P1. Other Identifier: Elektra Theatre, Electra Theatre, Mission Theatre, Teatro Mission, Columbia Theatre, Teatro Columbia, Lyric Theater, Teatro Lyrico, Teatro Tower; P-56-152196.
DPR 523A (9/2013) *Required information
State of California C The Resources Agency Primary #
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI #
PRIMARY RECORD Trinomial
NRHP Status Code 5S3
Other Listings
Review Code Reviewer _______ Date
*P2. Location: Not for Publication Unrestricted
*a. County Ventura and (P2c, P2e, and P2b or P2d. Attach a Location Map as necessary.) *b. USGS 7.5' Quad Santa Paula, CA Date 2022 T 2N; R 23W; Sec 00; San Bernardino B.M. c. Address 982 E. Main Street City Santa Paula Zip 93060 d. UTM: (Give more than one for large and/or linear resources) Zone 11S, 310517 mE/ 3803295 mN e. Other Locational Data: (e.g., parcel #, directions to resource, elevation, decimal degrees, etc., as appropriate) APN# 103011309
*P3a. Description: (Describe resource and its major elements. Include design, materials, condition, alterations, size, setting, and boundaries)
The Tower Theater is a single-story, rectangular-plan movie theater. The building is of unreinforced masonry but includes an exposed metal frame seismic stabilization completed in 2003. The Tower Theater has a flat roof clad in rolled asphalt. Its north-facing front elevation is stucco clad, and the building exhibits both Mission and Moderne design features. (Please see continuation sheet, page 3.) *P3b. Resource Attributes: (List
attributes and codes) HP10. Theater
*P4. Resources Present: X Building
Structure Object Site District
Element of District Other (Isolates,
etc.)
P5b. Description of Photo: (view,
date, accession #)
*P6. Date Constructed/Age and
Source: X Historic Prehistoric
Both
1911, 1940
*P7. Owner and Address:
Tower Theater LLC
PO Box 97
Ojai, CA 93024
*P8. Recorded by: (Name, affiliation,
and address) Daniel Paul
3938 Vista Court
Glendale – La Crescenta, CA 91214
*P9. Date Recorded:
July 22, 2024
*P10. Survey Type: (Describe) Intensive
*P11. Report Citation: (Cite survey report and other sources, or enter "none.") Tower Theater: City of Santa Paula Landmark Application *Attachments: NONE Location Map X Continuation Sheet X Building, Structure, and Object Record Archaeological Record District Record Linear Feature Record Milling Station Record Rock Art Record Artifact Record Photograph Record Other (List): ____________________________________________ P5a. Photograph or Drawing (Photograph required for buildings, structures, and objects.) 207
*Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Tower Theater *NRHP Status Code 5S3 Page of 46_
DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information
State of California C The Resources Agency Primary #
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#
BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD
(This space reserved for official comments.)
(Sketch Map with north arrow required.)
2 B1. Historic Name: Elektra Theatre, Electra Theatre, Mission Theatre, Teatro Mission, Columbia Theatre, Teatro Columbia, Lyric Theater, Teatro Lyrico, Teatro Tower B2. Common Name: Tower Theater
B3. Original Use: Movie Theater B4. Present Use: Vacant *B5. Architectural Style: Moderne
*B6. Construction History: (Construction date, alterations, and date of alterations) Original construction: 1911; façade and interior renovations: 1922, 1930, 1931, 1940; Ground level façade reconfiguration: 1965; lobby floor covering: c. 1972; seismic stabilization: 2003; removal of interior elements: 2016 *B7. Moved? X No Yes Unknown Date: Original Location:
*B8. Related Features: N/A
B9a. Architect: Unknown (1911); Fox West Coast (1940) b. Builder: W.J. Little (1911) *B10. Significance: Theme Store Theatres, Moderne Design, Spanish Language Film Area Santa Paula, CA
Period of Significance 1911-1973 Property Type commercial Applicable Criteria A,C (Discuss importance in terms of historical or architectural context as defined by theme, period, and geographic scope. Also address integrity.)
The Tower Theater appears to be City of Santa Landmark eligible under Criterion 1, subparts (b), (c), and (f); Criterion 2, subpart (b), and Criterion 3, subparts (a) and (b). First opened as the Elektra Theatre in 1911, the Tower Theater is Santa Paula’s last single-screen movie theater and is Ventura County’s oldest purpose-built movie theater known to exist. The Tower Theater operated as the Elektra Theatre from 1911 to 1919, the Mission Theatre from 1922 to 1929, the Columbia Theatre in 1930, and the Lyric Theatre between 1931 and 1938. In 1940, the Fox West Coast movie chain transformed the building into the Tower Theater, and the Moderne-styled design elements from this renovation are still present. While operating as the Mission Theatre (Teatro Mission), Spanish-language programming began at the venue c.1925, when a manager named Stephen D. Brown undertook open and proactive outreach efforts to Santa Paula’s sizeable Mexican-origin community (La Colonia). For La Colonia, Brown geared a generous amount of his programming, which included live acts (variedades), Mexican cinema, and Hollywood movies with Mexican stars. Available information indicates that Brown operated Teatro Mission as a non-segregated venue. The Tower Theater is one of only two known Ventura County theaters historically emphasizing Spanish-language programming, which the Tower Theater continued until its 1973 closing. (Please see continuation sheet, page 8) B11. Additional Resource Attributes: (List attributes and codes) *B12. References:
(Please see continuation sheet page 45)
B13. Remarks:
*B14. Evaluator: Daniel Paul
*Date of Evaluation: July 22, 2024
208
*Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Tower Theater *NRHP Status Code 5S3 Page of 46_
DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information
State of California C The Resources Agency Primary #
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#
BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD
3 DESCRIPTION, ctd.
The theater’s front elevation is highly symmetrical in composition. Its centered, slightly recessed entry program features a set of recent wood double doors, each containing a prominent, vertically bisected half of painted glazing that together, when closed, form a full circle. The doors have wood molding and wood panels contoured in correspondence to each half-circle. Flanking each door is a recent wood panel of 3/3 six molded bays that appear to have been installed for filming purposes. The center bays contain a ray-like motif. Each of these panels fronts symmetrically arranged full-height wood frame glazing that is only visible from inside the lobby. A four-lite wood frame transom tops the entry program, and its square-form glazing is presently painted. Just above the transom windows that top the entry, a row of painted wood shims appears to stabilize the marquee, where it adjoins the front façade. The centered entry program is slightly recessed between the front elevation’s projecting, rounded outer bays. Centered within each outer bay is a large poster display window. The display windows are latched, have metal frames, and are set within a metal casing of scallops and standing seam moldings.
A milled aluminum metal vent is centered above each display case. Running along the ground level, the lower portion of each outer bay is fronted by a base molding of blackcolored ceramic tiles.
A Mission-styled (“Espadana”) parapet, original from 1911, tops the Tower Theater’s front elevation. At its center is a semicircular, shouldered arch. The parapet includes symmetrically placed dipping ridges, then a small, projecting, tab-like cap off the roofline at either end. Each contains a centered, square-shaped divot, and the entirety of the parapet is lined with block molding. Wood braces support the parapet from behind, and additional wood braces upon the roof support the Bennison Block building to the east.
Projecting off the building’s front elevation is a prominent, full-length marquee of the kind commonly seen upon small-town single-screen movie theaters during the first half of the 20th century. The angled, symmetrical marquee projects outward over the building’s main entrance, which it tops, providing a canopy against the elements for theatergoers. The marquee is made of painted sheet metal, and its underside possesses a stylized pattern of a centered circle flanked by triangles and channeled linework. A multitude of recessed circular light wells, originally housing spotlights, are presently empty and run along the underside’s outer edge. The marquee’s letter board is of seven stacked rows and runs continuously across its projecting sides. Bands directly above and below the letter board have empty circular sockets for since-lost neon tubing. The marquee’s center portion is topped with a semicircular arch and shoulders, reiterating the Mission-styled roof parapet 209
*Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Tower Theater *NRHP Status Code 5S3 Page of 46_
DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information
State of California C The Resources Agency Primary #
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#
BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD
4 directly behind it. The outer edges of this marquee parapet are scalloped. Running up the marquee’s center at its upper portion is a blade element containing a foliate-like pattern in white neon tubing akin to leaves, topped with a bud. Topping either angled side of the marquee is the word “Tower,” made of metal box lettering in a rounded, slant-forward Moderne style and fronted with white neon tubing. The entry program is fronted by a narrow strip of hexagonal porcelain ceramic white floor tiles with a single, sparse row of periodic black tiles.
Fit between other commercial buildings on either side, the Tower Theater does not have visible east or west-side elevations. The property’s rear elevation faces south onto an alley and is made of poured-in-place concrete. The grain and seams from wood boards used to pour the concrete in place remain, running along the rear elevation in its entirety.
The rear elevation includes two symmetrically arranged doorways, one at either end, and in front of each rear door is a disintegrating concrete pad. Each rear door is metal and is topped by a large, square transom that is presently wood-boarded. An inset wood lintel separates the entry from the transom above it. Running the outer edge of each entry and its transom is an unusual surround of periodic wood beam ends flush to the elevation.
The rear elevation’s upper portion contains two symmetrically arranged vents, each covered by a recent metal screen. The vent to the east has a plastic PVC pipe projecting outward approximately ten inches beyond it. A concrete block molding runs the entirety of the rear elevation’s roofline. What appears to have been an auxiliary structure off the rear elevation has been removed, evidenced by circular holes where the structure was once located, the rear walls, and the remains of a partial, unusual concrete pad in front of it. Two additional vents are present at the ground level, and they provide ventilation for the basement space beneath the stage.
Interior
At the Tower Theater’s entrance, the floor covering seen at the exterior entry, consisting of white hexagonal ceramic tiles with sparse black tile patterning, continues just inside the entryway into the foyer. Beyond this flooring, the rest of the foyer is clad in recent, smaller-scale beige ceramic tile. The foyer space has a flat ceiling of painted open wood framing. The west-side walls in the foyer feature narrow, built-in wood shelves and wood cabinetry, in addition to a wall with curved, rounded corners, all of which appear to date to 1940.
210
*Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Tower Theater *NRHP Status Code 5S3 Page of 46_
DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information
State of California C The Resources Agency Primary #
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#
BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD
5 From within the foyer, the building’s primary entry double doors, which are recent singleleaf wood doors, are boarded, with extra board over their semicircular glazing. The doors have recent brass hardware. The decorative wood panels flanking the entry doors on the outside reveal themselves from within the foyer to be covering substantial, single-pane, wood-frame fixed glazing. To the east of the foyer, off the front elevation, is another smaller room: an open-sided, vestibule-like space with a floor of recent-era beige-colored floor tiles with brown patterning accents. The original use of this side room is presently unknown, though it may have been a concession area. A small bathroom with ceramic square tiles is present. The bathroom contains a recent toilet and sink. At the foyer’s west wall elevation is an extremely narrow wood-framed doorway, behind which is a steeply rising, narrow stairwell with tall, boxed wood treads. This steep, narrow stairwell ends at a landing at the far western end of the theater’s second floor, which has a projector room and restroom. The projector room has a recent plywood floor, and punched out of its south wall are seven wood-frame square projector portals of variegated placement and slightly different dimensions. Electrical boxes and 1940s-era monitors, including a 1940sera “Clampmatic” circuit box, are present at the projector room’s south wall.
To the east of the projector room is a small bathroom with a wood floor and an older white porcelain toilet. A narrow, rounded-edge wood counter topping a wood cabinet is also present, as are built-in metal shelves at the room’s southwest corner. Off the projector room’s north wall is a narrow set of five ladder-like wood steps that lead to the wood-floored internal space of the front elevation’s projecting marquee. Within it, two older projector lamps are stored: a Peerless “Magnarc” Type F high-intensity lamp and another film projector by the National Projector Company. Also present is an earlier rectangular-form metal film projector with “Moon Auto” written upon it.
The rear wall of this crawl space has what appears to be a deco-styled cracked vinyl wallpaper treatment in brown, orange, turquoise, seafoam, and rose coloring. Visible in the crawl space’s north wall is a centered, semicircular vent, open to the outdoors and fronted by a grill of thick gauge metal wire. No longer visible from the public right-of-way, the vent is an original, Mission-styled design element of the Espadana parapet topping the building’s north-facing front elevation.
The Tower Theater’s auditorium is located just beyond the foyer, divided from it by a party wall having three punch-out entries: a standard centered entryway flanked by arched entries. The auditorium space is presently gutted. No seats are present within it, and its floor is wood board. At the space’s far south end, toward the building’s rear 211
*Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Tower Theater *NRHP Status Code 5S3 Page of 46_
DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information
State of California C The Resources Agency Primary #
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#
BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD
6 elevation, is a low, raised wood stage of untreated wood. Though a stage was likely present in this area, this stage appears to be a reconstruction. The stage floor is wood plank, and its outer corners are chamfered. At the stage’s rear portion, where it meets the south wall, its floor opens to reveal a subterranean space that likely served as a dressing room for the live acts the theater frequently hosted from 1911 to 1940. This subterranean area is accessed by a connected wood step ladder with open wood treads. The basement is one subterranean story, has a concrete floor, and walls of concrete cladding and exposed wood frame. Its length and width dimensions roughly correspond to those of the stage itself.
The east and west, lengthwise side walls of the auditorium feature a full-length decorative band of Moderne-styled abstract circular motifs, inset with alternating horizontal and vertical half-circle patterns. Between each circle are vertical groupings of fluted-like molded board work. The circle motifs are in keeping with the circle work on the marquee’s underside. Slightly in front of the west-side wall are full-height square posts that contain steel columns, a recent seismic mitigation measure. The south-end wall is presently covered in recent wood board. The auditorium’s original ceiling has been removed, revealing an open framework of unpainted redwood trusses and king posts, and above them, the present ceiling is clad in full-length cladding of wood plank members. Recent metal shop lights presently hang from the open wood frames.
Alterations and Integrity
Before becoming the Tower Theater, the subject property, though always a movie theater, had multiple different iterations. According to historic-era press, most of these iterations included façade changes and interior renovations that, over the years, incorporated the changing of seats, the screen, acoustic, floor and wall materials, projectors, and even the rake of the floor. Available historic-era building permits are sparse but include a 12/31/1964 permit for the reduction of the entryway’s depth, pushing the main entry toward the street, and removing the standalone box office once centered within the entryway. A necessary seismic stabilization project proposed since the early 1980s occurred in 2003, and it is at that time the replacement stage is believed to have been installed and the raked floor removed. In 2016, the City undertook the clearing of a variety of interior elements, including acoustical elements, drapery, and the screen, among other elements.
By that point, the theater had been closed for 40 years. The theater’s concession and other lobby elements have been removed, with only the lobby space itself remaining, in addition to some instances of built-in shelves and wood cabinetry. The Tower Theater’s lower portion, including large, full-height wood-frame windows and single-leaf wood double doors, are fronted with reversible decorative wood panels that appear to be recent and may have been installed for filming purposes.
212
*Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Tower Theater *NRHP Status Code 5S3 Page of 46_
DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information
State of California C The Resources Agency Primary #
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#
BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD
7 The Tower Theater retains integrity of location, as an unmoved building situated between two other contemporaneous buildings, including the Bennison Block to the east, with which it was constructed in 1911. The Tower Theater’s Main Street setting is intact and unchanged. This setting includes adjacent and connected Santa Paula Main Street commercial buildings that predate World War I. The Tower Theater’s integrity of design, with its 1940 Moderne-styled façade, marquee, and circle motif auditorium wall murals, are all retained, as is the exterior Espadana parapet that is original to its 1911 construction. Regarding its design, the rake of its floor was lost after 1980 when necessary seismic stabilization occurred within its auditorium, but the interior still retains other elements, such as its projection and rewind rooms, arched entryways between the lobby and the auditorium, cutaway openings for past projectors, a small stage, and a small subterranean space, presumably used as a dressing room for vaudeville acts. Though possibly in-kind, the wood stage above it appears to be a reconstruction. The spatial dimensions of the Tower Theater’s auditorium appear to be retained. The Tower Theater’s integrity of materials is lost on account of the gutting of the auditorium, including the loss of seats, a movie screen, and any and all cloth or acoustical materials, which the auditorium is presumed to have had over the course of its operation. Some elements of workmanship, such as decorative brick capitals, ceramic tile work, and detail work upon the marquee, remain, but demonstrations of significant workmanship are otherwise not evident upon the building, which from its start was a vernacular construction. Largely due to its façade, the Tower Theater’s integrity of feeling is retained as a 1940s-era single-screen movie theater. The Tower Theater’s integrity of association to Stephen Brown is lost. However, largely on account of its façade and marquee, the Tower Theater retains integrity of association to movie theater history in Santa Paula.
Character Defining Features
Exterior:
- 1940 marquee with neon accents, original letter boards - Moderne styled rounded, slant-forward script atop the marquee - Stylized circle and triangle motif in channeled metal at marquee’s underside - Mission-styled Espadana parapet with centered metal grill-like screen (screen is hidden behind marquee)
- Decorative segmental arched corner towers with square divots at façade roofline - Block molding at parapet
- Metal framed poster display windows
- Symmetrically placed full-height wood frame windows at front elevation (presently obscured by recent wood panels)
- Rounded corners at entryway
- Small-scale white-colored hexagonal ceramic floor tiles at entrance, inset with blacktiled row patterning (inside and out) - Scored concrete sidewalk in front of entrance
213
*Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Tower Theater *NRHP Status Code 5S3 Page of 46_
DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information
State of California C The Resources Agency Primary #
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#
BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD
8 Interior:
- Party wall with three-part entry; square entry flanked by arched entryways - Multiple cut-out square-shaped wood-framed projector portals - Narrow wood stair to upper level with boxed wood treads - Auditorium wall murals with Moderne-styled, abstract design of colored circles, periodic vertical “columns,” and horizontal framing in wood board trim - In-built wood step ladder off the projection room into the marquee cubby - In-built cabinetry and shelves at upper-level bathroom with round-cornered elements - 1940s-era in-built monitor lighting equipment
- In-built wood shelves and cabinetry in the lobby
- Subterranean dressing room (wood stage above it appears to be in-kind but recent) Significance
The Tower Theater appears to be City of Santa Landmark eligible under Criterion 1, subparts (b)(c) and (f); Criterion 2, subpart (b), and Criterion 3, subparts (a)and (b).
City of Santa Paula Criterion for Designation of Landmark Application (Santa Paula City Council Ordinance No. 816, Section 1, 17.55.080) (1) Historical & Cultural Significance
(a) The proposed landmark is particularly representative of a distinct historical period, type, style, region, or way of life. (b) The proposed landmark is an example of a type of building which was once common, but is now rare.
(c) The proposed landmark is of a greater age than most of its kind. (d) The proposed landmark is connected with a business or use which was once common, but is now rare.
(e) The architect or builder was locally or nationally renowned. (f) The site is the location of a significant local or national event. (2) Historic Architectural & Engineering Significance
(a) The construction materials or engineering methods used in the proposed landmark are unusual or significant or uniquely effective. (b) The overall effect of the design of the proposed landmark is beautiful, or its details and materials are beautiful or unusual.
