Glendale Civic Auditorium
The Glendale Civic Auditorium was part of the Verdugo Municipal Recreation Center built in Glendale as a Works Progress Administration (WPA) project in 1938. It was designed by local architect John A. Grundfor in a Spanish Colonial Revival style with Moorish or Art Deco influences, depending on whose reference you read. The two story complex houses an 11,000 sq. ft. auditorium on the ground level with a stage and flat hardwood floor and a lower 14,000 sq. ft. space with a dance floor and kitchen. The recreation center included a 50 meter swimming pool of the “modern cloverleaf design conforming to intercollegiate and international specifications,” a reinforced concrete grandstand and connecting bathhouse, all of which were demolished in 1987 and replaced by the current parking structure. The auditorium is listed on the California Register of Historical Resources.
Glendale, Los Angeles County
Photographer: Andrew Schmidt