103 Abbott Kinney Pier Venice (Los Angeles), CA 90291 | map - approximate |
Opened: 1908 or earlier. It was on the south side of the pier only about a half block west of Ocean Front Walk. The pier, an extension of Windward Ave., had opened in 1905 as part of Abbott Kinney's Venice of America project. The theatre didn't get a listing in the 1907 Santa Monica and Venice city directory.
In a 1908 listing in a Venice Timeline
compiled by Jeffrey Stanton for the site Westland.net it was noted: "Fire
fighters saved the Abbot Kinney Pier when a fire broke out near the
Venice Theater at midnight October 26th." The assumption is that the theatre referred to was this venue although it could have been the Venice Auditorium, farther out on the pier.
The 1911 Santa Monica city directory lists a Mr. F.A. Johan at Windward Pier, Venice under the "theatres" category. In the 1912 Santa Monica city directory the proprietor of the Venice Theatre was listed as H.F. Yount. It's listed as "Venice Theatre Venice Pier" in the 1913 city directory. The Auditorium was also listed that year as well as the Neptune Theatre on Ocean Front Walk.
Closing: Sometime before 1915. It's not in the 1915-1916 Santa Monica city directory. On the 1919 Sanborn map the location is seen as a shooting gallery. The pier burned in 1920.
A new pier was constructed for the 1921 season with various attractions
added over the years. It had a dance hall but no theatres. It came to an
end in 1946 when the City of Los Angeles wouldn't renew its tidelands
lease and wanted it dismantled.
The theatre is indicated as "Moving Pictures" in this detail from image 34 of the 1909 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map for Santa Monica that's in the
Library of Congress collection. Ocean Front Walk runs up the right side of the image.
The space was being used as a shooting gallery in 1918. It's a detail from image 62 of the 1918 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map for Santa Monica that's in the
Library of Congress collection. Also see a larger view from the 1918 map showing the
full pier.
A 1920 view of unknown provenance that appears on the
Wikipedia page about the Abbot Kinney Pier.
A detail from the 1920 image above. The green circle in the upper left is
the
California/Venice Theatre, opened in July 1920. Over to the right
near the coaster is the site of the Venice Theatre
that was on the pier. By the time of this shot it had been
turned into a shooting gallery. Way out on the pier it's the
Venice Auditorium, built in 1905.
The pier was destroyed by fire on December 20, 1920. The cause was an explosion from a gas heater in the Dance Pavilion. This December 21 view from the Ernest Marquez collection is on the
Huntington Library website. The St. Mark's Hotel, seen in the background, was spared in the fire. The space that had once been the Venice Theatre is straight ahead on the right.
Looking
out to where the
Venice Auditorium had been. The tower is from the pier's
airplane ride. The December 21, 1920 photo from the Ernest Marquez
collection is another appearing on the
Huntington Library site.
Celebrating Christmas 1920. On the right it's a tree, a bandstand, and the St. Mark's Hotel. The buildings along Ocean Front walk were spared only because of a sudden change in the direction of the wind. The photo is from the collection of the Santa Monica History Museum. This one and the one below were shared in a post on the Museum's
Facebook page.
Another shot of the ruins from the Santa Monica History Museum. On the right we're looking up Windward Ave. The hotel was at the corner of Windward and Ocean Front Walk.
Looking west from Ocean Front Walk in search of the vanished pier. Photo: Bill Counter - 2019
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