(3) Neighborhood and Geographic Setting
(a) The proposed landmark materially benefits the historic character of the neighborhood. (b) The proposed landmark in its location represents an established and familiar visual feature of the neighborhood, community or city. 214
*Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Tower Theater *NRHP Status Code 5S3 Page of 46_
DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information
State of California C The Resources Agency Primary #
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#
BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD
9 Eligibility Discussion
The Tower Theater was subject to one prior historic resources evaluation in May 1981 as part of the “Ventura County Cultural Heritage Survey: Phase I – Santa Paula” report. Judy Triem and Mary Alice Henderson completed DPR 523a and b forms for the property. The analysis ascribed for the resource a [pre-2003] State California Historical Resource Status Code of 5D: “eligible for local listing only.” The prior historical resources evaluation is on file in the CHRIS (California Historical Resources Information System) under file number P-56-152196. The present evaluation concurs and reiterates the local eligibility status of the Tower Theater. Please see the attached DPR set completed in conjunction with this analysis.
Criterion 1:
The Tower Theater is City of Santa Paula Landmark eligible under Criterion 1, “Historical & Cultural Significance,” pursuant to subparts (b), (c), and (f). Criterion 1, subpart (b), specifically states that a property can be eligible if “The proposed landmark is an example of a type of building which was once common, but is now rare.” The Tower Theater is the only purposebuilt, single-screen movie theater left in Santa Paula; two others once existed. Single-screen movie theaters, with their adorned façades and marquees, were once a staple feature of Main Streets across the U.S., a circumstance that has become increasingly and exceptionally rare over the last 40 years with the advent of video rental, multiplexes, and streaming media.
Criterion 1, subpart (c), states that a Santa Paula property can be a landmark if it is of greater age than most of its kind. Originally constructed as the Elektra Theatre in 1911, based on available information, the subject building is the oldest purpose-built movie theater in Ventura County. Over 110 years old, the former Elektra Theater is a “store theater” property type, sometimes referred to as a nickelodeon, which predates the advent of the movie palace and hearkens back to a transitional period when popular American recreation was moving away from vaudeville and toward the moving picture. The Elektra’s 1911 opening is approximately 15 years after projection and motion picture technologies were first coupled and presented to the public.
Santa Paula Landmark Criterion 1, subpart (d), states that a Santa Paula property can be a landmark if “the proposed landmark is connected with a business or use which was once common, but is now rare.” The subject property is an early single-screen motion picture venue, once also associated with vaudeville acts. Additionally, for much of its existence, the subject venue was historically associated with Spanish-language cinema, which has seen the loss of virtually every one of its movie houses across the region and beyond. Finally, Santa Paula Landmark Criterion 1, subpart (f), states that a property can be locally eligible if the site is the location of a significant local or national event. Starting in 1925, Mission Theatre manager Stephen Brown began Spanish-language programming, opening his theater to La Colonia. Based on available press information in La Voz de la Colonia (La Voz)—Santa Paula’s 215
*Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Tower Theater *NRHP Status Code 5S3 Page of 46_
DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information
State of California C The Resources Agency Primary #
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#
BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD
10 Spanish-language newspaper, which ran from 1926–1932—Brown appears to have done so in a wholly unsegregated manner. The advent of Spanish programming at Teatro Mission predates that of Ventura County’s other major Spanish-language venue, Teatro Boulevard, which would not even open until 1928. It might also be noted that on Christmas Eve of 1911, Elektra manager Duke Briggs focused the evening’s programming on a variety of Mexicanthemed films and events, a remarkably early instance of such programming, and possibly the first in Ventura County.
Criterion 2:
City of Santa Paula Landmark Criterion 2 allows for the landmarking of properties relative to their architectural and engineering significance. Subpart (b) of Criterion 2 affords eligibility for a property if “the overall effect of the design of the proposed landmark is beautiful, or its details and materials are beautiful or unusual.” The Tower Theater appears to meet this criterion through the integrity of its Moderne-styled façade and marquee, in addition to the abstract circle motif relief murals that remain in the Tower Theater auditorium. Movie theaters, which before the advent of television were often regularly renovated, used “up-to-date” designs as a form of currency and marketing. The Moderne style, with its industrial design influences, itself intended as up to date, was frequently used in 1930s and 1940s-era movie theaters, including many designed by the noted architect S. Charles Lee, who may or may not have undertaken the Tower Theater renovation but who did design other Tower Theater locations and worked for Fox West Coast at the time the company completed the subject renovation.
Criterion 3:
Under City of Santa Paula Landmark Criterion 3, subparts (a) and (b), the Tower Theater, with its richly expressive Main Street-facing Moderne styled façade and marquee, materially benefits the historic character of Santa Paula’s Main Street. The fact that Santa Paula’s Main Street possesses an early-era store theater, the oldest remaining venue known to exist in Ventura County, is also of material benefit and historic character to the City of Santa Paula and its Main Street. Of similar character to the public-facing right-of-way for nearly the last 85 years, the Tower Theater’s Moderne style façade and marquee represent an established and familiar visual feature for Santa Paula. Additionally, the Mission-styled Espadana parapet, with its decorative brick corner towers and block molding, are elements that have provided material benefit to Santa Paula’s Main Street for over 110 years Period of Significance: 1911-1973
The Tower Theater’s period of significance begins with the 1911 construction of the building as an early store theater and the oldest known purpose-built moving picture venue in Ventura County. 216
*Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Tower Theater *NRHP Status Code 5S3 Page of 46_
DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information
State of California C The Resources Agency Primary #
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#
BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD
11 The period of significance concluded in 1973, when the Tower Theater closed. At the time of its closing, it was one of only two Ventura County venues with a primary focus on Spanish-language films, a function the property retained since the mid-1920s.
Early History:
The Elektra Theatre was constructed in 1911 in conjunction with the adjacent, two-story Bennison Block building, which is still extant at the southwest corner of Tenth and Main Streets. W.J. Little, of the firm Lidamore & Little, a local builder that completed various Santa Paula residences, including the Ramsey House, was the contractor for the combined project.1 The Elektra Theatre’s original owner was Thomas Gale (“T.G.”) Robinson, who, beginning one year earlier in Santa Paula, had operated the “Electric” Theatre in a former box ball bowling space on Main Street.2 Shortly after opening the Elektra, Robinson sold it to his manager, Ventura butcher A.D. “Duke” Briggs, in November of that year. Briggs operated the Elektra until 1917.3 The Elektra Theatre opened on October 21, 1911, with a double feature of unknown titles and featured the “Mexican orchestra.”4 Perhaps even more prescient to its future use, that Christmas Eve the theatre featured “exclusive Mexican films, showing the late Mexican Revolution, the Taft-Díaz meeting at El Paso and Juárez, the centennial parade in Mexico City, and the most exciting bullfight ever shown.”5
Historic Context Statements
Store Theatres
The Elektra Theatre is a “store theatre” building type. Commonly sandwiched between other buildings in main street settings and presenting eye-catching facades to the street, store theatres, according to author William Paul, were the first dedicated movie theatres and “were where movies came into their own as a new art form.”6
Store theaters are closely related to the better-known
“nickelodeon,” with differences among movie theater scholars regarding the application of one term versus the other, or the interchangeable use of both terms.7 The advent of the term “nickelodeon” 1 “Rushing Bennison Building,” Santa Paula Chronicle, August 18, 1911, 1. 2 [“T.G. Robinson”], Santa Paula Chronicle, December 24, 1909, 7; Sanborn Map Company, Santa Paula, CA (New York: Sanborn Map Company, 1912), sheet 10. 3 [“A.D. Briggs”], Santa Paula Chronicle, November 17, 1911; “L.H. Baumgartner Buys the Elektra,” Santa Paula Chronicle, October 18, 1917, 2. 4 [“The Opening Night”], Santa Paula Chronicle, October 27, 1911, 1. 5 [“The Elektra Theatre”], Santa Paula Chronicle, December 22, 1911, 1. 6 William Paul, When Movies Were Theater: Architecture, Exhibition, and the Evolution of American Film (New York:
Columbia University Press, 2016), 65–66. 7 Paul, When Movies Were Theater, 65; Maggie Valentine, The Show Starts on the Sidewalk: An Architectural History of the Movie Theater, Starring S. Charles Lee (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1994), 23–24. 217
*Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Tower Theater *NRHP Status Code 5S3 Page of 46_
DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information
State of California C The Resources Agency Primary #
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#
BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD
12 appears to have been tied more to programming than to architecture, with the first usage of the term occurring in Pittsburgh in 1905 at a venue that was itself a converted storeroom. The parlance of “store show” was common industry nomenclature at the time of their construction.8 Store theaters possessed common dimensions and features: a shotgun-like box-form massing, typically with a 25- to 30-foot street-facing façade and a depth of 50 to 100 feet. The Tower Theater has a 30-foot frontage and a 100-foot depth.9 Though movie-focused, with all elements working toward the screen, vaudeville acts still occurred in their spaces. Even today, despite the loss of its screen, seats, and raked floor, the Tower Theater retains a subterranean dressing room that opens directly onto a small wood stage.
The first purpose-built movie theater of any kind is believed to be Tally’s10 Electric Theatre, constructed in Los Angeles in 1902. By 1908, just 12 years after moving picture and projection technologies were first developed and paired, there were 8,000 movie theaters across the U.S. By 1916, that number had grown to 18,000 theaters—converted, purpose-built, or otherwise—with a daily attendance of 16 million.11
Unlike earlier live performance venues with their highly elevated box opera seats, such seating offered no practical advantage for viewing a motion picture. Due to their oblique angles, these seats were actually worse than those at ground level, which faced the screen head-on.12 For its ability to provide entertainment to the multitudes and its lack of overt hierarchies within its auditoriums, the store theater typology was intrinsically democratic and quickly became an affordable entertainment medium for the masses—”a sort of people’s forum,” according to a 1914 article in the trade journal Moving Picture World.
13 To generate income in relatively small spaces—the Elektra seated approximately 350—store theaters changed movies frequently to keep audiences returning. At one time, the Elektra was presenting four separate programs per week.14 Early moving pictures were relatively short in length and were commonly coupled with musicians and live acts of various kinds. The Elektra, like many 8 S.S. Hutchinson, “Kinematography in the United States,” Moving Picture World 21, no. 2 (July 11, 1914): 175–76, quoted in Paul, When Movies Were Theater, 62. 9
“The Brickbuilder Annual Architectural Terra Cotta Competition,” The Brickbuilder 22, no. 11 (November 1913):
xxxviii, cited in Paul, When Movies Were Theater, 62. 10 Valentine, The Show Starts on the Sidewalk, 22. 11 Paul, When Movies Were Theater, 63. 12 Ibid., 35. 13 W. Stephen Bush, “The Triumph of the Gallery,” Moving Picture World, December 13, 1913, 1256, cited in Paul, When Movies Were Theater, 71. 14 [“The Elektra Theater”], Santa Paula Chronicle, December 15, 1911, 5. 218
*Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Tower Theater *NRHP Status Code 5S3 Page of 46_
DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information
State of California C The Resources Agency Primary #
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#
BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD
13 store theaters, doubled as a community meeting hall and, early in its history, hosted a variety of social service groups, high school fundraisers, religious events, and even cooking classes.
The era of the store theater lasted until 1914, with the advent of more elaborate, standalone venues coupled with longer-running feature films, as opposed to the variety of short films and live acts that store theaters featured.15 Among this new generation of elaborate movie venues was the 2,989-seat Mark Strand Theater in New York, which opened in 1914 and featured the innovative impresario Samuel “Roxy” Rothafel.16 Befitting the movie palace’s elaborate revivalist design, Rothafel transformed the experience into an occasion, with meticulously uniformed ushers, an orchestra, fresh flowers in the lobby, and, most notably, the rearranging of a given night’s performances—films and live acts—into one dense arc over the course of the evening.17 Built at a cost equivalent to $30 million 2024, the Strand was one of the first theaters to usher in the new era of the more opulent, substantially scaled “movie palace” and the escapist, fantasy-oriented experience that it, with Roxy Rothafel’s vision, first enabled. Rothafel, who briefly worked at the 1913 Regent Theatre in New York before landing at the Strand the following year, would later open the Roxy Theater on Times Square and Radio City Music Hall.
Stephen D. Brown, Teatro Mission, and La Colonia
The Elektra Theatre appears to have gone dark in 1919, the last year of U.S. involvement in World War I, but also the year that Santa Paula’s Glen City Theatre opened for business. Once this occurred, the Glen City would be locally known as “the big theater,” and the Elektra as “the little theater.”18 On December 30, 1922, A. Blumenthal reopened the Elektra Theatre as the “Mission Theatre” (the Mission-styled Espadaña parapet atop its façade is original to 1911).19 Blumenthal appears to have quickly sold the business to his manager, James Dodge, who, by the following year, sold it to Edwin L. Franck.20 Franck renovated the theater, revised its façade, and painted the building pure white.21 By 1925, Franck hired Stephen D. Brown as his manager.
Brown was born in Los Angeles in 1880 but spent his teenage years in El Paso, where his family often traveled to Mexico, allowing Brown to become fluent in Spanish.22 15 Paul, When Movies Were Theater, 114–15. 16 Ibid., 113–115. 17 Ibid., 112. 18 Craig Held, “Re: Mission theater,” email correspondence with Jose Alamillo, June 12, 2023; “Bennison Reinforced Concrete Block, corner of Main and Tenth Sts., nearing completion,” photograph, Santa Paula Chronicle, September 29, 1911, 1. 19 “Mission Theatre Opens Saturday with Matinee,” Santa Paula Chronicle, December 28, 1922, 1. 20 “Mission Theatre Sold to Aja, Arizona, Man,” Santa Paula Chronicle, August 2, 1923, 6-A. 21 “Mission Proprietor Goes on Honor Roll,” Santa Paula Chronicle, September 6, 1923, 7-B. 22 Jose Alamillo, “A Brief History of the Mission Theater, Santa Paula, California,” unpublished essay, May 29, 2024, np.
219
*Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Tower Theater *NRHP Status Code 5S3 Page of 46_
DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information
State of California C The Resources Agency Primary #
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#
BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD
14 A substantial wave of Mexican immigration into the U.S. paralleled the 1910 Mexican Revolution, which brought fighting and economic instability to Mexico that lasted into the 1920s. In Santa Paula, many of the new immigrants worked in the city’s sizeable citrus industry. Brown sensed a market, and in 1925 began programming Mexican vaudeville acts (variedades). The Mission Theatre presented a variety of English-language Hollywood films, but those Brown selected often featured stars such as Dolores del Río and Ramón Novarro, who were popular with the local Latino population. Akin to other Spanish-language venues, which ultimately did so for decades longer than Anglo theaters, Brown coupled his film showings with live acts, in both English and Spanish, including a hypnotist named “Dr. Q,” comedy acts, and a Mexican symphony, among others.23 Brown showed Mexican films at Santa Paula High School and ran congratulatory tidings for Mexican Independence Day in La Voz de la Colonia. Shortly after the St. Francis Dam disaster of 1928, Brown directed and showcased a film about Santa Paula, featuring its various commercial areas and residents. He announced the film in La Voz, inviting the community to its screening with the promise that attendees would have “an opportunity to see familiar figures on the silver sheet.”24 By 1927, Brown appears to have formally acquired the business from Franck and continued presenting movies such as The Rose of Fire, The Bells of Capistrano, and Catholic-themed religious films around Easter, all geared toward a Mexican audience.25 Stephen Brown promoted aggressively through a variety of contests and giveaways, including harmonica-playing contests, and prizes such as turkeys, floor lamps, phonographs, and radios. For the ladies, he offered giveaways of silverware, tea services, electric flower baskets, and china.26 Brown featured in-person events with Anglo Hollywood actors, such as Frank Merrill, who played Tarzan, using La Vozto invite Santa Paula’s local Mexican community to take part.27 In December 1929, Brown renovated the Mission Theater to accommodate the new talking picture technology, and the following month, with his programming unchanged, he reopened the theater as the Columbia (Teatro Colombia).
Throughout Brown’s tenure at Teatro Mission and Teatro Columbia, he and Manuel Reyes, the editor of La Voz, appear to have had a strong, symbiotic relationship. Once, when the newspaper was trying to sell subscriptions, Brown offered generous ticket giveaways to those 23 “Enterrada Viva Que Resucitara Mañana,” La Voz de la Colonia, August 22, 1929, 1. 24 “Por El Teatro Mission El 26-27,” La Voz de la Colonia, May 23, 1929, 4. 25 “Después De Seis Días,” La Voz de la Colonia, April 7, 1927, 1; “Gran Película 'La Pasión' El Viernes Próximo,” La Voz de la Colonia, April 28, 1927, 1.
26 “Todos Al Teatro Mission Con Sus Músicas De Boca,” La Voz de la Colonia, November 1, 1928, 2; “Lo Que Habrá En El 'Mission',” La Voz de la Colonia, January 17, 1929, 1. 27 “$25.00 Seran Regalados,” La Voz de la Colonia, August 8, 1929, 1. 220
*Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Tower Theater *NRHP Status Code 5S3 Page of 46_
DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information
State of California C The Resources Agency Primary #
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#
BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD
15 who subscribed. In turn, La Voz wrote glowingly of Brown and his theater, with one passage stating,
“The management of this theater has always known how to more than reciprocate the patronage of this neighborhood, and that is the only one where Mexicans can sit with complete confidence […] the management of this theater spares no cost to acquire films that are pride of our race, as well as since he announces them, he says it very clearly: “FOR MEXICANS" without fear of others getting angry. Mr. Brown has always opened the doors of his showhouse to our race and this is enough to be able to appreciate how much he esteems it. There have been cases in this square of certain places where Mexicans are repulsive, and they have been told clearly, but nevertheless it matters little to our colony.”28
Though presenting English- and Spanish-language film programming on different nights, Stephen Brown appears to have operated his theater in a wholly non-segregated manner, a significant departure from the commonplace practice of segregation in many American towns and locales, including Santa Paula. Dual English and Spanish advertisements from Brown in the Santa Paula Chronicle and La Voz de la Colonia, respectively, announced the same films showing on identical dates and times for Anglo and La Colonia audiences.29 Brown’s Teatro Mission and Teatro Columbia endeavors were not the only Ventura County theaters to show Spanish-language films for a Mexican-origin audience. Oxnard’s Teatro Boulevard, later known simply as Teatro, was the county’s other primary venue. However, Teatro Boulevard did not open until 1928—three years after Brown arrived at the Mission Theatre. Other local theaters advertised in La Voz, offering Spanish-language films only on selected nights or with segregationist seating policies, such as the Fillmore Theatre, which advertised in La Voz that “a special section has been dedicated on the right of the auditorium for the Mexican Colony and its exclusive use.”30
In January of 1931, Stephen Brown sold the Columbia Theatre and purchased the Strand Theater in Oxnard.31 Brown sold the business to J.L. Asher, who reopened the space as the Lyric Theatre (Teatro Lirico) on May 7, 1931.32 Under his manager, Robert Wells, who by 1932 appears to have acquired the business in full from Asher, the Lyric continued with Spanish28 “Vista Parlante Netamente Mexicana Se Exhibira En El Teatro Columbia El Mierc,” La Voz de la Colonia, April 17, 1930, 1. 29 “Valiosa Aclaración,” La Voz de la Colonia, October 27, 1927, 1; Mission Theatre, “The Country’s Critics Acclaim,” advertisement, Santa Paula Chronicle, November 6, 1927. 30 “Apetura del Teatro de Fillmore, Calif,” La Voz de la Colonia, October 16, 1931. 31 “Brown Opens Oxnard Theatre,” Santa Paula Chronicle, January 17, 1931, 1. 32 “New Lyric Theatre Opens Saturday: Doors to Open to Public at 7 O’Clock at New Theatre Here,” Santa Paula Chronicle, May 7, 1931, 1.
