the 1955 photo was too far up the block to have been in the theater building. The theater was adjacent to the California Club's building at the corner of 5th, and the market was several doors north. You can see it in the photo I linked to in my previous comment.