The Street Seen: Santa Monica Municipal Auditorium
2850 Ocean Front Walk Between Kinney and Ashland
The Santa Monica Municipal Auditorium opens in 1921 and is used for community programs until the late 1950s, when it becomes part of Pacific Ocean Park. The structure is destroyed by a fire in 1974.
To attract the convention business, Ocean Park hotel (George Merritt Jones) and pier (Ernest Pickering) interests want an auditorium built - at taxpayer expense. A site is selected - just north of the Pickering Pier, between Kinney and Ashland Ave, on the western (ocean) side of the Promenade.1
To make the bond issue palatable to taxpayers, it is sold as a Band Stand2 Bond issue (“Make a Stand for the Band and Bonds”) - and a children’s playground and parking are added to the project. North Santa Monica is unlikely to support the tax, so a special assessment district - everything south of Pico - is created. The $375,000 Band Stand Bond election requires a 2/3 vote to pass. On May 17, 1920, of the 2211 eligible voters - 1044 vote for and 350 against the bond. Most of the money ($240,000) is for purchasing the site3 from the estate of L. A. Thompson (1848 – 1919).4
The Municipal Auditorium is designed by Clarence H. Russell (1874 - 1942).5 The $56,500 contract for the building is awarded to Los Angeles contractor John Simpson & Co. The oceanfront Municipal Auditorium and parking pier are supported on 140 wood piles. Construction begins in December 1920 and the Municipal Auditorium is dedicated in October 1921 - “a triumph of civic progress.“
The auditorium seats 1,600 and the parking pier has space for 100 automobiles. To help pay bond interest and building maintenance, the City proposes to lease a 50 ft strip on the south side of the Municipal Auditorium to concession businesses. Local merchants are hostile to this competition, and the proposal is dropped.
A Band Plaza with seating for 6,000 is located in front of the Municipal Auditorium. The 30-piece Tommasino Band, considered to be one of the finest bands in the nation, performs twice daily (2:30 p.m. and 8 p.m.), under a long-term contract.
A 1924 fire that destroys the adjacent Pickering Pier causes $10,000 damage to the Municipal Auditorium.
From 1926 through 1928, am radio station KNRC6 broadcasts live from the Municipal Auditorium.
The Municipal Auditorium is used for community events into the late 50s.
In 1958,7 the Municipal Auditorium is re-purposed as part of Pacific Ocean Park (1958 - 1967).8
The Municipal Auditorium contains the USS Nautilus exhibit9 and the Westinghouse Enchanted Forest exhibit.10 The facade of the Municipal Auditorium becomes the backdrop to Neptune’s Grotto.
Pacific Ocean Park closes in 1967. Outstanding back rent on the Municipal Auditorium and other property causes Santa Monica to sue POP, leading to POP’s involuntary bankruptcy.
The Municipal Auditorium structure is destroyed by fire in 1974.
The Municipal Auditorium site was formerly occupied by Dragon Gorge - an elaborate L.A. Thompson scenic railway that is destroyed in the 1912 Fraser Pier fire.
From 1912 to 1947 the City of Santa Monica funds a highly regarded Municipal Band. In the early years, the professional military-style concert band is heavily comprised of Italian immigrants.
The City purchases 400 ft (at $600 / foot) of oceanfront property from Pier to Ashland, and from the tide line to Ocean Front Walk. Due to the accretion of beach sand, the definition of “tide line” will become an issue in the late 1960s.
LaMarcus Adna Thompson (1848 – 1919), owner of the L. A. Thompson Scenic Railway Company of New York, is best known for his early work developing roller coasters and for inventing the scenic railway genre of rides. Thompson's scenic railways are immensely popular during the first and second decades of the 1900s, and his company operates dozens of scenic railways throughout the U.S. and in Europe. Thompson owns extensive Ocean Park beach property.
Architect Clarence H. Russell (1874 - 1942) also designed the 1926 BPOE lodge and clubhouse at Main & Pier.
Radio station KNRC (now KABC-790) moves from Los Angeles to the Santa Monica Municipal Auditorium in 1926. The radio station is owned by Kierulff and Ravenscroft who are distributors of Crosley Radios.
In 1928 Pickwick, San Diego owner of bus lines and hotels on the Pacific Coast, acquires the KNRC radio station. Pickwick already owns a station in San Diego, and adds another in San Francisco, and forms the Pickwick Broadcasting Corporation to operate their new stations.
The Santa Monica Civic Auditorium on Main St. near Pico opens in 1958.
Most of the Pacific Ocean Park (POP) land is owned by the City of Santa Monica and leased to POP. In 1957, Santa Monica grants POP a 25-year lease on the Municipal Auditorium.
The U.S.S. Nautilus exhibit features a 150ft model of the Westinghouse atomic reactor section from the world's first nuclear submarine.
Westinghouse Enchanted Forest exhibit features a fully completed modular home of the future along with a room full of modern-day electronic appliances.