221
*Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Tower Theater *NRHP Status Code 5S3 Page of 46_
DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information
State of California C The Resources Agency Primary #
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#
BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD
16 language programming.33 La Voz's writeup about the Lyric Theatre showing the film Carne de Cabaret stated that the film “is entirely Mexican, plot and atmosphere, everything develops among purely Mexican elements; music and everything spoken in our own language,” and that “the Mexican Colony will receive the same treatment as before […] to serve everyone with [no] distinctions between our own […] Mexicans can freely come and enjoy the two great shows that are shown daily…”34
Wells advertised in La Voz the showing of English-language films such as Frankenstein and the cowboy film Spirit of the West with Hoot Gibson.35 Wells also hosted Catholic events at Teatro Lirico, including a youth day congress session that featured the Archbishop of Guadalajara.36 But perhaps due to the Depression, or losing the English-language business to the Glen City Theater, some of Wells’ later programming shifted toward the risqué. The last pictures advertised in the Chronicle in May of 1933 were titled The 7th Commandment and The Law of Sex, intended for an 18-and-over audience with separate evenings for men and women.37 After that, it is unknown if the Lyric Theatre closed for a portion of the mid-1930s. La Voz de la Colonia itself ceased printing in 1932, and if both together went dark, it may well have been due not just to the Depression, but also to a large-scale Mexican repatriation project. This initiative, sponsored by charitable agencies and all levels of the U.S. government, often coercively encouraged the return to Mexico of hundreds of thousands—possibly up to one million—Mexican citizens who were living and working in the U.S.38 If the Lyric was open through the 1930s, it likely focused primarily on Spanish-language movies, which it may have advertised on Spanish-language radio stations (radio was a primary medium for the recently immigrated). After some years with no listing at all, the 1937 Santa Paula phone directory lists Dionisio Acosta as the manager of the Lyric Theatre. Notable in his own right, Acosta had been the impresario at Teatro Principal of Los Angeles, which was located in a section of Main Street that was demolished to construct the 101 Freeway, a hub for the city’s middle-class Mexican-origin community.39 There, Acosta presented music, comedy, singing, and acting talent he scouted from a wide talent of the Mexican origin populace, recently emigrated or otherwise. Additionally, Acosta formed a singing act with rotating members named “Los Cancioneros Acosta” (The Acosta Songbooks), which in the 1920s were among the first 33 Lyric Theatre, “Tonight and Tomorrow,” advertisement, Santa Paula Chronicle, February 20, 1932, 3. 34 “El Teatro Lyrico Presenta una Gran Atracción a la Colonia Mexicana,” La Voz de la Colonia, March 4, 1932, 1. 35 Lyric Theatre, “Para El Cinco De Mayo,” advertisement, La Voz de la Colonia, May 5, 1932, 4. 36 “Monsenor Orozco y Jimenez ARZOBISPO de Guadalajara Oficiara En La Solomne Misa Al Aire Libre En El Steckel P,” La Voz de la Colonia, April 8, 1932, 1. 37 Lyric Theatre, “The Law of Sex,” advertisement, Santa Paula Chronicle, May 8, 1933. 38 U.S. Department of Homeland Security, “INS Records for 1930s Mexican Repatriations,” July 29, 2020, https://www.uscis.gov/about-us/our-history/stories-from-the-archives/ins-records-for-1930s-mexicanrepatriations. 39 Rogelio Agrasánchez Jr., Mexican Movies in the United States: A History of the Films, Theaters, and Audiences, 1920–1960 (Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company, Inc., 2006), 48. 222
*Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Tower Theater *NRHP Status Code 5S3 Page of 46_
DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information
State of California C The Resources Agency Primary #
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#
BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD
17 stateside Mexican acts to make large numbers of phonograph recordings for a wide variety of U.S. record labels. Since no printed or other archival matter exists from Acosta’s Lyric Theatre tenure, it is unknown what his specific programming was or if he presented his own scouted acts. But Acosta’s tenure was short, and the Lyric Theatre appears to have closed in 1938.40 Fox West Coast and the Moderne Design System
In 1940, Fox West Coast (FWC), a major Western U.S. theater chain with over 25 locations, acquired the Lyric Theatre. FWC undertook the Moderne-styled design treatment that is still present, in varying degrees, both upon and within the theater. Dating back to the era of the store theater, theater owners and their architects applied numerous architectural design elements to their street-facing façades in a manner that was stimulating, if not overwrought, to stand out against other nearby buildings and to capture the eye—if not the imagination and nickel—of theatergoers. In the movie palace era, this treatment evolved toward conscious notions of architectural style, including opulent but tasteful Beaux-Arts and Revivalist styles historically associated with notions of taste, “class,” and the culture of live theater.
Over the course of the late 1920s and early 1930s, Art Deco became the style du jour for movie theaters, new and old. A decorative, if not opulent, design system informed by Art Nouveau and the Gothic, Art Deco was a Modernism more palatable to the masses than the direct and hyper-abstract “pure” Modernism coming from the Bauhaus, which many found cold and alienating.
With the advent of the Great Depression, the economy that had enabled the creation of proper Art Deco—with its elaborate appliqué of abstracted zig-zag and other motifs, often done in precious metals or even Lalique crystal—virtually disappeared overnight. In its place arose “Streamline Moderne,” a style that symbolically referenced the speed, aerodynamics, and mobility of various machines, including cruise liners, zeppelins, airplanes, diesel locomotives, and automobiles, all reflective of an early 20th-century zeitgeist. Making all of these possible was the influence of industrial design, which had an outstretched impact on Streamline Moderne. According to architectural historian David Gebhard, “America’s new arbiters of taste in the '30s, the industrial designers, convinced manufacturers, retailers, and above all, the middle and upper class public, that it was essential to repackage products varying from food to automobiles. Especially in the early years of the Depression (from 1933 to 1936), the ‘modernization’ of buildings was avidly pursued, not necessarily, it should be noted, to improve their functioning, but to transform their images into something which was ‘smart and up-to-date.”41 This concept of being “up-to-date” boded particularly well for the theater 40 “Theaters Will Be Remodeled,” Santa Paula Chronicle, February 8, 1940, 1. 41 David Gebhard and Harriette Von Breton, Los Angeles in the Thirties: 1931–1941 (Los Angeles: Hennessey & Ingalls, Inc., 1989), 32.
223
*Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Tower Theater *NRHP Status Code 5S3 Page of 46_
DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information
State of California C The Resources Agency Primary #
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#
BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD
18 business, where architectural design served as a marketing device. Many theaters, including the Elektra, underwent constant renovations and remodels to maintain their appeal and attract audiences.42 Made possible by relatively new technologies, movies themselves might be seen as an industrial product.
Horizontal-massed abstract forms with rounded corners, chrome banding accents, portal windows, and mast-like spires were common elements of Streamline Moderne’s early phase.
As still seen upon and within the Tower Theater, additional Streamline Moderne features, as articulated by Gebhard and Von Breton, also included bent tubes, circles, fluid forms accented by color, the play of light and shadow from neon lighting, and the use of metals and wood for decorative purposes, often in bas-relief patterns to enhance detail and surface.43 At the Tower Theater, this includes the auditorium’s side wall murals, which feature colorful, stylized circular patterns in low relief. As Streamline Moderne continued through the 1930s, many of the more overt references to machines and mobility fell away, and the style became increasingly softened and adorned. Streamline Moderne’s later, often elegant iteration is sometimes referred to as “Late Moderne” and continued into the mid-1950s. The standalone term “Moderne” refers to any one of these post-deco Modernist expressions in the vernacular, serving as a broader catch-all for the later iterations of a softened, less severe Modernism.
Though it incorporates various Streamline Moderne elements, the Tower Theater remodel, with its high level of adornment and lack of overt machine imagery, is best classified as a Moderne design.
The primary architect working for Fox West Coast in the early 1940s was S. Charles Lee, who was also, arguably, the leading architect in the U.S. for movie theater design at that time. Lee, according to Gebhard and Von Breton, “combined Moderne and decorative detail to produce theaters that were loved and admired as ‘pure Hollywood.”44 A Renaissance man, Lee had a remarkable ability to understand both business and engineering, along with the art and aesthetics of architecture.45 This unique combination of talent and interests made Lee particularly adept at movie theater design, and he would go on to design approximately 300 venues from the 1920s to 1950, when he stepped away to focus on the real estate business.46 A multitude of Lee's movie theaters were designed for Fox West Coast, including a handful of other “Tower” theaters. (Lee’s first movie theater was a 1927 movie palace in downtown Los Angeles, also named “Tower Theatre,” but it was not undertaken for FWC.) Like Lee’s FWC Tower Theatre locations in Compton, Fresno, and Santa Rosa, the Santa Paula remodel featured a centered, standalone, multi-sided box office within a recessed entryway, connected to the ceiling above it; angled marquees with vertical design elements centered atop their 42 Valentine, The Show Starts on the Sidewalk, 6. 43 Gebhard and Von Breton, Los Angeles in the Thirties, 2. 44 Ibid. 45 Valentine, The Show Starts on the Sidewalk, 31–33. 46 Ibid., 8. 224
*Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Tower Theater *NRHP Status Code 5S3 Page of 46_
DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information
State of California C The Resources Agency Primary #
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#
BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD
19 apex; and symmetrically placed display cases at the façade’s narrow, ground-level end bays.47 However, available research could not verify that S. Charles Lee is the architect of the Santa Paula Tower Theater, which may have been undertaken by other FWC staff following Lee’s lead. Regardless, the Tower Theater’s façade as it stands today embodies S. Charles Lee’s saying that for the moviegoing experience, “The show starts at the sidewalk.”48 FWC’s revitalized Tower Theater opened on June 7, 1940, with a double feature: Mutiny on the Blackhawk, starring Richard Arlen, and the mystery thriller Double Alibi, starring Wayne Morris and Margaret Lindsay.49 Just a couple of months later, the theater appears to have struggled, reducing its hours to weekends only for a time.50 The Tower Theater’s last print advertisement in the Santa Paula Chronicle is dated March 6, 1943, and it mentions the showing of Spanishlanguage films on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Specifically, this final ad mentions the film El Barbero Prodigioso (The Prodigious Barber), starring Fernando Soler and distributed by Azteca Films, which at the time was the largest Spanish-language film distributor in the U.S.51 Santa Paula’s Glen City Theatre burned to the ground in 1949, and the following year, Fox West Coast built and opened a 1,000-seat venue at 727 E. Main Street in Santa Paula. It is unknown if the Tower Theater was open between 1950 and 1956, when FWC, presumably now wholly focused on their newer, larger venue, sold the Tower Theater to Gordon West and Johnny Hatcher.52 During this time, the long-overdue wane of segregation was documented. In Santa Paula, according to two local informants interviewed by the author Martha Menchaca, this shift appears to have first begun at the Fox Theatre. There, a group of young Mexican men refused to sit on the designated Mexican side of the auditorium over a period of four Sundays, including the first night, when they were asked to leave the movie theater.53 The informants believed that management eventually acquiesced because they feared a La Colonia boycott.54 It would have been right after this incident when Hatcher and West purchased the Tower Theater, showing English-language movies, including Westerns, but focusing on Spanish47 Ibid., 98–99. 48 Valentine, The Show Starts on the Sidewalk, 9. 49 “Tower Theater, Completely Remodeled, Opens Here Tonight,” Santa Paula Chronicle, June 7, 1940, 6. 50 “Tower Theater Open on Weekends Now,” Santa Paula Chronicle, August 27, 1940, 5. 51 “Tower Theater,” advertisement, Santa Paula Chronicle, March 4, 1943, 8. 52 “The National Spotlight: Los Angeles,” Motion Picture Herald 202, no. 10 (March 10, 1956): 31. 53 Martha Menchaca, The Mexican Outsiders: A Community History of Marginalization and Discrimination in California (Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1995), 116–17. Menchaca conducted a variety of interviews with local informants, including Linda, who provided the information regarding the theater incident, and Tony, who corroborated it. Menchaca’s book states that there was only one theater in Santa Paula at this time—the mid1950s—and unless the Tower Theater was closed for some time, which is not out of the question, there were two theaters: the Tower and the Fox. Because of the Tower Theater’s known focus upon Spanish-language cinema, with the possibility that it may have been dark during the early 1950s, the episode is assumed to have occurred at the Fox Theatre, not the Tower Theater. 54 Menchaca, The Mexican Outsiders, 117. 225
*Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Tower Theater *NRHP Status Code 5S3 Page of 46_
DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information
State of California C The Resources Agency Primary #
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#
BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD
20 language films over the weekends. No print advertising or other archival materials are available to indicate which specific movies were shown, but archival imagery and West’s own correspondence to the City of Santa Paula decades later indicate that West operated the venue primarily as a Spanish-language theater.55
Mexican Cinema, Mexican Population
Though Tower’s specific Spanish-language programming is virtually unknown, it is important to note that the era from the mid-1930s to the end of the 1950s is considered a golden age for Mexican cinema. A film industry had been present in Mexico since the Mexican Revolution, and it gained popularity through the 1920s. The advent of talking pictures—Mexico’s first being the 1932 film Santa starring Lupita Tovar—opened new possibilities for Spanish-language film.
The films that marked the dawn of Mexico’s golden age both date from 1936 and include Vámonos con Pancho Villa (Let’s Go With Pancho Villa) by director Fernando de Fuentes, and Allá en el Rancho Grande (Let’s Go to the Big Ranch), which started a new, distinctly Mexican film genre of “comedia ranchera.”56 The latter movie was a huge commercial success, not just in Mexico or other Latin American countries, but also in the United States, where in the coming years, many Mexican movies would gross their highest receipts. Western-like charro (Mexican cowboy-type figure) movies with singing and action were popular, as were other distinctly Mexican genres, including sultry, dance-oriented rumbera films and urban strife melodramas.57 For a Latino audience, including a sizeable postwar one in the U.S., Mexicanmade films captured nuances and details that Hollywood, which largely stopped making Spanish-language films by the end of the 1930s, could not master.
After Germany torpedoed two Mexican tankers in the Gulf of Mexico, Mexico formally joined World War II as a U.S. ally on May 22, 1942. Among Mexico’s contributions to the alliance were a flying squadron named the “Aztec Eagles,” which saw action in the Pacific theater, and the shipping of mined materials to the U.S., which the U.S. defense industry used in metals for ships, tanks, and other weaponry. In reciprocity, knowing that Mexico’s film industry was ascendant, the U.S. sent to Mexico equipment, technical expertise, and reams of raw film to support it.58 Due to the growing demand for Mexican films, additional studios were built in Mexico over the course of the war. Through the 1940s, Mexico produced an average of 50 feature-length films per year, many of which received international acclaim.59 Globally significant filmmakers such as Sergei Eisenstein and later Luis Buñuel both emigrated to 55 Gordon West, letter to the City of Santa Paula, April 28, 1980. 56 Agrasánchez Jr., Mexican Movies in the United States, 6. 57 Ibid., 12, 53, 54. 58 Ibid., 6. 59 Ibid. 226
*Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Tower Theater *NRHP Status Code 5S3 Page of 46_
DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information
State of California C The Resources Agency Primary #
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#
BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD
21 Mexico, and the Emilio “El Indio” Fernández film María Candelaria won the Grand Prize (Palme d’Or) at the Cannes Film Festival in 1943.60
By 1930, there were already 368,000 Mexican-origin people in California alone, comprising 40% of Santa Paula’s population. This population would grow exponentially during and after World War II.61 The 1940s was a truly robust decade for American moviegoing, appealing to virtually all of America’s ethnicities. The U.S. at that time had approximately 17,500 movie theaters and a weekly attendance of 80 million people.62 Spanish-language venues grew in popularity over the course of the decade. In 1941, there were approximately 145 screens in the U.S. showing Mexican films, and by 1951, this number had jumped to 683 screens in 443 U.S. cities.63 No doubt aiding in the ascension of Mexican film popularity in the U.S. was President Roosevelt’s signing, on August 4, 1942, of Agricultural Labor Law No. 45, commonly known as the “Bracero Program” (bracero = “one who works with his arms;” “laborer”). The Bracero Program enabled Mexican citizens to legally immigrate to the U.S. to undertake agricultural work during World War II, as many such laborers already in the U.S. were drafted to fight or left agriculture for better-paying work in the wartime defense industry. From 1942 until 1947, as part of the Bracero Program, 250,000 workers, all male, came to the U.S. In 1957 alone, that number totaled 450,000, and by the time the Bracero Program ended in 1964, four million Mexican citizens had immigrated to the U.S., not counting illegal immigration. 64 The Bracero Program began in Ventura County on November 23, 1943, which would have more braceros than any other county in the U.S. The majority of Ventura County braceros were sent to Santa Paula, with its sizeable citrus orchards, among the largest in the world at the time.65 Bracero and otherwise, the postwar Mexican-origin community living in the U.S. absorbed Mexican cinema. According to author Rogelio Agrasánchez Jr., “The impact of Mexican movies on audiences of the 1940s and 1950s, when television had not yet invaded people’s homes, cannot be overstated.”66 Mexican films became an important means of maintaining and reminding people of their Mexican identity in a new land, and supporting Mexican film was considered a patriotic gesture. Mexican films, though globally lauded and award-winning, were largely made for an audience that was mostly illiterate, with specific, detailed references 60 Chloe Roddick, “Deep Focus: The Golden Age of Mexican Cinema,” British Film Institute, July 25, 2019, https://www2.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/features/deep-focus/deep-focus-golden-agemexican-cinema. 61 Agrasánchez Jr., Mexican Movies in the United States, 3; Menchaca, The Mexican Outsiders, 94. 62 Valentine, The Show Starts on the Sidewalk, 195. 63 Agrasánchez Jr., Mexican Movies in the United States, 8. 64 Ibid., 10. 65 Menchaca, The Mexican Outsiders, 92; Hector Tobar, “Former Bracero Tells of Program’s Legacy,” Los Angeles Times, October 15, 2010. https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-oct-15-la-me-tobar-20101015- story.html
66 Agrasánchez Jr., Mexican Movies in the United States, 14. 227
*Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Tower Theater *NRHP Status Code 5S3 Page of 46_
DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information
State of California C The Resources Agency Primary #
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#
BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD
22 to familiar songs, traditions, outfits, and countryside scenes.67 Notably, the films seemed to be more popular in the U.S. than in Mexico itself. One 1930 study conducted in San Diego stated that the average Mexican family went to the movies 50 times per year.68 According to author David Maciel,
“The Mexican films of the Golden Age were films that appealed to everyone in the family.
