Path · 7 stops · 1.4 km
Downtown's movie palaces
A self-guided walking tour by Here Before Us
Before World War II, the Los Angeles Times later wrote, "downtown L.A. was the movie capital of the world." Eight blocks of Broadway hold twelve movie palaces built between 1910 and 1931, the only large concentration of them left in the United States. Start at Angels Flight and the 1917 Grand Central Market, look into the 1893 Bradbury Building from Blade Runner, then walk south past Sid Grauman's Million Dollar Theatre (1918) to the Los Angeles Theatre, finished in 1931 for the premiere of Chaplin's City Lights.
Stops
Angels Flight is a historic 2 ft 6 in (762 mm) narrow-gauge funicular railway in the Bunker Hill district of Downtown Los Angeles, California. It has two funicular cars, named Olivet and Sinai, that run in opposite directions on a shared cable. The tracks cover a distance of 298 feet (91 m) over a vertical gain of 96…
The Grand Central Market is a historic public market in downtown Los Angeles, California. It has been in continuous operation since its opening in 1917, housed within the Homer Laughlin Building. The market features dozens of food vendors and serves as both a cultural and culinary hub which sees 2 million visitors…
The Million Dollar Theatre at 307 S. Broadway in Downtown Los Angeles is one of the first movie palaces built in the United States. It opened in 1917 with the premiere of William S. Hart's The Silent Man. It is the northernmost historical movie palace in the Broadway Theater District and stands directly across from…
The Bradbury Building is an architectural landmark in downtown Los Angeles, California, United States. Built in 1893, the five-story office building is best known for its extraordinary skylit atrium of access walkways, stairs and elevators, and their ornate ironwork. The building was commissioned by Los Angeles…
Los Angeles Theatre is a 2,000-seat historic former movie palace located at 615 S. Broadway in the Jewelry District and Broadway Theater District in the historic core of Downtown Los Angeles.
Palace Theatre, formerly Orpheum Theatre, Orpheum-Palace Theatre, Broadway Palace, Fox Palace, and New Palace Theatre, is a historic five-story theater and office building located at 636 S. Broadway in the Broadway Theater District in the historic core of downtown Los Angeles. It is the oldest theater that remains on…
The Orpheum Theatre at 842 S. Broadway in Downtown Los Angeles opened on February 15, 1926, as the fourth and final Los Angeles venue for the Orpheum vaudeville circuit. After a $3 million renovation, started in 1989, it is the most restored of the historical movie palaces in the city. Three previous theatres also…
Here Before Us