This photo popped up on the fine Facebook page Mid Century Modern and Historical Los Angeles in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s and I just needed to share it because I had never seen it before. It depicts the beautiful Pan-Pacific Auditorium going up in flames in 1989.
The building, designed by famed architects Wurdeman and Becket, opened in the Fairfax District 1935. It was the city’s primary indoor event center until 1972 when the L.A. Convention Center opened Downtown. It was then closed and fell into decay.
There was talk of refurbishing the building but then came the fire that burned it to the ground. It is believed that transients who lived in the building accidentally started the fire.
In its place in Pan-Pacific Park today stands a small replica of the auditorium, a far cry from what the city lost in that fire.