Opened: c.1879 as Turnverein Hall. The venue hosted lots of musical events in its early years. It was in the middle of the west side of the block between 2nd and 3rd. This 1895 photo is in the Los Angeles Public Library collection. On the right it's the Lyceum Theatre, 227 S. Spring St., a building that had opened in 1888 as the Los Angeles Theatre and was later the Orpheum.
Before the street renumbering the address of the Hall would have been 125 Spring. It's in the 1879-80 and 1881-82 city directories with that address. In the 1884-85 and 1886-87 and 1888 directories it has a 137 S. Spring address. This was the second location for the organization. The first Turnverein Hall had been at 1345 S. Figueroa St., a building constructed in 1872.
The Turnverein left in 1894 and moved to yet another new building at 323 S. Main St. that would later be known by many names, including the Regal Theatre. This Spring St. venue became the Music Hall. The 1896 city directory calls it the Music Hall Block with an address of 231 S. Spring. Note the lettering on the building's pediment in the 1895 photo.
The Music Hall certainly got the big events. A January 18, 1894 L.A. Times ad read: "Music Hall - 231 South Spring Street - Thoroughbred Poultry, Pigeons, and Pet Stock of the L.A.C. Poultry Association sale will be held in the Music Hall January 16, 17, 18, 19 and 20."
A January 30, 1894 Times ad advised that Mrs. Lillian Plimpton would begin teaching ladies voice culture classes at the Music Hall.
In the early 1900s the building became Elks Hall. It's seen as such in this detail from plate 002 of the 1910 Baist Real Estate Survey from Historic Map Works. The Douglas Building on the northwest corner of 3rd and Spring survives, everything else on the block is gone. The theatre next door to the Elks had become the Orpheum. The circuit would stay there until 1911 when they moved to a new theatre on Broadway, a building now known as the Palace Theatre.
It was perhaps around 1915 when the Elks left and the building was renamed Lyceum Hall.
Status: It's been demolished. The date of its demise is unknown. Photos from the mid to late 30s show that it was then just a vacant lot next to the Lyceum Theatre. The site is now a huge parking garage.
c.1897 - A view of the Music Hall and Los Angeles Theatre published as a souvenir card by J.B. Blanchard & Co. It's from the collection of the California State Library.
1902 - Looking north with Lyceum Hall in the middle of the 200 block with the turrets of the theatre beyond. It was a post of Murray Cohen on the Photos of Los Angeles Facebook page. Thanks to Deanna Bayless for spotting the post on Facebook. The USC Digital Library has a fuzzier version of this photo with no writing on the bottom from the California Historical Society. They date it as c.1905.
c.1905 - Looking south on the west side of Spring with Lyceum Hall on the far right. Note the antlers above the entrance. It was an Elks hall at the time. Thanks to J. Scott Shannon for including the card in his Los Angeles Past blog post "South from 250 Spring, in the Aughts." He notes: "The balcony and archway are both hung with black crepe, indicating mourning, and there's a portrait of the deceased in the center of the balcony's railing."
The towers of the Ramona Hotel are down across 3rd St. In the late 1890s Tally's Phonograph and Vitascope Parlor was in one of the Ramona's storefronts. Brent Dickerson has a version of this card appearing in the "Spring Street Part 1" chapter of his delightful tour "A Visit to Old Los Angeles."
1920 - A photo from the Los Angeles Public Library collection.
c.1930 - Perhaps our last look at Lyceum Hall. The signage on the left side of the doorway is calling it the Lyceum Athletic Club. Next door the Lyceum Theatre has installed equipment for talkies. It's a Los Angeles Public Library photo.
c.1935 - The Lyceum Theatre would stick around until 1941. Here the end panel of the marquee is advertising "Best Programs Ten Cents." The Lyceum Hall site next door has been turned into a parking lot. It's a photo from the Los Angeles Public Library collection.
2019 - The 213 Spring parking garage now occupies the center of the west side of the 200 block. We're looking south toward the Douglas Building (Weeks & Day, 1898) on the northwest corner of 3rd and Spring. Photo: Bill Counter
More information: See the website of the Los Angeles Turners for a bit of history of the Turnverein organization. The site has a pdf of an article "Los Angeles Turners Still Growing Strong" that offers some data.
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