Venice Theatre: on the pier

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.

 

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. 

 

Looking west from Ocean Front Walk in search of the vanished pier. Photo: Bill Counter - 2019

 

More information: Visit Jeffrey Stanton's terrific Venice History Site hosted on Westland.net. Don't miss his Venice Timeline and the article on the Abbott Kinney Pier.  Also see a separate Venice History section on the site that was compiled by others.

Other Venice history resources are listed at the bottom of the Theatres Along the Coast survey page here on this site. And see the page about the Venice Auditorium, farther out on the pier.

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