It was a cinema that you could take your entire family to see. It had tremendous social benefits for families. Everybody saw their own stories portrayed in the movies. There were heroes that they identified with. As with the Mexican Revolution itself, their relatives had fought in that upheaval, so it was fresh to them. And the Golden Age was a very patriotic cinema that was close to their heart. And then it became an institution, and it provided not only an escape as entertainment, but it provided cultural nourishment for survival. Because at the same time [the Mexicans] were being bombarded with the process of Americanization. And in order to maintain their "Mexicanidad," the cinema turned out to be one of the few institutions around that could nurture this impulse.”69 The late-1950s wane of Mexican cinema’s golden age coincided with the rise of television and the changing tastes of those of Mexican origin, who increasingly, especially after the Korean War, identified themselves as “Mexican American.” In this acclimation, many came to favor the storylines and sheen of Hollywood productions. Mexican-made films continued into the 1960s, but—now subject to budget cuts by the Mexican government that had previously sponsored the industry—they were often hastily made for quick profits. After Mexican film failed to win substantial audiences in the 1970s through the intellectual and historically oriented nuevo cine genre, the early 1980s advent of the home video rental industry was the final knell for Mexican cinema.70 By 1990, nearly all Spanish-language movie theaters were closed or reverted to other programming.71 Nonetheless, taken in whole, according to author Rogelio Agrasanchez Jr., “The period from the 1920s to the 1980s remains as a significant episode in the history of movie entertainment for Hispanics in the United States.”72 Decline, Survival, Significance
Gordon West would own the Tower Theater until about 1980, but he closed it in 1973, when he signed a lease to show Spanish films at the Santa Paula’s larger Fox Theater.73 Perhaps knowing 67 Ibid., 8, 14. 68 Ibid., 8. 69 Ibid., 14. 70 Ibid., 68, 165–166. 71 Ibid., 46. 72 Ibid., 69. 73 West, letter to City of Santa Paula, April 28, 1980; Leslie Leffingwell, “Remodeling Costs May Stop Theater Reopening,” The Daily Chronicle, February 12, 1980, 1.
228
*Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Tower Theater *NRHP Status Code 5S3 Page of 46_
DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information
State of California C The Resources Agency Primary #
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#
BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD
23 that the Fox was about to be demolished, which occurred in 1981, a 1980 correspondence with the city indicates that West wanted to reopen the Tower once again to show Spanish-language films, but due to seismic concerns, this was prohibited. West subsequently sold the property. Concerned about its survival, the City of Santa Paula purchased the property in 1995.74 To keep the building standing and in anticipation of future commercial reuse, in 2003 the city undertook a seismic stabilization project first proposed in the early 1980s. This project involved removing the raked floor installed in 1940, as well as the seats upon it. In 2016, the city gutted the auditorium of various materials and finishes, including drapery, acoustic elements, and the screen itself. By that time, the Tower Theater had been closed for over 40 years.
Despite the above-mentioned changes, many of which were necessary for the building’s survival, the Moderne-styled Tower Theater continues to read as an early-era single-screen movie theater, largely due to its façade and select remaining interior elements, including the shotgun-like volume of its auditorium. It remains Santa Paula’s last such example. Constructed as the Elektra Theater in 1911, the venue possesses prior chapters of distinction; the building is the oldest known purposebuilt movie theater in Ventura County. The building today known as the Tower Theater also has historic significance as an early, non-segregated Spanish-language movie theater for Ventura County’s Mexican-origin community and La Colonia itself. For the above-mentioned reasons, the Tower Theater appears to be eligible as a City of Santa Paula landmark.
Timeline
- April 1911: French filmmaker Gaston Méliès relocates his Star Film Company to Santa Paula, where it would be based until 1913. There is no known direct connection between the former Elektra Theatre and Méliès. - August-October 1911: H.G. Bennison has W.J. Little of the builder firm Lidamore & Little construct a two-story building, the “Bennison Block,” located at the southwest corner of Tenth and Main Streets, Santa Paula, and an adjacent “picture show room,” which would become the Elektra Theatre. According to building permits, H.G. Bennison would continue to own both buildings at least through the early 1950s.75
- Saturday, October 21, 1911: Thomas Gale (T.G.) Robinson, formerly of Santa Paula’s “Electric” / “Electra” Theatre, a movie venue set up in a former box-ball bowling space on Main Street, opens the Elektra Theatre. Robinson has been 74 Christina Lima, “Santa Paula: City to Buy, Restore 1900s Movie Theater,” Los Angeles Times, March 25, 1995, https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-03-24-me-46498-story.html. 75 City of Santa Paula Building Permit No. 5411, September 17, 1951. 229
*Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Tower Theater *NRHP Status Code 5S3 Page of 46_
DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information
State of California C The Resources Agency Primary #
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#
BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD
24 connected with the showing of motion pictures dating back to 1908, when he did so in Oxnard. The Elektra’s opening night features a double bill of unknown titles and a “Mexican orchestra.” Opening night drew two capacity crowds, totaling 700. - November 17, 1911: A.D. “Duke” Briggs, a Ventura butcher, purchases the Elektra Theatre from Mr. Robinson.76
- December 24, 1911: Briggs presents Mexico-themed reels for Elektra’s first Christmas Eve, featuring “the exclusive Mexican films showing the late Mexican Revolution, the Taft-Díaz meeting at El Paso and Juárez, the Centennial Parade in Mexico City, and the most exciting bullfight ever shown.” - 1912–1913: The Elektra Theatre doubles as a community hall, hosting fundraisers for the Rebekah Lodge, Native Daughters, Loyal Daughters, D.A.R., local high schools, and religious benefits.
- 1914: Briggs secures a contract to show movies filmed in Santa Paula and featuring its people by the St. Louis Motion Picture Company, which was based in Santa Paula.77
- October 1917: Louis (“L.H.”) Baumgartner, a former Elektra Theatre live violinist, purchases the Elektra Theater business from Briggs.
- March 28, 1918: Elektra Theatre announces that it has contracted with Paramount Pictures and Artcraft Pictures.
- December 10, 1919: Baumgartner builds and opens the Glen City Theatre (Fox Glen City by 1930). The Elektra Theatre goes dark from circa 1919 to 1922. - December 30, 1922: The Elektra Theatre reopens under A. Blumenthal as the Mission Theatre, with James W. Dodge as manager. Blumenthal signs a lease with H.G. Bennison, who still owns the theatre building as of 1922. 76 An announcement in the Santa Paula Chronicle from November 3, 1911, states that Robinson sold the Theatre to local realtor Erv Peck, but this appears to be erroneous, as Briggs’s name comes up often as the owner of the Elektra business in the coming years. 77 “Santa Paula, Prosperous Glen City,” Ventura Free Press, May 22, 1914, 2. 230
*Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Tower Theater *NRHP Status Code 5S3 Page of 46_
DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information
State of California C The Resources Agency Primary #
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#
BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD
25 - August 1923: Dodge sells Mission Theatre to Edwin L. Franck, who proceeds to renovate and upgrade the theater, adding new projectors, redoing the façade, and painting the building “pure white.” Clunie & Dunkle serve as building contractors.78
- 1925: Stephen D. Brown becomes manager of the Mission Theater under Franck.
By that August, Brown is presenting Spanish-language vaudeville acts. - 1925-1931: While showing a variety of English-language offerings, primarily from Tiffany Productions and Warner Productions, Brown, who was raised in El Paso and whose family often spent time in Mexico, fully opens the Mission Theater (Teatro Mission) to Santa Paula’s Mexican-origin community, introducing a wide variety of Spanish-language programming for La Colonia. Franck and Brown appear to operate Teatro Mission as a non-segregated theater. Brown advertised regularly in La Voz de la Colonia, Santa Paula’s Spanish-language newspaper, which wrote glowingly of Brown and his teatro. During this time, Brown shows a variety of Hollywood productions with Mexican leads, including Dolores del Río and Ramón Novarro.
- April 21, 1927: Stephen Brown presents the Mexican music trio “Perez Bros. and Dolores” from Guadalajara, who perform “American, Mexican, and Spanish selections.”79
- March 19, 1928: Mission Theatre shows scenes from the St. Francis Dam disaster, which occurred the night of March 12–13, 1928, killing over 400 and flooding Santa Paula in one of the worst civil engineering disasters in California history.80 - December 1929: Brown remodels the Mission Theater in preparation for talking pictures.
- January 1930: Brown reopens the Mission Theatre as the Columbia Theatre (Teatro Columbia) and continues similar programming as before, including Spanish-language movies.
78 “Personal Mention,” Santa Paula Chronicle, August 30, 1923, 1. 79 “Gift Night at the Mission Theatre,” Santa Paula Chronicle, April 21, 1927, 8. 80 “Flood Pictures at Mission Tonight,” Santa Paula Chronicle, March 19, 1928, 2. 231
*Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Tower Theater *NRHP Status Code 5S3 Page of 46_
DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information
State of California C The Resources Agency Primary #
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#
BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD
26 - January 1931: Brown sells Teatro Columbia and opens the Strand Theater in Oxnard.
- May 9, 1931: Proprietor Leslie Asher reopens the Mission Theater as the Lyric Theatre. Full-page announcements in the Santa Paula Chronicle tout new projection equipment and that “everything but the roof and walls” was remodeled.
Local Santa Paula contractor J.V. Westling undertook the work in conjunction with Continental Theatres Construction Company and Warner Brothers engineering.
Opening night, on May 9, 1931, features the Douglas Fairbanks movie Reaching for the Moon.
- 1932: La Voz de la Colonia, Santa Paula’s Spanish-language newspaper, ceases printing.
- February 1932: Robert E. Wells, who also operated the Sulfur Mountain Dance Hall, is listed as manager of the Lyric Theatre. Wells focuses on double features and presents popular movies such as Frankenstein to Anglo and Mexican audiences.81 - May 6, 1933: Wells shows The Law of Sex, an 18-and-over picture that he presented to men and women on separate evenings. Its advertisement in the Santa Paula Chronicle appears to be its last. One more ad appears in the Ventura Free Press in 1934. The venue may have gone dark for a period of years or focused on Spanish-language film.
- 1937: The Santa Paula phone directory lists Dionisio Acosta as Lyric Theatre manager.
- June 7, 1940: Fox West Coast reopens the former Lyric Theatre as the Tower Theater. The majority of what remains visible on the building today, including its Moderne-inspired marquee and circular wall reliefs inside the auditorium, were undertaken at this time. The contractor was Herbert Morgan, and the QRS Neon Company designed the marquee. Wendell Smith is manager.82 Though not 81 “Gift Night at the Mission Theatre,” Santa Paula Chronicle, April 21, 1927, 8. 82 “Remodeling Starts on Tower Theater,” Santa Paula Chronicle, April 18, 1940, 2; “Early Opening Seen for Tower Theater,” Santa Paula Chronicle, May 10, 1940, 1; “Tower Theater Manager Named,” Santa Paula Chronicle, June 5, 1940, 1.
232
*Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Tower Theater *NRHP Status Code 5S3 Page of 46_
DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information
State of California C The Resources Agency Primary #
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#
BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD
27 presently verified as its architect, the Tower Theater design is highly similar to other FWC Tower Theater projects by noted architect S. Charles Lee. - August 27, 1940: The Tower Theater appears to be struggling, and according to a Santa Paula Chronicle article, it reduces its hours to weekends only. Don Austin, who was the manager of the Glen City Theater, which by then was also Foxoperated, becomes the new Tower Theater manager. - 1941–1942: There are virtually no advertisements in any local publications, except on March 6, 1942, when a Santa Paula Chronicle ad mentions showings of Spanish-language films on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The ad specifically mentions El Barbero Prodigioso, which starred Fernando Soler and was distributed by Azteca Films, the largest Spanish-language film distributor in Mexico and the U.S. After 1942, available research uncovered no later advertising in the Santa Paula Chronicle or other local newspapers, as available. - 1949: The Glen City Theater catches fire and burns. Its present location, 858 E.
Main Street, houses Santa Paula’s Goodwill Store.
- October 12, 1950: One year after the burning of the Glen City Theatre, Fox West Coast, which originally renovated the Tower Theater, opens a new and larger 1,000-seat venue named the Fox West Coast, located at 727 E. Main Street. - Mid-1950s: A group of young Mexican-origin men take a stand and refuse to sit in the segregated section of the Fox Theatre. After asking them to leave the first evening, management allows them to sit where they desire. - 1956: Gordon West and Johnny Hatcher acquire the Tower Theater from Fox West Coast and focus its programming on Spanish-language films. It is unknown if the Tower Theater was open between 1950, when FWC opened the larger theater, and West’s and Hatcher’s acquisition of the building in 1956. - 1965: The main entrance is relocated toward the street, narrowing the entryway and removing the box office.
- 1973: Gordon West takes over the lease to show Spanish-language films at the nearby Fox Theatre, and closes the Tower Theater, which was showing Spanish-language movies to that time.
233
*Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Tower Theater *NRHP Status Code 5S3 Page of 46_
DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information
State of California C The Resources Agency Primary #
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#
BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD
28 - 1981: Fox Theater is demolished, leaving the Tower Theater as Santa Paula’s only remaining single-screen venue. West desires to show Spanish-language films at the Tower Theater again, but he is denied on account of the City of Santa Paula’s seismic concerns. - c. 1981: Gordon West sells Tower Theater to Dr. Alfredo Munoz. - 1995: For the sake of its historic preservation, the City of Santa Paula purchases the Tower Theater.
- 2003: Seismic upgrade, proposed since the early 1980s, finally occurs. - 2016: The City of Santa Paula undertakes removal of multiple interior elements. 234
*Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Tower Theater *NRHP Status Code 5S3 Page of 46_
DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information
State of California C The Resources Agency Primary #
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#
BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD
29 Figures:
Figure 1. The Bennison Block and Elektra Theatre under construction, 1911.
Semicircular Mission styled parapet is visible at right. Santa Paula Chronicle, September 29, 1911, 1.
Figure 2. Mission Theatre featured in national trade journal Moving Picture World.
Moving Picture World, vol 87, no 3
. July 16, 1927, 198.
235
*Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Tower Theater *NRHP Status Code 5S3 Page of 46_
DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information
State of California C The Resources Agency Primary #
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#
BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD
30 Figure 3. Tower Theater grand opening announcement.
Santa Paula Chronicle, June 7, 1940, 6.
Figure 4. Tower Theater, c. 1949.
Posted by Claudia Fuqua, August 7, 2012. “Growing Up in Santa Paula” public Facebook group. https://www.facebook.com/groups/252079394820556/search?q=tower 236
*Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Tower Theater *NRHP Status Code 5S3 Page of 46_
DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information
State of California C The Resources Agency Primary #
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#
BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD
31 Figure 5. Tower Theater, 1980.
Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection (Security Pacific Bank Collection), item no. 00070197. https://tessa2.lapl.org/digital/collection/photos/id/113258/rec/1.
Figure 6. Tower Theatre locations undertaken by S. Charles Lee for Fox West Coast.
Maggie Valentine, The Show Starts on the Sidewalk: An Architectural History of the Movie Theater, Starring S. Charles Lee (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1994), 98–99. 237
*Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Tower Theater *NRHP Status Code 5S3 Page of 46_
DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information
State of California C The Resources Agency Primary #
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#
BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD
32 Figure 7. Teatro Mission advertisement.
La Voz de la Colonia, February 9, 1928, 2. Jose Alamillo, “A Brief History of Mission Theater, Santa Paula, California,” unpublished essay (Camarillo, CA: California State University, Channel Islands, May 29, 2024), 1.
238
*Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Tower Theater *NRHP Status Code 5S3 Page of 46_
DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information
State of California C The Resources Agency Primary #
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#
BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD
33 Figure 8. Teatro Mission announcement. Figure 9. Teatro Mission announcement.
La Voz de la Colonia, April 4, 1929, 1. La Voz de la Colonia, June 9, 1929, 2.
Figure 10. Teatro Lyrico announcement.
La Voz de la Colonia, March 4, 1932, 1.
239
*Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Tower Theater *NRHP Status Code 5S3 Page of 46_
DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information
State of California C The Resources Agency Primary #
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#
BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD
34 Figures 11 and 12. Two Separate clippings for Les Miserables.
Santa Paula Chronicle, January 7, 1928, 2. La Voz de la Colonia, January 5, 1928, 4 Figure 13. Elektra Theatre advertisement. Figure 14. Elektra Theatre advertisement.
Santa Paula Chronicle, October 31, 1913, np. Santa Paula Chronicle, March 24, 1918, 5. 240
*Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Tower Theater *NRHP Status Code 5S3 Page of 46_
DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information
State of California C The Resources Agency Primary #
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#
BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD
35 Figure 15. Elektra Theatre advertisement. Figure 16. Elektra Theatre advertisement.
Santa Paula Chronicle, March 7, 1918, 7. Santa Paula Chronicle, June 12, 1918.
Figure 17. Elektra Theatre advertisement. Figure 18. World War I patriotic footage at Elektra Theatre.
Santa Paula Chronicle, May 9, 1918, 2. Santa Paula Chronicle, September 19, 1918, 5. 241
*Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Tower Theater *NRHP Status Code 5S3 Page of 46_
DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information
State of California C The Resources Agency Primary #
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#
BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD
36 Figure 19. Spanish Vaudeville, Mission Theatre. Figure 20. Mission Theatre Advertisement.
Santa Paula Chronicle, August 18, 1925, 2. Santa Paula Chronicle, October 7, 1925, 2.
Figure 21. Columbia Theatre advertisement. Figure 22. Lyric Theatre opening, Santa Paula Chronicle, March 26, 1930, 2. Douglas Fairbanks movie.
Santa Paula Chronicle, May 9, 1931, 2.
242
*Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Tower Theater *NRHP Status Code 5S3 Page of 46_
DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information
State of California C The Resources Agency Primary #
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#
BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD
37 Figure 23. Lyric Theatre advertisement.
Santa Paula Chronicle, July 14, 1931, 2.
Figure 24. Tower Theater advertisement with Mexican film at bottom.
Santa Paula Chronicle, March 6, 1942, 2.
243
*Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Tower Theater *NRHP Status Code 5S3 Page of 46_
DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information
State of California C The Resources Agency Primary #
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#
BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD
38 Tower Theater: Contemporary Images
Photographer: Daniel Paul.
Dates: February 23, 2024, and April 25, 2024.
Photo 1. Tower Theater, front elevation. View: SW.
244
*Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Tower Theater *NRHP Status Code 5S3 Page of 46_
DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information
State of California C The Resources Agency Primary #
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#
BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD
39 Photo 2. Front elevation, marquee underside. Photo 3. Façade detail. View: S.
View: E, SE.
Photo 4. Auditorium. View: S.
245
*Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Tower Theater *NRHP Status Code 5S3 Page of 46_
DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information
State of California C The Resources Agency Primary #
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#
BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD
40 Photo 5. Party wall, lobby, and projector portals. View: N.
Photo 6. Lobby detail with built-ins. View: NW. Photo 7. Lobby and restroom. View: E. 246
*Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Tower Theater *NRHP Status Code 5S3 Page of 46_
DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information
State of California C The Resources Agency Primary #
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#
BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD
41 Photo 8. Stairway to projector room. View: W Photo 9. Projector Room. View: E.
Photo 10. Built-in elements, upstairs bathroom. Photo 11. Original screen at parapet, behind marquee.
View: SW. View: N, upward.
247
*Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Tower Theater *NRHP Status Code 5S3 Page of 46_
DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information
State of California C The Resources Agency Primary #
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#
BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD
42 Photo 12. Stage with subterranean opening. View: SE. Photo 13. Subterranean space beneath stage. View: E,
downward.
Photo 14. Auditorium ceiling, View: S, upward. Photo 15. Rear elevation. View: N. 248
*Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Tower Theater *NRHP Status Code 5S3 Page of 46_
DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information
State of California C The Resources Agency Primary #
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#
BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD
43 Works Cited:
[“A.D. Briggs”]. Santa Paula Chronicle, clipping. November 17, 1911.
Agrasánchez Jr., Rogelio. Mexican Movies in the United States: A History of the Films, Theaters, and Audiences, 1920-1960. Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company, Inc, 2006.
Alamillo, Jose. “A Brief History of the Mission Theater, Santa Paula, California.” Unpublished essay. May 29, 2024.
