Pasadena Playhouse

Gilmor Brown's touring company stopped in Pasadena in 1916 and stayed. A thousand residents put up the money for this building, designed by Elmer Grey and opened in 1925. The school Brown added in 1928 ran five stages at once and turned out Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, and Leonard Nimoy. The legislature named it the State Theatre of California in 1937, after the company had performed the whole of Shakespeare. Brown died, the money went, it closed in 1969, and it reopened in 1986.

What the plaque says

Considered Elmer Grey's outstanding design, the Pasadena Playhouse, an excellent example of Spanish Colonial Revival architecture, opened on May 18, 1925. The first in America to stage Shakespeare's 37 plays, the Playhouse has provided the theatre world with quality and excellence, and trained many of its stars. The Legislature proclaimed it the State Theatre of California in 1937.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Colorado Street Bridge — 1.5 mi
  Beaux-Arts concrete arches curving 150 feet above the Arroyo Seco, opened in 1913 and later a link in Route 66.
• Mission San Gabriel Arcangel — 3.8 mi
  The fourth Alta California mission, built on Tongva land with Tongva labor, rebuilt after arson and now telling that story straight.
• Santa Monica Pier — 23 mi
  Where the Mother Road runs out of continent, and where the End of the Trail sign gives the drive somewhere to finish.

More markers nearby

• Pacific Asia Museum (Grace Nicholson's Treasure House of Oriental and Western Art) — 0.2 mi
• The Gamble House — 1.4 mi
• Old Mill — 1.9 mi
• Governor Stoneman Adobe, Los Robles — 2.1 mi