Los Angeles Theatres: Belasco Theatre: basement support areas

A plan of the basement from the Morgan, Walls & Clements Archive at the Huntington Library. On their site this is drawing #6781. The boiler room is down toward the lower right close to Hill St. Note the fuel tank indicated as being under the sidewalk. The electrical service switchboard is along the west wall of the boiler room, parallel to Hill St. See drawing #6765 for the basement electrical layout including conduit runs and conductor sizes.

On the Huntington Library site you can start at drawing #6755 and page forward through the full set of 65 images which include structural, electrical, HVAC and sprinkler drawings. The set ends with drawing #6819. Thanks to Mike Hume for locating these. Visit the Index to the MW&C Drawings that Mike has been compiling for his Historic Theatre Photography site. There's also a 22 page index by Mike Callahan on Internet Archive.

A detail from a section drawing showing the various basement levels. Note the supply air plenum below the auditorium floor slab. Click on the image for a larger view. Also see the full section drawing. On the Huntington site that appears one of several views on drawing #6777. Also see a section view from the structural engineer as drawing #6759.

On the far left we're under the stage. Moving toward the front of the building it's the musicians' room, the fan room down a bit lower, then unassigned space and the toilet/lounge areas under the inner lobby. The boiler room, on the right, is under the south storefront space with the space under the ticket lobby and north storefronts unexcavated. The sidewalk line is at the far right.

The main service switchboard layout as seen on drawing #6770.

A 1926 Mott Studios look at the fan room under the middle of the main floor seating area. Part of the air handling plenum was above the ceiling we see here. This area was later cleared out to become part of a basement events area and the ceiling removed. The photo is in the California State Library collection, in their set # 001415584 that contains ten photos of the Belasco.

The boiler. Photo: Dave Bullock - 2007. Many thanks to Dave for his terrific set of over thirty photos appearing in a Belasco album on his site eecue.com.

From the ladies lounge, a look in along the boiler toward the new electric service. We're looking west toward Hill St. Photo: Bill Counter - 2017

Sump pumps. Photo: Dave Bullock - eecue - 2007

Light fixtures stored in the basement. Photo: Dave Bullock - eecue - 2007

Surplus seats. Note the wire hat holders on the bottoms. Photo: Dave Bullock - eecue - 2007

In the plenum looking at more seats and parts from a dismantled switchboard. Photo: Dave Bullock - eecue - 2007. Thanks, Dave!

Looking into the plenum from a doorway backstage right. It got converted into an events space in 2011. Live Nation is calling it "The Chamber." Beyond that center column there's a door with a green exit sign above that goes out to the ladies lounge area. Photo: Bill Counter - 2023

A look under what had once been the orchestra pit. At the top of the image we're looking at the slab below what had been the front row of seats. Photo: Bill Counter - 2023

The stage at the south end of the space. Photo: Bill Counter - 2023

Looking toward the orchestra pit from the lobby end of the space. The doorway at the left goes through the proscenium wall to the stage basement. Behind us is a door going out to the men's smoking room under the house left end of the lobby. Photo: Bill Counter - 2023

A look from in from the doorway out to the ladies lounge under the house right end of the lobby. That's the stage for this space on the right. Photo: Bill Counter - 2023

Los Angeles Theatres

Belasco Theatre: basement support areas

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