“Apetura del Teatro de Fillmore, Calif.” La Voz de le Colonia, October 16, 1931, 1. “Bennison Re-inforced Concrete Block, corner of Main and Tenth Sts., nearing completion.” Photograph. Santa Paula Chronicle, September 29, 1911, 1. “Brown Opens Oxnard Theatre.” Santa Paula Chronicle, January 17, 1931, 1.
Bush, W. Stephen. “The Triumph of the Gallery.” Moving Picture World, December 13, 1913, 1256. “Después De Seis Días.” La Voz de la Colonia, April 7, 1927, 1. “Early Opening Seen for Tower Theater.” Santa Paula Chronicle, May 10, 1940, 1. “El Teatro Lyrico Presenta una Gran Atracción a la Colonia Mexicana.” La Voz de la Colonia, March 4, 1932, 1.
“Enterrada Viva Que Resucitara Manana.” La Voz de la Colonia, August 22, 1929, 1. “Flood Pictures at Mission Tonight.” Santa Paula Chronicle, March 19, 1928, 2.
Gebhard, David, and Harriette Von Breton. Los Angeles in the Thirties: 1931-1941. Los Angeles:
Hennessey & Ingalls, Inc., 1989.
“Gift Night at the Mission Theatre.” Santa Paula Chronicle, April 21, 1927, 8. “Gran Película 'La Pasión' El Viernes Próximo.” La Voz de la Colonia, April 28, 1927, 1.
Held, Craig. “Re: Mission theater.” Email correspondence with Jose Alamillo, June 12, 2023.
Hutchinson, S.S. “Kinematography in the United States.” Moving Picture World 21, no. 2 (July 11, 1914): 175-176.
Leffingwell, Leslie. “Remodeling Costs May Stop Theater Reopening.” The Daily Chronicle, February 12, 1980, 1.
“L.H. Baumgartner Buys the Elektra.” Santa Paula Chronicle, October 18, 1917, 2.
Lima, Christina. “Santa Paula: City to Buy, Restore 1900s Movie Theater.” Los Angeles Times, March 25, 1995.
“Lo Que Habra En El 'Mission'.” La Voz de la Colonia, January 17, 1929, 1. 249
*Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Tower Theater *NRHP Status Code 5S3 Page of 46_
DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information
State of California C The Resources Agency Primary #
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#
BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD
44 Lyric Theatre. “Para El Cinco De Mayo.” Advertisement. La Voz de la Colonia, May 5, 1932, 4. ———. “The Law of Sex.” Advertisement. Santa Paula Chronicle, May 8, 1933. ———. “Tonight and Tomorrow.” Advertisement. Santa Paula Chronicle, February 20, 1932, 3.
Menchaca, Martha. The Mexican Outsiders: A Community History of Marginalization and Discrimination in California. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 1995. “Mission Proprietor Goes on Honor Roll.” Santa Paula Chronicle, September 6, 1923, 7-B. “Mission Theatre Opens Saturday with Matinee.” Santa Paula Chronicle, December 28, 1922, 1. “Mission Theatre Sold to Aja, Arizona, Man.” Santa Paula Chronicle, August 2, 1923, 6-A.
Mission Theatre. “The Country’s Critics Acclaim.” Advertisement. Santa Paula Chronicle, November 6, 1927.
“Monsenor Orozco y Jimenez ARZOBISPO de Guadalajara Oficiara En La Solomne Misa Al Aire Libre En El Steckel P.” La Voz de la Colonia, April 8, 1932, 1. “New Lyric Theatre Opens Saturday: Doors to Open to Public at 7 O’Clock at New Theatre Here.” Santa Paula Chronicle, May 7, 1931, 1.
Paul, William. When Movies Were Theater: Architecture, Exhibition, and the Evolution of American Film. New York: Columbia University Press, 2016.
“Personal Mention.” Santa Paula Chronicle, August 30, 1923, 1. “Por El Teatro Mission El 26-27.” La Voz de la Colonia, May 23, 1929, 4. “Remodeling Starts on Tower Theater.” Santa Paula Chronicle, April 18, 1940, 2.
Roddick, Chloe. “Deep Focus: The Golden Age of Mexican Cinema.” British Film Institute, July 25, 2019.
“Rushing Bennison Building.” Santa Paula Chronicle, August 18, 1911, 1.
Sanborn Map Company. “Santa Paula, CA.” New York: Sanborn Map Company, 1912, sheet 10. “Santa Paula, Prosperous Glen City.” Ventura Free Press, May 22, 1914, 2. [“T.G. Robinson”]. Santa Paula Chronicle [clipping], December 24, 1909, 7. “Theaters Will Be Remodeled.” Santa Paula Chronicle, February 8, 1940, 1. “The Brickbuilder Annual Architectural Terra Cotta Competition.” The Brickbuilder 22, no. 11 (November 1913): xxxviii.
[“The Elektra Theater”]. Santa Paula Chronicle, December 15, 1911, 5. [“The Elektra Theatre”]. Santa Paula Chronicle, December 22, 1911, 1. 250
*Resource Name or # (Assigned by recorder) Tower Theater *NRHP Status Code 5S3 Page of 46_
DPR 523B (9/2013) *Required information
State of California C The Resources Agency Primary #
DEPARTMENT OF PARKS AND RECREATION HRI#
BUILDING, STRUCTURE, AND OBJECT RECORD
45 “The National Spotlight: Los Angeles.” Motion Picture Herald 202, no. 10 (March 10, 1956): 31. [“The Opening Night”]. Santa Paula Chronicle, October 27, 1911, 1.
Tobar, Hector. “Former Bracero Tells of Program’s Legacy.” Los Angeles Times, October 15, 2010. “Todos Al Teatro Mission Con Sus Musicas De Boca.” La Voz de la Colonia, November 1, 1928, 2. “Tower Theater.” Santa Paula Chronicle, advertisement, March 4, 1943, 8. “Tower Theater, Completely Remodeled, Opens Here Tonight.” Santa Paula Chronicle, June 7, 1940, 6.
“Tower Theater Open on Weekends Now.” Santa Paula Chronicle, August 27, 1940, 5. “$25.00 Seran Regaldos.” La Voz de la Colonia, August 8, 1929, 1. “Tower Theater Manager Named.” Santa Paula Chronicle, June 5, 1940, 1.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security. “INS Records for 1930s Mexican Repatriations.” July 29, 2020.
Valentine, Maggie. The Show Starts on the Sidewalk: An Architectural History of the Movie Theater, Starring S. Charles Lee. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1994. “Valiosa Aclaración.” La Voz de La Colonia, October 27, 1927, 1. “Vista Parlante Netamente Mexicana Se Exhibira En El Teatro Columbia El Mierc.” La Voz de la Colonia, April 17, 1930, 1.
251
1 Tower Theater: City of Santa Paula Historic Landmark Application ATTACHMENT B:
Tower Theater: DPR 523 forms
Ventura County Cultural Heritage Survey: Phase I – Santa Paula Judy Triem and Mary Alice Henderson
May 11, 1981
252
2 253
3 254
ATTACHMENT B
PC/HPC RESOLUTION NO. 3863
255
RESOLUTION NO. 3863
A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY OF SANTA PAULA HISTORIC
PRESERVATION COMMISSION RECOMMENDING THAT THE CITY
COUNCIL ADOPT THE TOWER THEATER AT 982 EAST MAIN
STREET AS A CITY HISTORIC LANDMARK
The Historic Preservation Commission does resolve as follows:
SECTION 1. The Historic Preservation Commission finds and declares as follows pursuant to City Council Ordinance No. 816 and Santa Paula Municipal Code Chapter
16.33:
A. The applicant has provided the city with appropriate and necessary applications and supporting documents to nominate the Tower Theater at 982 East Main Street as a City of Santa Paula Historic Landmark and for potential listing in the California Register of Historic Resources and National Register of Historic Places; B. The City of Santa Paula Planning Commission, serving as the Historic Preservation Commission for the City of Santa Paula, duly noticed and held a public hearing on December 10, 2024 to consider recommending to the City Council identification of the Tower Theater at 982 East Main Street as a City of Santa Paula Historic Landmark; and
C. That it was the recommendation of the Design Assistance Committee at their meeting on October 31, 2024 to recommend City Historic Landmark designation for the Tower Theater at 982 East Main Street based on their review of the “Tower Theater: City of Santa Paula Historic Landmark Application” report prepared by Daniel D. Paul, Architectural Historian and dated September 3, 2024.
SECTION 2. Findings
A. The Tower Theater retains integrity of location, as an unmoved building situated between two other contemporaneous buildings, including the Bennison Block to the east, with which it was constructed in 1911. The Tower Theater’s Main Street setting is intact and unchanged. This setting includes adjacent and connected Santa Paula Main Street commercial buildings that predate World War I. The Tower Theater’s integrity of design, with its 1940 Moderne-styled façade, marquee, and circle motif auditorium wall murals, are all retained, as is the exterior Espadana parapet that is original to its 1911 construction.
256
B. In consideration of these facts and the information presented in the project application, the Tower Theater is eligible for City Landmark designation based on the criteria identified within City Council Ordinance No. 816, Section 17.55.080 Nomination of Landmarks:
(1) Historical & Cultural Significance
a. The proposed landmark is particularly representative of a distinct historical period, type, style, region, or way of life. b. The proposed landmark is an example of a type of building which was once common, but is now rare.
c. The proposed landmark is of a greater age than most of its kind. d. The proposed landmark is connected with a business or use which was once common, but is now rare.
e. The architect or builder was locally or nationally renowned. f. The site is the location of a significant local or national event. (2) Historical Architectural & Engineering Significance a. The construction materials or engineering methods used in the proposed landmark are unusual or significant or uniquely effective. b. The overall effect of the design of the proposed landmark is beautiful, or its details and materials are beautiful or unusual.
(3) Neighborhood & Geographic Setting
a. The proposed landmark materially benefits the historic character of the neighborhood.
b. The proposed landmark in its location represents an established and familiar visual feature of the neighborhood, community or city.
C. Analysis of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) statutes identifies that the proposed designation of the Tower Theater at 982 East Main Street (APN: 103- 0-113-095) as a City Landmark is exempt from further environmental review pursuant to Title 14 of the California Code of Regulations, Sections 15308 (Class 8) and 15331 (Class 31).
SECTION 3. If any provision of this Resolution or its application to any person or circumstance is held invalid, such invalidity has no effect on the other provisions or applications of the Resolution that can be given effect without the invalid provision or application, and to this extent, the provisions of this Resolution are severable. The Historic Preservation Commission declares that it would have adopted this Resolution irrespective of the invalidity of any portion thereof.
257
258
ATTACHMENT C
SPMC CHAPTER 16.33
HISTORIC LANDMARK OVERLAY ZONING DISTRICTS
259
Chapter 16.33 – Historic Landmark Overlay Zoning District Santa Paula
Development Code 16.33-1 July 6, 2004
Chapter 16.33 - Historic Landmark Overlay Zoning Districts
16.31.010 Purpose and Intent
16.31.020 Procedures for Establishment
16.31.030 Review of Projects
16.31.040 Required Findings
16.31.050 Maintenance of Property
16.31.060 Alteration Permit
16.31.070 Consistency with Other Laws
16.31.080 Other Applicable Regulations
16.33.010 Purpose and Intent
The purpose of this overlay district is to established the protection and recognition of historic buildings and neighborhoods with historic merit. The overlay will require special development and design review standards for projects within this identified Historic Overlay district. This chapter provides for the identification and designation of historic places, buildings, works of art, neighborhoods, and other objects of historic or cultural interest within the City.
16.33.020 Procedures for Establishment
A. Applications for designation of a historic landmark may be initiated by any person who is able to demonstrate a legal vested interest in the property proposed for the landmark designation. The authorized agent of any person with a legal vested interest may also initiate an application. The Planning Director may request proof of ownership or authorization to apply prior to the acceptance of any application.
B. Applications for designation of a historic district may be initiated by any individual, the Planning Director, the Planning Commission, or the City Council.
16.33.030 Review of Projects
A. Determination of Application’s Merit
Upon acceptance of an application for designation of a historic landmark or historic district as complete, the Planning Director will forward the application to the Design Assistance Committee for a preliminary assessment of the merits of the application, in accordance with City Council Ordinance No. 816.
260
Chapter 16.33 – Historic Landmark Overlay Zoning District Santa Paula
Development Code 16.33-2 July 6, 2004
B. No Merit Determination
If the Design Assistance Committee determines that the application has no merit, the application will be rejected and no further action will be taken, unless an appeal to the Historic Preservation Commission is filed pursuant to the provisions of Chapter 16.206 (Appeals and Revocations).
C. Merit Determination
If the Design Assistance Committee determines that the proposed historic landmark or district designation has merit, the Commission will set a date for a public hearing to consider the application.
D. Public Hearing – Historic Preservation Commission
1. A public hearing before the Historic Preservation Commission will be noticed and conducted pursuant to the provisions of Chapter 16.204 (Public Hearings).
2. At the public hearing, the Commission will review the application and receive evidence as to how or why the proposed historic landmark or district represents and exemplifies an important aspect of the cultural or architectural history of the City of Santa Paula or Ventura County.
3. The Commission will act by resolution to recommend to the City Council approval, approval with modifications, or denial of the proposed application.
4. The Commission’s resolution will include its recommendation and will be transmitted to the City Clerk for scheduling the matter for public hearing before the City Council.
E. Public Hearing - City Council
1. Upon receipt of the Historic Preservation Commission resolution, the City Clerk will set the matter for hearing before the City Council as provided for in Chapter 16.204 (Public Hearings).
2. At the hearing, the City Council will review the Commission’s recommendation and receive evidence as to how or why the proposed designation of a historic landmark or district furthers the goals of the City with respect to the identification and protection of important historic and cultural resources.
3. The City Council will act by ordinance to approve, approve with modifications, or deny the application. The Council’s action will be final and will become effective upon the effective date of the ordinance.
261
Chapter 16.33 – Historic Landmark Overlay Zoning District Santa Paula
Development Code 16.33-3 July 6, 2004
16.33.050 Maintenance of Property
The owner or individual in charge of a designated landmark or a structure within a historic district must maintain the designated landmark or structure within the historic district in good condition, in accordance with City Council Ordinance No. 816. If the owner or individual in charge fails to make the necessary improvements for maintenance, the City may make the improvements and charge the costs as a lien against the property.
16.33.060 Alteration Permit
A. Public hearings will be required for the review and approval of a permit for alteration, restoration, construction, removal or demolition of or on a designated historic landmark or property within the historic district, unless the Building Official, in accordance with City Council Ordinance No. 816, declares the subject structure unsafe.
B. The Historic Preservation Commission will serve as the hearing body on matters related to the approval/disapproval of alteration permits.
16.33.070 Consistency with Other Laws
When state and federal laws are in conflict with the provisions for preservation and maintenance of historic landmarks outlined in this Title 16 and City Council Ordinance No. 816, the provisions of state and federal laws will prevail to the extent of the conflict.
16.33.080 Other Applicable Regulations
In addition to the requirements contained in this Chapter 16.33, the provisions of Chapter 16.200 (Administration of the Development Code) and City Council Ordinance No. 816 will apply to the designation of historic landmarks and districts.
Chapter 16.232 Tree Removal Permit
City Council Ordinance No. 816
262
ATTACHMENT D
CC ORDINANCE NO. 816
HISTORIC PRESERVATION
11.19.1984
263
' '
ORDINANCE NO. 816
AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY
OF SANTA PAULA CREATING A HISTORIC PRESERVATION
COMMISSION AND ESTABLISHING PROCEDURES FOR NOMINATION,
DESIGNATION AND PRESERVATION OF HISTORIC RESOURCES
WITHIN THE CITY OF SANTA PAULA
Section 1. The City Council of the City of Santa Paula hereby establishes regulations which will be referred to as the Historic Preservation Ordinance and which will read as
follows:
17.55.010 . Purpose.
The purpose of this ordinance is to promote the educational, c ultural, economic and general welfare of the community by:
A. Providing a mechanism to identify and preserve the
distinctive historic and architectural characteristics of Santa Paula which represent elements of the City's
cultural, social, economic, political and architectural history;
B. Fostering civic pride in the accomplishments of the past as represented in Santa Paula's landmarks and historic
districts.
C. Conservi ng and improving the va lue of properties
designated as landmarks or within historic districts;
D. Protecting and e nhancing the attractiveness of the City to home buyers, tourists, visitors and shoppers; and
thereby supporting and promoting business, commerce,
industry and providing economic benefit to the City.
E. Encourag ing preservation, restoration and rehabilitation of structures, areas and neighborhoods a nd thereby
preventing future urban blight.
It is further declared that the purposes of this ord inance are:
F. With respect to historic landmarks:
(1) to retain and enhance historic landmarks in Santa
Paula and to encourage their adaption to current use;
(2) to encourage the restoration or rehabilitation of
historic landmarks.
0-'6/6 264
G. With respect to the properties within historic
d istricts:
(1) t o retain and e nhance those properties wh ich
contribute to the cha racter o f the historic
distri c t and to encourage their adaptation t o
current use;
(2) to assure that a lte rations of existing
structures are compatible with the charac t er o f
the historic d istrict;
(3) to assure that new construction and
subdivision of lots in a historic district a re
compatible with the c haracter of the historic
district .
17.55. 020 Definitions.
Unless specifi call y defined be low, words or phrases in this ordi nance shall be interpreted to give them same meaning as they have in common usage and to give this o rdinance its most reasonable applicati on.
A. ALTERATION. Any exterior change or modification, through p ublic or private act i on , of any cultura l resource or of any property l oca t ed with in a historic district including, but not limited t o , ext e rior changes t o or modification of a structure, architectural details or visual
characteristics such as surface texture, grading, s urface pa ving, new structures, c utting or remova l of trees and o ther natura l features, d isturbance o f archeolog i c al sites or areas, a nd the placement o r removal of any ext erior o bjects s uc h as s igns , p laques, light fixtures, street furniture, walls, fences, steps, and lands cape a cce ssories affecting the ext e rio r visual qualities of the property.
In commercial zones , alt eration also includes paint color c hanges which are not compati b le with the ne i g hborhood o r district as de t ermined by the Planning Director or, on appeal, by the City Council. Alte ratio n does no t inc lude " o rdina ry mainte na nce " as defined below.
B. CERTIFICATE OF APPROPRIATENESS. A certificate issued by the Historic Preservation Commissio n indicating its
approval of p l ans for a lte ration, construction, remova l or demo lition of a s truc ture within a histori c district.
C. CERTIFI CATE OF ECONOMIC HARDSHIP. A certificate iss ued by the Historic Preservation Commission authori z ing an a lte ration, con s truction, removal or demolitio n, eve n though a Certificate of Appropriateness has prev iously been denied.
D. CONSTRUCTION. The act o f adding to a n existing l a ndmark o r to a s tructure within a historic district; o r the e r ec tion of a new struc ture within a historic district. - 2-
265
E. DEMOLITION. Any act or process that destroys in part or in whole, a structure in a historic district.
F. DEMOLITION STAY. A temporary delay in the processing of a permit to demolish a designated heritage resource so
that attempts can be made to preserve the resource. The length of delay shall be based on the significance of the structure as provided in Sec. 17.55.190 of this chapter.
G. DESIGNATED HISTORIC DISTRI CT. A defined area contai ning buildings, structures, sites, objects and spaces linked historically through location, design, setting , materials, workmanshi p, feelings and/or association. The signifi cance of a district is the product of the sense of time and
place in history that its individual components col lectively convey. This sense may relate to developments during one period or through several periods in history.
