Broadway Theatre District, Los Angeles, CA
The six blocks on Broadway between Third and Ninth streets in downtown was a major theatrical and commercial center in Los Angeles from the 1890s through the early 1930s. The Mason Opera House (now demolished) opened theatrical development in this district in 1903 and a number of other theatres followed in the 1910s and 1920s, with district's popularity peaking in the 1920s. The opening of new theatres like the Egyptian (1922) and Chinese Theatres (1926) in Hollywood began the slow decline of the importance of the Broadway district, and the pace increased with post-WW-II suburbanization.
However, the area retained a level of commercial vitality, including becoming a popular set of venues for Spanish-language films in the 1960s. The National Park Service listed the Broadway Theater and Commercial District in the National Register of Historic Places in 1979, and expanded the district's size in 2002. Preservation and redevelopment efforts began in earnest in the 1980s.
Remarkably, most of the old Broadway theatres were still around in some form when I visited in 2013, although I only managed to get photos of a handful. Many of the theatres had been repurposed into churches, film sets, storage or storefronts, with limited (if any) time spent as venues for public film screenings or live theatre. (BringingBackBroadway.com, NHRP Designation)
