Fire Guts Historic Art Deco Mayfair Theater in Ventura

A historic Art Deco theater in downtown Ventura that entrepreneurs hoped to revive as a swing-dance hall was severely damaged Thursday in an early morning fire.

The blaze gutted the long-shuttered Mayfair Theater at Ash and Santa Clara streets, leaving only the building’s thick outside walls, ticket office and elaborate neon marquee.

Eyewitnesses said flames erupted shortly after 1 a.m., and firefighters arrived to find a man and a woman standing on top of the marquee.

They were taken down by ladder, treated for smoke inhalation at Ventura County Memorial Hospital and released, officials said.

Loss of the theater is a setback to the city’s plans for restoring historic buildings and turning its aging downtown into an arts and tourism district.

Ventura residents and twin sisters Tammy Finocchiaro and Terri Moore, 35, were trying to purchase the theater for their Flyin’ Lindy Hoppers swing-dance group, which performs nationally and holds classes and dance events.

On Thursday they stood on their front porch, directly across Ash Street from the theater, and watched firefighters battle the blaze.

“Do we give up? Not necessarily, but to get the smoke out and rebuild is a lot more industrious project than we had before,” a weary Moore said, looking over the charred structure.

The sisters had just cleared a major hurdle Tuesday, when the Planning Commission unanimously approved a permit to allow them to turn the theater into a dance hall. After hearing about the loss Thursday, Curt Stiles, 62, a commission member, said he had looked forward to the theater’s proposed renovation and recalled watching movies there as a child.

“That’s a part of my history going down the tubes,” he said. “Every kid in town went there.”

Firefighters searched the interior of the building, known as a haven for transients, and determined no one was inside, said Rod Smith, commander for the Ventura Fire Department.

Within an hour the fire destroyed most of the interior, including the 59-year-old theater’s original chairs, Art Deco chandeliers and the building’s vaulted redwood roof.

Ten fire engines and three trucks fought the flames.

Cause of the blaze is still under investigation, but officials are looking into the possibility that transients might have started it, said Assistant Fire Chief Bill Rigg, although he said an aging wiring system might also be to blame.

There is no property loss estimate yet, Rigg said. Stephen Sisca, who manages the property for the theater’s Los Angeles-based owner, S.D.H. Properties, said the land and building are valued at about $675,000.

Jeffrey Gothro, 30, and Sheryl Scott, 32, the pair rescued from the roof of the marquee, said they had been staying in an upstairs room at the theater since Aug. 8, after being evicted from the Hamilton Hotel in downtown Ventura.

The couple said they had pulled a mattress and down comforter through a loose door in the back of the theater and taken up residence in an upstairs room.

“It’s kind of embarrassing, I’ve never been homeless before,” Scott said when she and Gothro returned to the theater after the fire to retrieve their bicycles. “You try and find a place to live for a month and it burns down.”

Scott said another transient living in the downstairs area had set out some candles Wednesday night. But that man, Hasira Sutton, 23, denied being in the building before the blaze broke out.

Built in 1941 by S. Charles Lee, a prominent Art Deco theater architect, the building started life as the Mayfair Theater and showed first-run films for decades.

But it gradually fell on hard times and in the 1970s was painted pink and reincarnated as the Pussy Cat Theater, showing X-rated movies. In the early 1990s local entrepreneurs painted it sky blue and tried to run it as a coffeehouse that showed art movies. But that effort also failed.

The building then sat empty for years, attracting transients and pigeons, with only its marquee and stylish gold light fixtures a reminder of its former glory.