H. DESIGNATED HISTORIC LANDMARK. A building, improvement, structure, natural featu re, site or area of land under sing le or common ownership , designated as a heritage
resource pursuant to this Chapter.
I. DESIGN GUIDELINES. Standards of appropriate activity which will preserve the historic and architectural character of a structure or the atmosphere of an area as described and illustrated in Appendix A and in Section
17.55.170.
J. HERITAGE RESOURCE. Any public or p rivate property
designated by the Ci ty, pursuant to this Ordinance , as having special historical , cultural, archeologica l,
scientific, architectural or aesthetic significance,
interest o r value as part of the heritage or history of the City of Sa nta Paula , the County of Ventura , the State of Ca lifornia , or the nation.
K. HISTORI C DISTRICT DESIGN GUIDELINES. Standards of
appropriate activity which will preserve the historic and a r ch itectural character of a structure or the atmosphere of an area as described and ill ustrated in Section
17.55.170 and in Appendix A.
-3-
0-5/c 266
L. LANDSCAP I NG. The planting, including replanting in case of death, disease, d isfigurement or dismemberment, o f live trees, shrubs and ground cover wh ich, a t the time of
planting, are healthy, vigorous, and free of diseases, and of a species that is able to thrive in the environment and soil type in which it is planted, and maintenance thereof sufficient to sustain plant life, including an irrigation system with a useful life of not less than t en years. In commercial and multiple-family zones, the irrigation system must be an underground system.
M. ORDINARY MAINTENANCE. The maintenance, painting, landscaping or repair of any exterior feature in or upon any designated heritage resource that does not involve a
change in design, material or the external appearance
thereof, except that in residential zones, change of paint color shall also be considered ordinary maintenance.
N. PRESERVATION. The identification, study, protec tion, restoration, rehabilitation or enhancement o f cultural resources.
o. REHABILITATION. The process of returning a property to a state of utility through repair o r a lteratio n, which makes possible an efficient contemporary use while preserving those portions and f ea ture s of the property which are significant to its historic, architectural and cultural values.
P. REPAIR. Any change that i s not new construction, removal or a lterati on.
Q. SECRETARY OF INTERIOR'S "STANDARDS FOR REHABILITATION" mean the standards listed in Section 17.55.140 C. of this Ordinance.
R. STATE HISTORIC BU ILDING CODE means Part 8 (Stat e His toric Building Code) of Title 24 (Building Standards) o f the State of California Administrative Code.
s. STOP WORK ORDER means an order issued by the Building Department o f the City of Santa Paula to stop a ny work (alte ration, demolition, repair, constructi on or
rehabilitation) being carried on in violation of the
provisions of this Chapter.
-4-
{J-<6/l: 267
17.55.030
T. VENTURA COUNTY LANDMARKS. Those buildings or sites
previously designated as landmarks within the City of
Santa Paula by the Ventura County Cultural Heritage Board a nd the City Council under the provisions of Ordi nance No. 766 and as may be designated in the future in
compliance with the procedures of this chapter.
l-li st or ic Preservation Commission.
When administering this ordinance, the Planning Commission of the City of Santa Paula shall act as the Historic Preservation Commission unless otherwise provided by resolution of t he City Council.
17.55.040 Design Assistance Committee.
There is hereby created a Design Assistance Comittee which shall act as an advisory body to the Historic Preservation Commission.
A. Membership. The Design Ass i stance Committee shall consist of 5 members who shall be residents o f the City of Santa Paula and appointed by and serve at the pleasure of the Santa Paula City Council, with the following
qualifications:
(1) One me mber from the Santa Paula Planning Commission; (2) One member who shall have been a candidate nominated by the Santa Pau l a Historical Soc iety;
(3) One membe r who, by r eason of training and experience is knowledgeable in the field o f constru ction and
struct ural re habili tation, suc h as a licensed
a rchitect, e ngine er, contractor or urban p lanner.
B. Term. The term of off i ce for each member s hall be four (4) years , except t hat two o f t he members f irst a ppointed shall be designated to se rve for a term of two years, two for a t erm o f three years, and one for a term of four years, so as to provide a continuity of membership o n the Comm i ttee. Thereafter , the term for each member s hall be four years. An appoin tment to fill a n unexpired term
s hall be for the r emainde r of s uc h unexpired term. -5-
268
C. Absences. If a member is absen t from three successive regular or noticed speci al meetings, unless by
permission of the Committee, or ceases to be a resident of the City , this sea t sha ll be conside red vacant.
D. Removal. A Committee member may be removed upon the
affirmati ve vote of three members of the City Council.
E. Chairperson. The Mayor, wi ththe a pprova l of the City Council, shall appoint the first Chairperson from among the member, subject to the f oll owing condition:
{a) The term of office of t he Chairperson sha ll be f or the calendar year , or that portion remain ing after
he or she is appointed o r elected. When there is a
vacancy in the off ice of Chairperson, the Committee
shall e l ec t a Chairperson from among its members.
17 .55.050. Pla nning Department .
The Planning Director or his or her des ignate sha ll act as secretary t o the Historic Preservation Commission and the Design Assistance Committee , and s hall be the custodian of t he i r records, conduct off i c ial correspondence , and generally supervise t he clerica l and t echni ca l work of the Commission a nd Committee in administering t his ordinance.
1 7.55.060. Duties of the Histori c Preserva tion Commission.
The Histo ric Preservation Commission sha ll have the power and duty t o :
A. Adopt rules of procedure which sha ll be appr oved by the City Council.
B. Administe r the prov i s i o ns of this ord inance.
C. Review and accept , modify or de ny l andmark nominations as recommended by the Design Assistance Commi ttee.
D. Review a nd accep t, modify or de ny historic district nominations as recommended by the Design Assi stance
Committee; and to forward their decision to the City
Council for approval or den i al.
E. Review a nd accept or deny the Design Assi stance
Committee's recomme ndation f or designated landma r ks or historic districts to be listed on the Nationa l Register of Historic Places.
-6-
269
F. Review and accept, modify or deny the issuance of a
Certificate of Appropriat eness, Certificate of Economic Hardship or Demolition Permit as recommended by the
Design Assistance Committee.
G. Direct the Planning Director to send applications for proposed zoning amendments, conditional use permits or
zoning variances to the Design Assistance Committee for review prior to the public hearing if such items will
affect proposed or designated landmark or historic
districts.
H. Review and accept, modify or deny the development of a preservation component in the General Plan as recommended by the Design Assistance Committee.
I. Review and accept, modify or deny the Design Assistance Committee's recommendation regarding any amendments
appropriate for t he protection and continued use of
landmarks or property or structures within a historic
district following the Committee's periodical review of the City's Zoning Ordinance.
J. Review and accept, modify or deny the Design Assistance Committee's recommendation regarding standards for minor c hanges to buildings whi ch allow for City staff approval of such minor changes without full review under the
provisions of Sec. 17.55 . 140.
K. Perform such other functions as may be designated from time to time by the City Council.
17.55.070. Powers and Duties of the Design Assistance Committee.
A. The Committee shall develop and adopt ru l es of procedure which shall govern the conduct of its business in
accordance with the provisions of this ordinance. All
such rules shall be approved by the City Council.
Such rules of procedure shall also include as an appendix an illustrated portfolio including: photographs, i llustrations, colors, descriptions, the Secretary o f Interior's "Standards for Rehabilitation'', the State Historic Building Code, Design Guidelines and other similar material interpreting the criteria for determining appropriateness as set out in Section 17.55.080A of this ordi nance. Such appendix shall be placed on file at the Santa Paula City Hall and made available to the general public during regular business hours.
-7-
270
B. To identify historically and architecturally significant properties, structures and areas that exemplify the
cultural, socia l , economic, political or architectural history of the City.
C. To investigate and recommend to the Historic Preservation Commission the designation of specific landmarks or
historic districts.
D. To keep a register of all properties and structures that have been designated as landmarks or historic districts, including all information required for eac h designation.
E. To assist owners of landmarks and property or structures within historic districts on physical and financial
aspects of preservation, renovation, rehabilitation, and reuse; and on procedures for inclusion on the National
Register of Historic Places.
F. To recommend to t he Historic Preservation Commission the nomination of designated landmarks and histori c districts to the National Register of Historic Places.
G. To review a ll applications for construction, alterat ion , removal, relocation, or demolition affecting proposed or designated landmarks or structures within a proposed or designated historic district; and to recommend iss uance or denial of Certificate s of Appropriateness for such
actions. App licants sha ll be require d to submit p lans, drawings, elevations, specifications or other information as may be necessary to make such decisions.
H. To apply the Design Guidelines when considering the
alteration, construction or remova l of landmarks or
property or stru ctures within historic districts.
I. To recommend to the Historic Preservation Commission the adoption of standards for minor alterations such as
changes in hardware, house and building address numbers, small plaques and name tags and structural hardware
needed to comp l y with earthquake mitigation standards which may be adopted by the City.
-8-
tl~ 271
J. To review proposed zoning amendments, applications for spec i al use permits or app l icati ons for zoning variances that affect proposed or designated landmarks or historic districts. The Planning Di rector sha l l send such
applicati ons to t he Committee prior to the hearing date by the Planning Commission for the Committee 's comments.
K. When deemed necessary by the Committee or at the request of a n applicant, a spokesperson shall testify before all Commissions and the Council on any matter affecting
historically or a r chitecturally s i gnificant property , structures or areas.
L. To recommend the development o f a preservat i on component in the General Pl an to the City Council and Planning
Commission.
M. To periodica lly r evi ew Santa Paula's Zoning Ordinance and recommend t o the Planning Commission any amendment s
app ropriate f or the protection and continued use of
l a ndmarks or property or structures within a historic district.
N. To undertake any other action deemed necessary to the implementation of this ordinance.
17 .55.080. Nomina tion of Landmarks.
Nomination s sha ll be made to the Design Assistance Committee on a form prepared by it a nd may be submitted by a member of the Committee, owner of record , the Historic Preservation Commission, or the City Council.
A. Cr iteria for Desi gna tion of Landmark Nominat i on.
The Design Assistance Committee, sha ll upon such
investigati on as it deems necessary, make a determination as to whether a nominated propert y or structure meets one or more of the fol l ow ing criteria:
(1) Historical & Cultural S i gn i ficance
(a) The proposed landma rk is particul arl y representative of a distinct historical period, type, style, region, or way of life.
(b) The proposed landmark is an e xample of a type
of buildi ng which was once common, but i s now
rare.
(c ) The proposed landmark is of a greater age than
most of i ts kind.
- 9-
{)-ii~ 272
(d) The proposeo l andmark is connected with a
business or use which was once common, but i s
now rare.
(e) The archi tect or builder was locally or
nationally renowned.
(f) The site is the l ocation of a s ignifi cant
l oca l or na t i ona l event.
(2) Historic Architectural & Engineering Significance
(a) The construct ion materials or engi neering
me tho d s u sed in the proposed landmark are
unusual or significant or uniquely effective.
(b) The overall effect of the design of the
proposed landmark is beautiful, or its detai ls
and materials are beautiful or unusual.
(3) Neighborhood and Geographic Se tting
(a) The proposed l a ndmark materially benefits the
histo ri c character o f the ne ighborhood.
(b ) The proposed landmark in its location
represe nts an established a nd fami liar v i s u a l
feature of the neighborhood, communi ty or city .
B. Any structure , property o r area that meets one or more of the above criteria s ha ll a l so have s u fficie nt integrity of l ocati o n , design, materi a l s, construction a n d workma ns hip to mak e it worthy of preservation, r estoration or
rehabilitat i o n .
c. Notification of Nomination.
The Historic Preservation Commission shall schedule a
public hearing on t he n omina tio n within 30 days f o llowing r ece ipt of a report and recommendation from the Design Assi stan ce Committee tha t a nominated landmark does or does not meet the criteria for designation.
1. Legal Notice of t he time, place, a nd purpose of s u ch hearing s hall be given by the Secretary in a loca l
newspaper not l ess tha n 10 cal endar days prior to the d ate of hearing a nd by mail to the owners of the
property. The Secretary may a l so g i ve s u c h
additional not ice as may be deemed desirable and
- 10-
273
2. Prior to approval, mo~ified approval or disapproval
of the recommendation, the Historic Preservation
Commission shall find that the nominated landmark
does or does not meet the criteria for designation
as set forth in Section 17.55.080 A and shall
furt her find :
(a) That the proposed landmark has significant aesthetic, cultural, architectural, or engineering interest or value of a historical nature, and
(b) That the proposed landmark may be designated
without imposing an undue hardship on the
property owner, and
(c) That approval or modified approval or disapproval of the application is consistent with the purposes and criteria of this Chapter.
3. The action of the Historic Preservation Commission
may be appealed to the City Council. The City
Council s hall hold a public hearing at the
next regular meeting, consistent with the agenda
preparation procedures and p ubli c hearing
requirements . The City Clerk sha ll give notice of
the time and place of the hearing by publication in
a local newspaper and by mail to the owner of the
property at l east ten days prior to the hearing.
4. The City Council sha ll approve, disapprove , or modify the designation of the Hi storic Pre servation
Commission .
5. Prior to the approval or modified approval of
desig nation, the City Council shall make those
findi ngs specified in Sect i on 17.55.080 A.
6 . After approva l or denial of the designation of a
landmark, the Secretary shall send to the owner of
the property so designated by mail, a letter
outlining the basis for such designation or nondesignation and the regulations which result if the designation is approved. The Secretary may also
forward a copy of the letter to any other department
or agency requesti ng it or that t he Secretary
considers affected by the designation.
1 7.55.090. Nomination o f Historic Districts (Historic Overl ay Zone) Nomination of a historic district may be initiated by t he Desi gn Ass istance Committee, the Historic Preservation Commission, the Ci ty Council or on application of persons, or authorized agents, who own 60% of the rec orded lots to be i ncluded in the proposed district. Al l districts shall be established throug h t he designation of a Historic Overlay (HO) Zone.
-11-
274
A. Criteria for Designation of Historic District
(1) The proposed historic district is a geographically
definabl e area, urban or rural, possessing a
significant concentration or continuity of site,
buildings, structures, or objects unif ied by past
events, or aesthetically by plan or physical
development, or
(2) The historic and aesthetic collective value of the
district taken together may be greater than the
va lue of each individual structure, or
(3) The district meets the criteria which are listed for the designation of Landmarks as provided in Section
17.55.080,
B. Any such applicat ion s h all be filed with the Design Assistance Committee upon the prescribed forms and shall include the following data:
(1) Statement of the district's special aesthetic,
cultural, architectural, or engineering interest or
value of a historical nature.
(2) Drawings, photographs, or other descriptive
material.
(3) Other informati on requested by the Historic
Preservation Commission or Design Assistance
Committee.
(4) Environmental Assessment Documents.
C. The Design Assistance Committee shall review and report to the Historic Preservation Commission as to the
application's conformance with the purposes and criteria of this Chapter. The Design Assistance Committee shall
recommend approval , disapprova l, or modification of the designation to the Historic Preservation Commission
within 7 days following its decision.
D. After receiving a recommendation from the Design Assistance Committee, the Historic Preservation Commission shall hold a pub l ic hearing at the earliest next regular meeting, consistent with agenda preparation procedure and completion of the environmental review process. The Historic Preservation Commission shall consider the report of the Design Assistance Committee and shall consider the conformance or lack of conformance of the proposed designation with the purposes and criteria as specifi ed in Section 17.55.010 and Subsection A of this Section. The -12-
275
(
D. ( cont'd)
hearing shall be held in accordance with Section 17.78.030 et. seq. and the Pl anning Commi ssion/Hi storic Preservati on Commiss i on sha ll recommend approva l, d i sapprova l, or modif i ed approval of the proposed zone change as provided therein. A record of pertinent information presented at the hearing s ha ll be made and maintained as a permanent record.
E. The Planning Commission/Historic Preservation Commission shall transmit the app lication and its recommendations t o the City Counc il.
F. The City Council sha ll hold a public hearing o n a ny proposed designation so transmitted as set forth in
Section 17.78.060 et. seq. of this Title. The City
Council may approve, modify and approve, or de ny the
proposed designation as set forth in Secti o n 17.78. 070 et. seq . of this Ti tle. Approva l, or modification a nd approva l, of the designation shall be upon adoption of a n ordi nance.
G. The property inc luded in a ny such designation s hall be s ubject to the regulat i ons set forth in this Chapter and a ny further contro l s spec ifie d in the designating
o rd i nance .
H. The Sec r etary s hal l cause a copy of the desi g na ting ordina nce to be f orwarded to a ny department or agency requesting it or to a ny indi vidu a l department or agency to whom the Secretary cons i de r s it appropriate to have it sent .
I. The desi g nated property or prope rties shal l be s hown on the zon ing map wi th its underlying zone fo llowing with a n (HO) designation to indicate its inclusion in a Historic Overlay Zone.
17. 55. 100. Report a nd Recomme ndati on of Design Assistance Committee Regarding All Designati ons for Nomination.
The Design Assistance Commi ttee s ha ll, within 30 days f rom receipt of a compl e t ed nominat i on in proper form, f orward its recommendation for approval, d isapprova l or modification to the Historic Preservation Commission that the nominated l andmark or historic d istrict does or does not meet t he criteria for designat i on in Subsection A of Section 17 .55 .090. The recommendation shall be accompanied by a report to the Histori c Preservation Commi ssi on contain ing the fo llowing informati on:
-1 3-
276
1. Explanation of the significance or lack of significance of the nominated landmark or historic district as it related to the criteria for designation;
2. Explanation of the integrity or lack of integrity of the nominated landmark or historic district;
3. In the case of a nominated landmark found to meet the criteria for designation:
a. The significant exterior architectural features of the nominated landmark that should be protected;
b. The types of construction, alteration, demolition, and removal, other than those requiring a building or demolition permit that should be reviewed for appropriateness pursuant to the provisions of Section 17.55.130 of this ordinance.
4. In the case of a nominated historic district found to meet the criteria for designation:
a. The types of significant exterior architectural features of the structures within the nominated historic district that should be protected;
b. The types of alterations and demolitions that should be reviewed for appropriateness pursuant to the provisions of Section 17.55.130 of this ordinance.
5. Proposed Design Guidelines for applying the criteria for review of Certificates of Appropriateness to the nominated landmark or historic district.
6. The relationship of the nominated landmark or historic district to the ongoing effort of the Historic Preservation Commission to identify and nominate all potential areas and structures that meet the criteria for designation.
7. Recommendations as to appropriate height and area regulations, minimum dwelling size, sign regulations, and parking regulations necessary or appropriate to the preservation of the nominated landmark or historic district.
8. A map showing the location of the nominated landmark and the boundaries of the nominated historic district.
-14-
277
17.55.110. Interim Control.
No building permit shall be issued by the Building Department for alteration, construction , demolition or removal o f a nominated landmark or any property or structure within a nominated historic district from the date of the meeting of the Design Assistance Committee at which a nomination form is first presented unti l the final disposition of the nomination by the Historic Preservation Commission or the City Council un less such alteration, removal or demolition is an authorized action as provided in Section 17.55.130 .
In no event shall the delay be more than 180 days.
17.55 .120. Amendment or Rescission of Designation.
Designation may be amended or resci nded upon petition to the Design Assistance Committee and comp liance with the same procedure and according to the same criteria set forth herein for designation.
17. 55. 1 30. Application for Certificate of Appropriateness to Authorize Construction, Demolition, Relocation, or Material Change on a Designated Landmark or in a Historic District.
