Twelve blocks of Broadway, the city's first theatre street, from Grand Central Market and the 1893 Bradbury Building south past a dozen movie palaces built between 1911 and 1931: Sid Grauman's Million Dollar, the Palace (the oldest original Orpheum theatre left in the US), S. Charles Lee's Tower and Los Angeles theatres, the Orpheum and the Art Deco Eastern Columbia tower. Most interiors can only be seen at events, so this is mainly a facade and marquee walk.
Best time: Weekday late morning or Saturday, when Grand Central Market and the shops on Broadway are open
The route, stop by stop
- 1Grand Central Market
Food hall in continuous operation since 1917, in two buildings of 1897 and 1905 running through from Broadway to Hill St; the Broadway building was the city's first steel-reinforced, fireproofed structure (LA Conservancy). Eat here before or after the walk. 30 min.
- 2Bradbury Building
1893, the oldest commercial building left in the central city: behind a plain Romanesque front, a light-filled Victorian court almost 50 ft high with open-cage elevators, marble stairs and iron railings (LA Conservancy). National Historic Landmark. 10 min.
- 3Million Dollar Theatre
Sid Grauman's first Los Angeles theatre, opened 1 February 1918 with 2,345 seats, one of the earliest and largest movie palaces in the country; look up at the sculpted facade (LA Conservancy). 5 min.
- 4Los Angeles Theatre
1931, the most lavish and last of Broadway's great movie palaces, by S. Charles Lee, modelled on the Fox in San Francisco: a five-storey French Baroque facade with columns, urns and angels (LA Conservancy). 5 min.
- 5Palace Theatre
Opened 1911 as the third Los Angeles home of the Orpheum vaudeville circuit; the oldest remaining original Orpheum theatre in the US (LA Conservancy). 5 min.
- 6State Theatre
Loew's State, opened 12 November 1921: a 12-storey Beaux Arts block, one of the largest brick-clad buildings in the city (LA Conservancy). 3 min.
- 7Globe Theatre
Built 1913 as the Morosco Theatre inside the Garland Building, unusual on Broadway for staging full dramatic productions rather than vaudeville (LA Conservancy). 3 min.
- 8Tower Theatre
1927, S. Charles Lee's first theatre: 900 seats squeezed onto a corner lot, interior modelled on the Paris Opera House. Reopened in June 2021 as an Apple store, so it is open during store hours (LA Conservancy). 10 min.
- 9Rialto Theatre
Opened 21 May 1917, one of the first theatres with stadium seating and no balcony; it has the longest neon marquee in the Broadway historic theatre district (LA Conservancy). 3 min.
- 10Orpheum Theatre
1926, the fourth and last Orpheum in Los Angeles, by G. Albert Lansburgh; events listed at laorpheum.com (LA Conservancy). 5 min.
- 11Eastern Columbia Building
Claud Beelman's 1930 Art Deco tower, with the clock tower lettered EASTERN in neon and multi-coloured terrazzo sidewalks; now private lofts, view from the street (LA Conservancy). 5 min.
- 12United Artists Theatre
1927 flagship of the United Artists circuit founded by Griffith, Pickford, Fairbanks and Chaplin; Spanish Gothic by C. Howard Crane, rehabilitated with the hotel above (today STILE Downtown Los Angeles by Kasa and The United Theater on Broadway) (LA Conservancy). 5 min.
More walks in Los Angeles
- El Pueblo, Union Station and Chinatown
- Little Tokyo and the Arts District
- Bunker Hill: library, steps, Angels Flight and Grand Avenue
- Silver Lake stairways: Micheltorena to the Music Box Steps
- Griffith Park: Fern Dell up to the Observatory, down to the Greek
- Hollywood Boulevard beyond the stars: movie palaces and old Hollywood
- Venice canals, Abbot Kinney and the boardwalk to Santa Monica Pier
- Old Pasadena to the Colorado Street Bridge