Place
Downtown Jewelry Exchange/Warner Bros. Theatre
The 1920 Pantages Theatre, a nine-story steel-framed building designed by architect B. Marcus Priteca, was the city鈥檚 second theatre (and the country鈥檚 sixteenth) built for the namesake vaudeville circuit.
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Photo by Annie Laskey/L.A. Conservancy | Photo by Annie Laskey/L.A. Conservancy
The 1920 Pantages Theatre, a nine-story steel-framed building designed by architect B.聽Marcus Priteca,聽was the city鈥檚 second theatre (and the country鈥檚 sixteenth) built for the namesake vaudeville circuit. It聽is a richly ornamented Beaux Arts structure that includes聽a 2,200 seat theatre, shops, and offices on the upper floors.
In 1929, the theatre became the Warner Bros. Downtown Theatre and eventually Warren’s Theatre. When the theatre finally closed in 1975, it was used as a church and then converted into retail space as the Downtown Jewelry Exchange in the late 1980s.
Vestiges of its Warner Bros.聽legacy remain. 聽The familiar Warner Bros. emblem is visible behind the current diamond motif above the buildings鈥 corner marquee.聽The parapet continues to read 鈥淲arner Bros. Downtown Bldg.鈥
Despite the building鈥檚 new use, much of the interior of the theatre鈥檚 baroque ornamentation remains. The elaborate coved auditorium ceiling features a sunburst mural surrounded by Egyptian, Oriental, Greek, and Roman figures. The figures are still intact, although a modern chandelier obscures the sunburst. Flanking the stage are the original Corinthian columns.