No person shall carry out or cause to be carried out, any a lteration, r e location, construction, demolition or relocation, as defined in Section 17.55.020, on a designated landmark or a structure within a designated historic district without first receiving a Cert ificate of Appropriat e ness from the Historic Preservation Commi ssion except as provide d in Subsection C of this sec tion.
A. A Certificate of Appropriateness shall be require d before the following actions affecting the exterior architectural appearance of a designated landmark or s tructure within a designated historic district can be initiated.
(1) Any construction, a l teration , rehabilitation,
relocation or demolition in whole or part, which
r equires a permit fr om the City of Santa Paula .
(2) Any construction, alteration, removal or demolition of a significant architectural feature not requiring
a permit from the City, but which would affect the
exterior appearance as specified in the ordinance
designating the landmark or historic district and as
defined in Section 17.55.020 A.
B. The Planning Department sha ll maintain within the
Building Departme nt a curre nt record of designated
landmarks and historic districts. When the Building
Inspector receives an app lication for a permit which
indicates a possible material change to the exterior
appearance of a building or port ion thereof so
designated, the Inspector s hall require the applicant to apply for a Certificate of Appropriateness.
-1 5-
278
C. The Planning Director and Chief Building Inspector may authorize minor modifications of a landmark or structure within a historic district which will not alter the
historical or architectural significance or integrity of the building. Such administrative decisions may include:
address numbers, engineering improvements, minor changes in sign copy, color changes which conform to the Paint
Color Chart, and other features which the Planning
Director and Chief Building Inspector deem are not of
significance to the exterior appearance.
D. Color changes to a commercial landmark or a property within a Commercial Designated Historic District shall be reviewed with the Planning Director. The review shall be to determine if the proposed color is compatible with the neighborhood and in keeping with the historic colors of the area. if agreement cannot be reached as to an
appropriate color for the building, the matter may be
appealed at no cost to the applicant, to the City Council.
The decision of the City Council regarding the color
change shall be final.
17 . 55.140. Procedure for the Issuance of a Certificate of Appropriateness.
Said application shall be filed with the Planning Department upon the prescribed form which requests the following data:
1. A clear statement of the propose d work.
2. Plans describing the size, height, color, t e xture, mate rial and appearance of the proposed work.
3. Where the application is for demolition or relocation of a designated structure, the necessity for such action shall be justified pursuant to Section 17.55.190, 200 or 210.
A. Upon receiving an application for a Certificate of
Appropriateness, the Planning Department shall refer it to the Design Assistance Committee which shall review the application during its next scheduled me e ting.
B. During this r e view period, the Design Assistance
Committee shall, at a minimum, apply the following
architectural crite ria called Design Guidelines when
considering an application for a Certificate of
Appropriateness.
1. Height . The height of any proposed alteration of
construction should be compatible with the style and
character of the landmark or with the surrounding
structures within a historic district.
-16
279
2 . Proportions of Windows and Doors. The proportions
and relationships between doors and windows should
be compatible with the architecctural style and
character of the landmark or with the surrounding
structures within a historic district.
3. Relationships of Building Masses and Spaces. The
relationship of a structure within a historic
district to the open space between it and adjoining
structures should be compatible.
4 . Roof shape. The design of the roof should be
compatible with the architectural style and
character of the landmark or the surrounding
structures within a historic district.
5. Landscaping. Landscaping should be compatible with
the architectural character and appearance of the
landmark or of the surrounding structures and
landscapes within a historic district.
6. Scale. The scale of the structure after alteration,
construction or partial demolition, should be
compatible with its architectural style and
c haracter or with surrounding structures within a
historic district.
7. Directional Expre ssion. Facades in historic
districts should blend with other structures with
regard to directional expression; and should be
compatible with the dominant horizontal or vertical
expression of surrounding structures. The
direc tional expression of a landmark after
alteration, construction or partial demolition
should be compatible with its original architectural
style and character.
8. Architectural Details. Architectural details
including materials , colors and textures should be
treated so as to make a landmark compatible with its
original architectural style and character; and to
preserve and enhance the architectural style and
characte r of a landmark or historic district.
-17-
280
C. In addit ion t o these Design Guidelines, t he Design Assistance Committee s hall be guided by the following Standards for Rehabilitat i o n when considering a Certificate of Appro pria t e ness f or alterations which will result in the rehabilitation or repair o f a landmark or s tructure within a histori c district . Said "Standards" s hall be used by the Secretary of Interior when d etermining if a rehabilitation project qualifies as a "certified rehabilitation" pursuant to the Tax Re f orm Act of 1976 .
1. The dis tinguishing original qua lities or chara cter or a building, structure, or site and its
environment shall not be destroyed. The removal or
alteration of any historic material or distinc tive
archite ctural features should be avoided when
possible.
2. All buildings, structures, and sites shall be
recog nized as products of their own time.
Alterat i ons that have no historica l basis and which
seek t o create a n earlier appearance sha ll be
discouraged.
3 . Changes which may have tak e n place in the course of time are ev idence of the history and development of
a building, structure, or s ite and its environment.
These changes may have acquired significance in
their own right, and this significance shall be
recognized and respected.
4. Di stinctive stylistic f ea tures or examples of
s killed craftsmanship which characterize a buildi ng , structure, or site s hall be treated with
sensiti v ity.
5. Deteriorated architectur a l features s hall be
r epa ire d rather than replaced, wherever possible.
In the event replacement is necessary, the new
materia l should ma t c h the material being r e placed in composition, d esign, col or, texture, a nd other
visual qualities. Repa ir or replacement of missing
a rchitectura l features should be based on accurate
duplications of features, substantiated by historic,
physica l , or pictorial evide nce rather than o n
conjectural designs o r t he availability of different
archi tectura l elements from other buildings or
structures.
-18-
281
6. The surface cleaning of structures shall be
undertaken with the gentlest means possible.
Sandblasting and other cleaning methods that will
damage the historic building materials shall not be
undertaken.
7. Every reasonable effort shall be made to protect and preserve archeological resources affected by, or
adjacent to any project .
8. Alterations and additions to existing properties
shall not be discouraged when such alterations and
additions do not destroy significant historical,
architectural or cultural material, and such design
is compatible with the size, scale, color, material,
and character of the property, neighborhood or
environment.
9. Wherever possible, new additions or alterations to
structures shall be done in such a manner that if
such additions or alterations were to be removed in
the future, the essential form and integrity of the
structure would be unimpaired.
D. The Design Assistance Committee's recommendation shall be forwarded to the Historic Preservation Commission within 7 days after the Committee makes its decision . The
Design Assistance Committee shall determine, based upon the degre e of alteration proposed, whether or not the
review by the Historic Preservation Commission warrants a public hearing. If a public hearing is deemed necessary, it shall be noticed as provided for a variance.
E. After reviewing the recommendation of the Design
Assistance Committee, the Historic Preservation
Commission shall also consider the purposes of this
ordinance, the historic architectural value and
significance of the landmark or structure within a
historic district, the intent of the Design Guidelines
and the Standards of Rehabilitation prior to their
approval, approval with modifications or disapproval of the application for a Certificate of Appropriateness.
-19-
282
,/
F. Prior to the Commission's decision, they shall also find that:
(1) The action proposed is consistent with the purposes of this ordinance; and
(2) The action proposed will not be detrimental to a
structure or feature of significant aesthetic,
cultural, architectural or engineering interest or
value of a historical nature; or
(3) The applicant has demonstrated that the action
proposed is necessary to correct an unsafe or
dangerous condition on the property pursuant to
Section 17.55.200; or
(4) The applicant has demonstrated the denial of the
application will result in immediate or substantial
hardship pursuant to Section 17.55.210.
G. The Historic Preservat ion Commission may continue action on the Certificate of Appropriateness for two meetings, not to exceed 55 days from the date of the public hearing, for purposes of reaching a mutually acceptable solution in keeping with the criteria of this ordinance. If at the
end of that time an acceptable solution has not been
achieved, the application shall be finally granted or denied.
H. Upon approva l or denial of an app lication, the Historic Preservation Commission shall issue or not i ssue a
Certificate of Appropriateness, one copy of which shall be forwarded to the applicant, one copy of which s hall be retained in the files of the Planning Department, and one copy of which shall be forwarded to the Building
Inspector. In addition, a copy shall be forwarded to any other department or age ncy requesting it or who the
Secretary believes will be affec t ed by such a Permit. -20-
a-11~ 283
I. The decision of the Historic Preservation Commission may be appealed to the City Council. If a public hearing was required before the Commission, a public hearing shall
also be required before the Council.
17.5 5. 1 50. Denial of a Certificate of Appropriateness.
A denial of a Certificate of Appropriateness shall be accompan ied by a statement of the reasons for the denial to the applicant as prepared by the Secretary pursuant to the Commission's decision.
A. The Historic Preservation Commission may make
recommendations to the applicant concerning changes, if any, in the proposed action that would cause the
Commission to reconsider its denial.
B. The Commission may also confer with the applicant and attempt to resolve, as quickly as possible, the
differences between the Commission and the owner.
C. The applicant may resubmit an amended applicat ion or reapply for a building or demolition permit that takes
into consideration the recommendations of the Design
Assistance Committee and the Historic Preservation
Commission. The application shall be processed in
compliance with Section 17.55 . 130.
17.55.160. Certificate of Appropri ateness for New Construction Within a Designated Historic District.
A. Upon receipt of a building permit for new construction within a designated historic district, the Building
Department shall notify the Design Assistance Committee of the request and forward to it all pertinent data
relating t o said permit , including:
1. Assessor's parcel number of the s ite.
2. Architectural renderings and elevations of the
proposed project.
3. Description of proposed bui l ding materials, color, t exture, windows, d oors , lights, signs a nd other
fixtures appurte nant to the exterior architectural
features of the proposed project.
4. Any other information requested by the Design
Assistance Committee.
B. Prior to approval, modified approva l or disapproval of the proposed new construction the Design Assistance
Commi ttee shall find that the proposed project is or is not compati b le with the following criteria:
-21-
0 - 11 G 284
1. Exterior architectural features, including all
signs;
2. General design, scale and arrangement;
3. Texture and material;
4. The relationship of 1., 2., and 3. above to other
structures and features of the district;
5. The relationship of the size, design and siting of
the proposed new structure to the landscape of the
district;
6. The purposes for which the district was created.
7. The new construction's conformance with the Historic District Design Guidelines as defined in Section
17.55.020 (I).
C. The proposal shall be considered by the Design Assistance Committee which shall then forward its recommendation for approval, disapproval, or modification to the Historic
Preservation Commission. The Design Assistance Committee shall make its recommendation within 30 days of its
receipt of a proposal and shall forward its recommendation to the Historic Preservation Commission within 7 days of its action.
D. The proposal shall be considered by the Historic
Preservation Commission at a public hearing. The
Historic Preservation Commission may continue a hearing but not to exceed 30 days from the date originally set
for such hearing. A record of pertinent information
presented at the hearing shall be maintained as a
permanent public record. The Historic Preservation
Commission's decision may be appealed to the City Council within 10 days of the date of notification of the
decision.
17.55.170. Design Guidelines.
Design Guidelines for applying criteria for review of Certificates of Appropriateness shall, at a minimum, consider the following architectural criteria:
A. Height - The height of any proposed alteration or construction should be compatible with the style and character of the landmark and with surrounding structures in a historic district.
B. Proportions of Windows and Doors - The proportions and relationships between doors and windows should be compatible with the architectural style and character of the landmark and with surrounding structures within a historic district. -22-
285
C. Relationship of Building Masses and Spaces - The relationship of a structure within a historic district to the open space between it and adjoining structures should be compatible.
D. Roof Shape - The design of the roof should be compatible with the architectural style and character of the landmark and surrounding structures in a historic district.
E. Landscaping - Landscaping should be compatible with the architectural character and appeara nce of the landmark and of surround ing structures and landscapes in historic districts.
F. Scale - The sca l e of the structure after alteration, construct ion, or partial demo lition should be compatib l e with its architectural style and character and with surrounding structures in a historic district.
G. Directional Expression - Facades in historic distri cts should blend with other structures with regard to directional
expression. Structures in a historic district should be compatible with the dominant hori zontal or vert i cal expression of surrounding structures. The directional expression of a landmark after alteration, construction or partial demolition should be compatible with its original architectural style and character.
H. Architectura l Details - Architectural details including materia l s, colors, and textures should be treated so as to make a landmark compatible with its origi nal architectural style and character and to preserve and enhance the architectural style or character of a landmark or historic district.
17.55.180. Demolition or designated Landmarks.
No designated landmark shall be demolished unless said landmark meets the provisions of Section 17.55.200 concerning unsafe or dangerous conditions.
17.55.190. Procedure for Demolition of Structures (Other than Designated Historical Landmarks) Within a Designated
Histori c District.
A. No bui lding within a Designated Historic District may be demolished, either completely or parti a l ly, except in compliance with the procedures set forth in this section. -23-
286
B. Application for Demolition Pe~mit. Any person desiring to demolish a building (other than a designated landmark)
within a Historic District shall first file an application for demolition permit with the Chief Building Inspector in accord with the procedures prescribed under the Uniform Building Code. At the time of application, the applicant shall submit o ne clear photograph of the front of the
building and shall submit such other information as may be required by the Chief Building Inspector. Within five (5) days after receiving a completed application for the
demolition of any structure within a Historic District, the Chief Building Inspector shall forward the application to the Design Assistance Committee.
C. Review by Design Assistance Committee. The Design Assistance Committee shall consider the application receive d from the Chief Building Inspector concerning the request for demolition at its next regularly scheduled me e ting. After reviewing the application, the Design Assistance Committee shall make its recommendation for action and shall forward such recommendation, together with the application, to the
Historic Preservation Commission which shall review the request at a public hearing at the next possible meeting date.
D. Action by Historic Preservati on Commission. At its meeting, the Historic Preservation Commmission shall review the
application and the r ecomme ndation of the Design Assistance Committee and shall take one of the following act ions:
(1) Issuance of Permit. The Commission may d irect the
issuance of the demolition permit.
(2) S i xty-Day Continuance to Explore Preservation Alternatives. The Historic Preservation Commission may require a continuance o f up to sixty days o n the issuance of the demolition permit. During this period, the De s ign
Assistance Committee shall investigat e, document, and
photograph the building a nd attempt , if desirable, to arrange for the preservation of the building. A legal
notice concerning the proposed demolition s hall be
p l aced in a pape r of general circulation in the Ci t y o f Santa Paul a at least twice during the first thirty days fol l owing the action by the Historic Preservation Commission continuing the permit. Such l ega l notice shall inc l ude the address at which the structure proposed for demolition is located, the fact that the relocation of
the structure may be considered , and the earliest date a fter wh ich a demolition permit may be issued. The City s ha ll prepare said notice for publication at the applicant's expen se. Evidence of this publica tion must be submitted to.the Chief Building Inspec tor prior to issuance of a demolitio n permit. After exp i ration of the -24-
287
D. (2) cont~u
continuance period, the permit shall be issued
according to the procedure established in the Uniform
Building Code upon request of the applicant, unless
the building shall have been designated a historic
landmark prior to the expiration of the continuance
period.
(3) Ninety Day Continuance for Landmark Designation.
If, on review of the request for the demolition
permit, the Historic Preservation Commission
determines that initiation of proceedings to
designate the building as a landmark pursuant to
Section 17 . 55 . 080 of this Title would be
appropriate, the Planning Commission may continue
the matter for a period of up to ninety days, and
shall then require the applicant to comply with the
advertisement requirements set forth in subparagraph (2) and shall, as soon as possible, initiate proceedings to designate the building as a
landmark.
E. Criteria for Historic Preservation Commission Action. In reviewing the application for a demolition permit, the
Historic Preservation Commission shall consider the
purpose of this Chapter as set forth in Section
17.55.010, the review criteria set forth in Section
17.55.080, and shall take such course of action under subsection D. o f this Section as it deems most appropriate in light of the policies and crite ria for historic
preservation established in this Chapter.
F. Additional Procedures when Landmark Designation
Considered. If the Historic Preservation Commission
decides to begin proceedings for designation of the
structure as a historic landmark, then the application
for a demolition permit shall be treated as an
application for designation as a landmark as provided in Section 17.55.080, provided that no fee shall be charged the applicant and no submittals need be prepared by the applicant. With respect to the landmark designation,
the Historic Preservation Commission shall take one of
the following actions:
(1) If the Historic Preservation Commission determines
not to designate the structure as a landmark or
fails to act within the continuance period
established under Sub-section D. (3), the
application shall thereafter be treated solely as an
application for a demolition permit and such permit
shall be issued according to the procedure
established by the Uniform Building Code; or
-25-
288
(2) If the Historic Preservation Commission decides to
designate the sttucture as a historic landmark,
d emolition of the building or structures shall not
be permitted.
G. Any action of the Historic Preservation Commission may be appealed to the City Council during any portion of this process.
17.55.200. Unsafe or Dangerous Condition.
In the event any designated landmark, structure within a historic district or any portion thereof, is damaged by fire or other calamity or is deemed unsafe or dangerous, the Chief Building Inspector or Fire Chief may authorize that amount of repair necessary to correct said condition without the approval of the Historic Preservation Commission.
A. None of the provisions of this Chapter shall be construed to prevent any measures of construction, alteration, removal, demolition or relocation necessary to correct or abate the unsafe or dangerous condition where such a condition has been declared unsafe or dangerous by the Chief Building Inspector of the Fire Chief .
B. In the event such structures or other features thereof are damaged to such an extent that, in the opinion of the
aforementioned departments they cannot be reasonably repaired or restored, they may be removed in conformity with normal permit procedures and app licable laws of the City of Santa Paula.
C. However , if the aforementioned departments believe the damaged structure can be r easonably repaired or restored, then only s uch work as is necessary to correct the unsafe or dangerous condition may be performed pursuant to this
Sec tion. All other repairs must comply with the remaining sections of this Chapter.
D. It is further recommended that the r e pair and restoration of the damaged structure or portions thereof , apply the
criteria of the "Sta ndards of Rehabilitation'' as adopted in the ordinance.
E. A Certificate of Appropriateness application on the part of the applicant shall be required pursuant to Section 17.55.160 prior to r epairs and restoration being initiated, other than those required t o immed iate ly correct the unsafe or dangerous condition.
-26-
289
17:55.210. Show ing of Hardship in Cases of Proposed Material Change.
A. The Historic Preservation Commission shall review all evidence and information presented by the applicant when requesting a Certificate of Economic Hardship during a
publi c hearing. Their determination shall be made within 45 days of receipt of the app lication.
Structures both designated a landmark or within a historic district may be considered for such applications.
B. The applicant must prove to the Commission that denial of a Certificate of Hardship will deprive him of reasonable use of, or economic return o n, his property.
C. If the Commission agrees with the applicant, the
application shall be delayed for a period not to exceed 90 days to allow the Commission time to investigate
alternati ves to propose to the City Council to all ow for a reasonable use of , or return from, or to otherw ise
preserve the subject property. Such recommendations may include, but not be limited to:
(1) A relaxation of the provisions of this ordinance.
(2) Building code modifications (State Historic Building Code) •
(3) A change in zon ing regulations.
17.55.220. Property Owned by Public Agencies.
The Secretary shall take appropriate steps to notify all public agencies which own or may acquire property in the City, of the responsibilities involved in the ownersh ip of designated landmarks and historic district properti es. All publicly owned properties so designated must comply with the provisions of this Chapter unless these regulations are preempted by State or Federal Law.
