Broadway Theater and Commercial District
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Broadway Theater District
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Broadway Theater District streetscape
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| Location | 300—849 S. Broadway, Los Angeles, California |
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| Coordinates | 34°2′48″N 118°15′4″W / 34.04667°N 118.25111°WCoordinates: 34°2′48″N 118°15′4″W / 34.04667°N 118.25111°W |
| Architect | Multiple |
| Architectural style | Early Commercial, Late 19th And 20th Century Revivals, Art Deco |
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| Added to NRHP | May 9, 1979 |
The Broadway Theater District in Downtown Los Angeles is the first and largest historic theater district listed on the National Register of Historic Places. With twelve movie palaces located along a six-block stretch of Broadway, it is the only large concentration of movie palaces left in the United States.
Stretching for six blocks from Third to Ninth Streets along South Broadway in Downtown Los Angeles, the district includes 12 movie theaters built between 1910 and 1931. By 1931, the district had the highest concentration of cinemas in the world, with seating capacity for more than 15,000 patrons. Broadway was the hub of L.A.'s entertainment scene – a place where "screen goddesses and guys in fedoras rubbed elbows with Army nurses and aircraft pioneers." In 2006, the Los Angeles Times wrote:
"There was a time, long ago, when the streets of downtown Los Angeles were awash in neon—thanks to a confluence of movie theaters the world had never seen before. Dozens of theaters screened Hollywood's latest fare, played host to star-studded premieres and were filled nightly with thousands of moviegoers. In those days, before World War II, downtown L.A. was the movie capital of the world."
Columnist Jack Smith called it "the only large concentration of vintage movie theaters left in America." Smith recalled growing up a mile from Broadway and spending his Saturdays in the theaters:
"I remember walking into those opulent interiors, surrounded by the glory of the Renaissance, or the age of Baroque, and spending two or three hours in the dream world of the movies. When I came out again the sky blazed; the heat bounced off the sidewalk, traffic sounds filled the street, I was back in the hard reality of the Depression.
In the years after World War II, the district began to decline, as first-run movie-goers shifted to the movie palaces in Hollywood, in Westwood Village, and later to suburban multiplexes. After World War II, as Anglo moviegoers moved to the suburbs, many of the Broadway movie palaces became venues for Spanish-language movies and variety shows. In 1988, the Los Angeles Times noted that, without the Hispanic community, "Broadway would be dead." Jack Smith wrote that Broadway had been "rescued and revitalized" by "the Latino renaissance."
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