Comments from keiem

Showing 2 comments

keiem
keiem commented about Atlantic Theater on Mar 21, 2006 at 10:48 am

The Atlantic Theatre was formerly determined eligible for the National Register of Historic Places in 2003. The following is the text excerpted from the determination’s statement of significance:

“The building at 5870-5874 Atlantic Avenue was constructed in 1940 as the Atlantic Theatre, according to records in the Los Angeles County Tax Assessor Archives and an entry in the October 1940 issue of Southwest Builder & Contractor. Constructed for owner Ivan C. Hanson as a movie theater with an adjacent commercial space, the building was designed by architect Carl Heinrich Boller and built by the Stivers Brothers Company of Long Beach. The Hanson family retained ownership of the building through the 1960s.

“The Kansas City architectural firm of Boller Brothers (also known as Carl Boller and Brother) specialized in theater design and were the architects of movie houses throughout the Midwest between 1902 and circa 1950. Carl Heinrich Boller (1868-1946) began his architectural practice about 1902 in St. Joseph, Missouri, doing designs of theaters for vaudeville circuits. In 1905, he opened an office in Kansas City, Missouri, and within a year brought his younger brother, Robert Otto (1887-1962) into the business as a draftsman. After service in the United States Army Corps of Engineers (1918-1919), Robert returned to the practice as a full partner and the firm name changed to Boller Brothers. With the boom in building movie theaters throughout the country, the brothers’ work expanded to the point that by 1920 they established an office in Oklahoma to handle business in that state. In the next year, Carl moved to Los Angeles, California, with Robert remaining in Kansas City. The architects’ papers and collections are held by the Western Historical Manuscript Collection at the University of Missouri in Kansas City.

“Carl Boller is a nationally recognized Los Angeles architect who is credited with designs for movie theaters all across the United States. At least ten of Boller’s buildings located in six different states have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Boller was also a prolific architect in Los Angeles and southern California during the 1920s through the 1940s. In addition to the Atlantic Theatre, Boller is credited with designs for the Inglewood Theatre (Inglewood, 1922), the Ritz Theatre (Long Beach, 1924), the Largo Theatre (Watts, 1924), the Corona Theater (Corona, 1929), and the Stadium Theatre (Los Angeles, 1931), as wells as theaters in Montrose, Santa Ana, and Covina.”

keiem
keiem commented about Reseda Theater Revival on Jul 27, 2005 at 2:21 pm

The Community Redevelopment Agency of the City of Los Angeles is the agency involved.