17. 55.230. Ordinary Maintenance and Repa ir.
Nothing in this Chapter sha ll be construed to prevent the ordinary maintenance, painting, l a ndscaping or repair of a ny exterior feature in or upon any designated heritage resource that does not invo lve a c h a nge in design, material or the externa l appearance thereof.
17. 55.240. Duty to Keep in Good Repair.
The owner , occupant or the person in actual charge of a designated histo ric landmark or property located within a designated historic district s hall keep and maintain in good condition and repair a ll exterior portions thereof, and all interi or portions thereof whose ma intenance is necessary to prevent deterioration and decay of any ext e rior architectural feature or natural feature.
-27-
{)- _<{I (o 290
17.55.250. Filing Fees.
Before accepting for filing any application herein mentioned, the Secretary shall charge and collect such administrative fee as may be set by resolution of the City Council.
17 .55.260. Enforcement.
A. Except as otherwise provided herein, violations of this Chapter shall be enforced as provided in Chapters 1.08 and 1 . 12 of this Code.
B. Violations of this Chapter shall be considered infractions; provided, however, that v iolations of Sections 17.55.180, 17 .55. 190, and 17 .55.200 and failure to comply with a "Stop Work Order" as described in Subsection C. below shall be considered misdemeanors.
C. In the event a violation of this Chapter is taking place, the Chief Building Inspector shall issue a "Stop Work Order" and work in violation of this Chapter must cease
immediately. A refusal to comply may result in the
immediate arrest of the person or persons responsible for the violat ion .
17.55.270. Severability.
If any section, subsection, sentence, clause or phrase of this ordinance is for any reason held by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, such decision shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of this ordinance. The City Council of the City of Santa Paula hereby declares that it would have passed this ordinance and each section, subsection, sentence, clause and phrase t hereof, irrespective of the fact that one or more sections, subsections, sentences, clauses or phrases may be held invalid or unconstitutional.
17 .55.280. Relationship With Ventura County Landmarks.
All structures a nd s i tes designated as Ventura County Landmarks prior to the effective date of this ord inance will remain Ventura County La ndmarks. They may also be designated local l andmarks in accordance with the provisions of Sec. 17 .55.080 . Subsequent to the e ffective date of this ordinance, those structures a nd sites which receive a local landmark designation may, after the City has given its designation, request designation as a Ventura County Landmark through the Ve ntura County Cultural Heritage Board.
Section 2. This ordinance shall not be codified.
-28-
{) -<{I (o 291
Appendix A. Historic District Design Guidelines
for New Construction
HE1GHT
Consider-Relating the overall height of new construction to that of adjacent structures. As a general rule, construct new buildings to a height roughly equal to the average height of existing buildings from the historic
period on and across the street.
Avoid-New construction that greatly varies in height
(too high or too low) from older buildings in the vicinity.
SCALE
Consider-Relating the size and proportions of new structures to the scale of adjacent buildings. Although much larger than its neighbors in terms of square footage, the building shown maintains the same scale and rhythm as
the existing buildings.
Avoid-Buildings that in height, width, or massing
violate the existing scale of the area. The new building shown here disrupts the scale and rhythm of the
streetscape, although it might be appropriate in a different location.
Prepared by Ut ah St. Histo ri ca l Society
MASSING
Consider-Breaking up uninteresting boxlike forms into
smaller, varied masses such as are common on most
buildings from the historic period. Variety of form and massing are elements essential to the character of the
streetscape in historic districts.
A void-Single, monolithic forms that are not relieved by variations in massing. Boxlike facades and forms are intrusive when placed in a streetscape of older buildings that have varied massing and facade articulation.
DIRECTIONAL EXPRESSION
Consider-Relating the vertical, horizontal. or nondirectional facade character of new buildings to the predominant directional expression of nearby buildings. Horizontal buildings can be made to relate to the more vertical adjacent structures by breaking the facade into sma ller masses that conform to the primary expression of the
streetscape.
Avoid-Strongly horizontal or vertical facade expressions unless compatible with the character of structures in the immediate area. The new building shown does not relate
well to either its neighbors or to the rhythm of the
streetscape because of its unbroken horizontal facade . etnJ··. ·x <~< ·:·;;;;T ~- rn
{)- 't !(a
292
RHYTHM OF OPENINGS
G:>nsider-Respecting the recurrent alternation of wall
areas with door and window elements in the facade. Also consider the width-to-height ratio of bays in the facade.
The placement of openings with respect to the facade's
overall composition, symmetry, or balanced asymmetry
should be carefully studied.
Avoid-Introducing incompatible facade patterns that
upset the rhythm of openings established in surrounding structures. Glass walls and window and door shapes and
locations shown in the example are disrespectful to the adjoining buildings.
IMITATIONS
Consider-Acc:nrate restoration of or visually compatible additions to existing buildings, and, for new construction, contemporary architecture that well represents our own time, yet enhances the l'\ature and character of the historic district.
Avoid-Rep.licating or imitating the styles, motifs, ... r details of older periods. Such attempts are rarely su.c:- cessful and, even if done well, present a confusing picture of the true character of the historical area. 293
S~rBACK
r onsider-.-Mai:n.taining the historic facade lines of
streetscapes by locating front walls of new buildings in the same plane as the facades of adjacent buildings. 1f exceptions are made, buildings should be set back into
the lot rather than closer to the street. If existing setbacks vary, new buildings should conform to historic siting
patterns.
0 A void-Violating the existing setback pattern by placing new buildings in front of or behind the historic facade line. Avoid placing buildings at odd angles to the street, unless in an area where diverse siting already exists, even if proper setback is maintained.
.- ,.
::: :~''.'::;::;t) ::r: ·::. . -~:;.. ... ., -1.: :: ~-~-~ ~ .. ·. -" 'l---+
PLATFORMS
Consider-The use of a raised platform is a traditional
siting characteristic of most of the older buildings in Salt lake City. This visual "pedestal" is created by retaining walls and terracing up to the building or by high foundation walls and stepped entries.
Avoid-Bringing walls of new buildings straight out of
the ground without a sense of platform, i.e., without
maintaining the same entry height as neighboring
buildings. Such structures seem squat. visually incomplete. and ·do not relate well to their elevated neighbors. Also avoid leveling off terraced slopes or
removing retained platforms.
oo·o
SENSE OF ENTh ~
Consider-Articulating the main entrances to the building with covered porches, porticos, and other pronounced
architectural forms. Entries were historically raised a few steps above the grade of the property and were a prominent visual feature of the street elevation of the building.
A void-Facades with no strong sense of entry. Side en~
tries or entries not defined by a porch or similar transitional element result in an incompatible "flat" first-floor facade .
ROOF SHAPES
Consider-Relating the roof fo rms of the new buildings
to those found in the area. Although not entirely
necessary, duplication of the existing or traditional roof shapes, pitches, and materials on new construction is one way of making new structures more visually compatible .
Avoid-lntroducing roof shapes. pitches, or materials not traditionally used in the area.
294
PASSED and ADOPTED this 19th day of ~~~~~~~~~~~
November , 1984.
au la
ATTEST:
STATE OF CALIFORNIA
COUNTY OF VE NTURA ss
CITY OF SANTA PAULA
I, STACEY B. MacDONALD, City Clerk of said City o f Santa Paul a , do hereby certify that the above and foregoing ordinance was duly passed and adopted by the City Council of said City at a meet ing thereof he ld on the 19th day of :1ove!"',ber , 1984, by the following vo~e, to wit:
AYES: Councilmembers Melton , Urias, ~scoto and Mayor Maland NOES: None
ABSENT: Councilmember Barrin ger
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand and aff ixed the official seal of said City thi~k.t: day of ~<Y<rn A <d' )984. -29-
a- t 1&,
295
TO:
FROM:
SUBJECT:
Date: 9/ 11 /3~
CITY ATTORNEY
PLANNING DIRECTOR
SUMMARY OF ORDINANCE NO.
Re: Historic Preservat_1_o_n __ _
Ordinance No. ~fO
An ordi nance rirovidinn, for the rlesicrnation of Historic Landnarks and llistoric Districts in t!1e City and
regul ating the e~o liti on, alterati on, construction, or relocation of landmarks or structures l'lithin a
historic di strict.
Approved as amended
above:
Revisi on attached:
City Attorney
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(with approval
signature )
296
PROOF Of PU'i{
... (2015 .5 C.C. P .)
STATE OF CALIFORNIA,
County of Ventura
City of Santa Paula
.TION
I am a citizen of the United States and a
resident of the County aforesaid ; I am over
the age of eighteen years, and not a party to
or interested in the above-entitled matter. I
am the pri ncipal clerk of 7he printer of the
Dail y Chronicle
a newspaper of general circulation, printed
and pub I ished in the City of Santa Paula
County of Ventura, and which newspaper
has been adjudged a newspaper of general
circulation by the Superior Court of the
County of Ventura, State of California ,
under the date of Nov. 1951,
C N b Or d . # S l8 th t th t' ase um er ....... .. ...... ... .. ; a eno ice, of which the annexed is a printed copy (set
in type not smaller than nonpareil), has
been published in each regular and entire
issue of said newspaper and not in any
supplement thereof on the following dates,
to-wit:
Oc trber 17 · ·······················•••\······················· all in the year 19.!3 ?!
I certify (or declare) under penalty of
perjury that the foregoing is true and
correct.
Dated at Santa Paula / 7
C l
., . th ' ,., ( ____ ,./~~' 19 >=14
a 1 o_rn1a, LS ...... ., .. ~y af.1. ~f .. , ....
/( -1 ~ ~ <--c._,-"· _· ~ ~~. c..e.- ·· ~······~································· ··· (/ Signature -
c::: :::::::::---
This space is , .: Cou nty Clerk's F i i ing Stamp
LEGAL NOTICE
City of
Santa Paula
ORDIANCE NO. 816
AN ORDINANCE OF THE
CITY COUNCIL OF THE
CITY OF SANTA PAULA
CREATING A HISTORIC
PRESERVATION COM- MISSION AND .
ESTABLISH ING
PROCEDURES FOR
NOMINATION,
DESIGNATION AND
PRESERVATION OF
HISTORIC RESOURCES
1/ITHIN THE CITY OF :SANTA PAULA : The Santa Paula City Council has introduced
Ord I nan ce No. 816, a summary of which follows:
SUMMARY
An ordinance providing for the des igna ti on of
Historic Landmarks and
Historic Districts In the
City a na regulating the
demolition, alteration,
construct Ion, or reloca tlon
of landmarks or structures
within a historic district.
Final adoption of the
Ordinance Is scheduled to
l•k• place at the City Council meeting of
November s, 198", to be
held In the City Council
Ch•mbers of City Hall, 970
Ventura Street, Santa
Paula, California, or as aoon thereat.ter as possible. A copy of the proposed OrdlMnce No. 816 Is
•vallabl• tor vlewlno at
City Hall, 970 Ventura
Strfft, '9nta Paula,
Callfcrnl•. Approved by C lty At·
torney, Phillip H. Romney . STACEY 8. MacDONALD
City Clerk
To be publlShed In the
D•llV Chron lcle October 17, . 19". . Publlcatlon No. U -359. 297
PROOF OF PUP.,
(2015.5 C.C.P.)
STATE OF CALIFORN IA,
County of Ventura
City of Santa Paula
TJON
I am a citizen of the United States and a
r esident of the County aforesaid; I am over
the age of eighteen years, and not a party to
or interested in the above-entitled matter. I
am the princ ipa l cl erk of he printer of the
Daily Chronicle
a newspaper of genera I circulation, printed
and pub I ished in the City of Santa Paula
County of Ventura, and which newspaper
has been ad i udged a news pa per of genera I
circulation by the Superior Court of the
County of Ventura, State of Ca I ifornia,
under the date of Nov. 1951 ,
Case Number. ~~~.~ .. l~ '. ?.; that the notice,
of which the annexed is a printed copy (set
in type not smaller than nonpareil), has
been published in each r egular and entire
issue of said newspaper and not in any
supplement thereof on the following dates,
to-wit: Novemb er 21,.
••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
all in the year 19. ~ I certify (or declare) under penalty of perjur y that the foregoing is true and
correct.
Dated at Santa Pau la
CI.f l . th' 27 d· Nov. 84
a J Jrn1a·, , 1s ... :····· ~ ..... .. , 19 ... .
... ~
i;
.....
1l--'l-#
"(/ ............. t c._....c_..,..._, ···············
t.l -i L c .. ~
~~· ·····
Signature ~
This space is t• ,: County Clerk' s Fil ing Stamp
LEG&AL NOTICE · CIT"C OF
SANlfA PAULA
ORDINANCE NO. 11'
AN OROI NANCE OF
THE Cl.TY COUNCIL OF
THE CITY OF SANTA
PAULA CREATING A
HISTORIC PRESER - VATION COMMISSION
AND ESTABLISHING
PROCEDURES FOR
NOMINATION,
DESIGNATION ANO
PRESERVATION OF
HISTORIC RESOURCES
WITHIN THE· CITY OF
SANTA PAULA
The City Council of the
City of Santa Paula at Its
meeting of November 19, 198~ p passed and adopted Ordinance No. 816 by the followlng vote: ·
AYES: Councllmembers
Melton, Urias, Escoto, and
Mayor Maland ' NOES: None
ABSENT : Coun.
cflmember Barringer
SUMMARY
An ordinance providing for the designation of
Historic Landmarks and
Historic Districts in the
City a!'ld regulatlng the
demolftlon, a Iteration,
construction, or relocation
of landmarks or structures
Within · a historic district. A copy of the ordinance Is avallable tor viewing at City Hall, 970 Ventura
Street, Santa Paula, CA
93060. .
.Stacey B. MacDonald
City Clerk
To be published In the
Cally Chronicle November
21, 1984.
Publication No. 94.390,
298
ATTACHMENT E
CSUCI LETTER OF SUPPORT
299
DIVISION OF ACADEMIC AFFAIRS
One University Drive, Camarillo, California 93012-8599 Tel: (805) 437-8967 Fax: (805) 437-8864 www.csuci.edu October 30, 2024
City of Santa Paula Planning Department
City Government of Santa Paula
200 S. 10th St.
Santa Paula, CA 193060
Dear Members of the Santa Paula Planning Department,
I’m writing to express my support for the Tower Theater to become a Santa Paula Historic Landmark. I have researched movie theaters in Mexican communities throughout southern California, including Ventura County, and can attest to the historical significance of Tower Theater to the city of Santa Paula and Ventura County. In Making Lemonade out of Lemons:
Mexican American Labor and Leisure in a California Town, I argued that movie theaters were important leisure spaces for Mexican Americans to build a sese of community and solidarity that helped shape civil rights struggles in the post Word War II era. During the early 20th century, a majority of Anglo-owned movie theaters in southern California practiced discrimination and segregated seating practices based on race. Mexican patrons were forced to sit in separate sections inside movie theaters that led to anger and divisions in the wider community. For this reason, some Mexican businessmen decided to purchase their own theaters (like Teatro Chapultepec in Corona, California and the Yost Theater in Santa Ana, California) to make Mexican patrons feel welcomed and enjoy a movie or show. There were a few Anglo-theaters that eliminated seating arrangements for patrons like the Tower Theater (formerly known as the Mission theater) in Santa Paula, California.
Between 1922 and 1929, the Mission Theater came under the ownership of Stephen Brown who was born in Los Angeles and later moved to El Paso where he learned to speak Spanish in the border town. Brown moved to Ventura County and purchased the Mission Theater allowing open seating and catering to the needs of a growing Mexican population in Santa Paula and Ventura County. Besides screening silent films with popular Mexican actors, the Mission Theater hosted Spanish language variety shows, vaudeville performers, comedians and musicians traveling throughout southern California. The Mission Theater advertised its weekly schedule in the pages of the Spanish language newspaper, La Voz de la Colonia and developed a friendship with the editor, Manuel Reyes. Reyes described Brown as “being always attentive to please the Mexican colony of Santa Paula.” Unlike other movie theaters in Ventura County, the Mission Theater was unique for making Mexican patron feel welcomed and affirming their culture and language during a time of rising of nativism and racial discrimination.
300
DIVISION OF ACADEMIC AFFAIRS
One University Drive, Camarillo, California 93012-8599 Tel: (805) 437-8967 Fax: (805) 437-8864 www.csuci.edu Unfortunately, movie theaters throughout southern California have closed their doors due to the pandemic, high operational costs, redevelopment and gentrification. Some old movie theaters with historical landmark status have done quite well because the city or private investors have recognized the historical value of these theaters and continued to entertain with old and new movies and theater performances. Similarly, I hope that Tower Theater will earn historical landmark status and be used to serve the Santa Paula residents with movie entertainment and other innovative programming.
I am eager to offer my expertise and further testimony about the Tower Theater and its historical importance to the city of Santa Paula and Ventura. Feel free to contact me via email or phone below.
Thank you for your consideration,
Dr. José M. Alamillo
Chair & Professor of Chicana/o Studies Department
School of Arts and Sciences
Madera Hall – First Floor; Room 1366
California State University, Channel Islands
Ph: (805) 437-2685
Email: [email protected]
301
ATTACHMENT F
SP CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
LETTER OF SUPPORT
302
303
To: Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Council
From: Dan Singer, City Manager
Subject: FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS
Date: February 5, 2025
Agenda Item: 12.A
CITY OF SANTA PAULA
MEMORANDUM
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends City Council review future agenda items.
BACKGROUND:
The attached Future Agenda Items forecast identifies anticipated agenda items for upcoming Council meetings as well as Study Session topics and long-range discussion items. Placing this forecast on the agenda affords the Council and the public the opportunity to discuss such topics and to make any recommendations. It should be noted this is only a forecast and may change over the course of time or based on feedback by the Mayor and City Manager during review of future agendas.
ANALYSIS:
Should a member of the City Council wish to introduce a future agenda topic, it should be done in compliance with the Council's adopted Manual of Procedural Guidelines, Section 5.1.
Items introduced by a member of the Council during a Council meeting requires a second and should be reserved for time-sensitive matters needing attention within the proceeding 45 day period.
STRATEGIC PLAN:
FISCAL IMPACTS:
OPTIONS:
ATTACHMENTS:
02.05.2025 Future Agenda Items.docx
304
Santa Paula City Council Tentative Agenda Schedule
Updated 2/5/25
*Activities associated with the Council’s Strategic Plan Regular Meeting
February 19, 6:30pm
CDD Community Development Department Report
CDD Peoples Self Help – Funding
P&R Facility Generator Closeout
Admin Strategic Plan Update
CDD Cannabis Ordinance Re: Medicinal Deliveries
Admin Measure R Oversight Committee
Regular Meeting
March 5, 6:30pm
PD Police Department Report
Admin Water Bill Subsidy Options
P&R Union Oil Building Future Users
P&R California Oil Museum MOU for Building Contents
PW Pavement Management and Infrastructure Funding Options
STUDY SESSION TOPICS
Admin No Smoking Ordinance TBD
Finance Development Impact Fees (DIF)* 1st Qtr.
Admin Municipal Code Update – Joint with Planning Commission* Ongoing CDD Use of Triangle Property on Housing Feb / March
FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS
Finance Update on Utility Bills
PW Plans & Specifications for 8th Street Streetlight Repair Project CDD Central Business District Live Entertainment Ord 1339 CDD Cultural Arts Presentation*
Legal Fire MOU Amendment
Legal Development Code Amendments*
305