Padua Hills Theatre
Concern over development prompted a group of Claremont residents, led by Herman Garner, to purchase 2,000 acres of land in the Mt. San Antonio foothills and create a property management company, Padua Hills, Inc. in 1928. The corporation worked with a local theatre group, the Claremont Community Players, to plan an arts community on the property. Designed by the Pasadena firm of Marston and Maybury in the Spanish Colonial Revival style, the Padua Hills Theatre was built in 1930 as a community playhouse and dining room. It soon became the home for a unique theatrical group called the Mexican Players that performed there until 1974. The property was willed to Pomona College on Garner’s death in 1981 and was later acquired by the City of Claremont as part of a preservation effort. The theater complex is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Claremont, Los Angeles County
Photographer: Jeanne Roberts