Friday, May 13, 2011

Miles Memorial Playhouse

The Miles Memorial Playhouse is located at 1130 Lincoln Blvd. in Christine Emerson Reed Park (Formerly Lincoln Park). It was constructed in 1929 after former City Councilman, J. Euclid Miles and his wife Katherine bequeathed $25,000 upon his death for the construction of a public recreation hall for the young men and women of the city and dedicated it to their daughter Mary A. Miles. Designed by John Byers, an architect noted for use of the Spanish Colonial revival style, the building is a City landmark and is eligible for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places.

Over the years Miles Playhouse has been used extensively as a meeting hall and performance venue. In January 1994, the Playhouse was nearly destroyed by the Northridge earthquake. In consultation with the John Ash group and the community at large, the Playhouse was completely re-built and re-dedicated to its original purpose of providing quality, youth appropriate performing arts events by professional non-profit organizations.

The new programming is sponsored by The City of Santa Monica's Cultural Affairs Division: Justin Yoffe, Playhouse Director and Christopher Hall, Associate Director.

1 comment:

Lizzy Tex Borden said...

I used to go here on I think Thursday nights in 1968 or 1969 and they used to have live bands with light shows put on by UCLA or USC (I think)... Iron Butterfly, The Doors and Jimi ruled the day... The room below was lit by blacklights and everybody went down there to smoke (if I remember right)... GREAT times....