State Alms for an Old Cathedral

The earthquake cracks snaking around the cupola of St. Vibiana’s Cathedral give the abandoned church the sad look of a listing layer cake. With the Roman Catholic Archdiocese’s new Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels rising a few blocks away, St. Vibiana’s has looked more like the city’s past than its future. But action expected soon in Sacramento offers promise that the historic 1876 cathedral can come to life again in a new, imaginative form.

Developer Tom Gilmore last year bought the Main Street property, which includes the abandoned church and adjacent rectory and school buildings. Gilmore’s arguably quixotic dreams for the decrepit old buildings he’s rehabbing on other downtown blocks have earned him local plaudits and a reputation as a maverick. As part of his plan for the St. Vibiana’s site, rechristened Cathedral Place, Gilmore would renovate the church into a performing arts center. Surrounding it would be a small hotel, restaurant, apartments and a city library. With interest in the project from Cal State Los Angeles, which is anxious to extend its reputation in the performing arts, Gilmore’s plan looks plausible.

But the first hurdle is getting the money to repair the 124-year-old cathedral, which took a big hit in the 1994 Northridge earthquake. The Legislature, in an important step, is expected to approve $5 million for seismic retrofitting of the cathedral as part of next year’s budget. That amount, half of what Assemblyman Gil Cedillo (D-Los Angeles) had originally hoped for, nonetheless would be a signal to investors of this project’s viability.

Gov. Gray Davis should approve the funding. Gilmore needs the momentum it would provide to put together the remaining $10 million for the performing arts center--as well as the millions more he’ll need for the other components--so groundbreaking can begin as scheduled next June.

The failure of other efforts intended to revive downtown’s historic core--the Los Angeles Theatre Center on Spring Street, for example--means that the success of Cathedral Place is far from assured. But if Sacramento helps to realize some of Gilmore’s creative ideas, this one will have a lot going for it.