SANTA ANA : Broadway Theater to Be Torn Down

The Broadway Theater, once among the largest and most glamorous film palaces in Orange County, will be demolished during the next few months.

The city bought the 1926 theater four years ago for $900,000 and officials were considering restoring it. But before the city could make a decision, an early-morning fire gutted the theater one year ago this week.

The city Redevelopment Agency has received $457,365 in insurance money for the building and will use the funds to pay for demolition of the 1,600-seat theater to make way for a redevelopment project.

“It probably would have been demolished even if the fire had not taken place,” said Robert B. Hoffman, the city’s redevelopment and real estate manager. “We spent some time trying to figure out what the rehabilitation potential of the theater might be and didn’t see too many uses for a theater that size. It was just too large.”

Last year’s fire is not the first to hit the once-thriving movie house. A fire in 1952 resulted in the modernization of an outside facade--and the removal of much of the theater’s historic character, Hoffman said.

Diann Marsh, vice president of the Santa Ana Historical Society, agreed.

“The theater had a beautiful, Moorish revival facade before the first fire in the 1950s,” Marsh said. “After the fire, it was rebuilt in a more contemporary style which made it look much more plain.”

When the theater was originally built, it had 2,040 seats and was the largest theater in Orange County. The first movie screened there was “The Rainmaker,” starring William (Buster) Collier Jr.

The theater stands on part of a five-acre site bounded by 4th, 5th and Ross streets and North Broadway, which has been designated for a major, mixed-use redevelopment project.

“Even if a theater ends up as part of the project, it will not be the Broadway Theater,” Hoffman said.