The Grand Theatre at Los Angeles Trade-Technical College opened in 1927 as part of the Los Angeles Polytechnic High School campus. Designed by A.C. Martin & Associates, the 30,000-square-foot auditorium featured a stenciled ceiling, original light fixtures, and a painted fire curtain showing Arrowhead Peak. After the high school relocated, the theater was absorbed into LATTC and used for student productions, lectures, and campus events.

It shut down in 2009 when seismic retrofit work was abandoned, and it never reopened. Over time, water damage and mold took over. By 2022, the Los Angeles Community College District formally proposed demolition as part of a campus redevelopment plan. While the building was considered potentially historic under CEQA, the official word was that reuse wasn’t feasible or compatible with the college’s long-term goals.

Demolition began earlier this month. As of now, only the facade is still standing — but not for long. It’s all coming down to make room for a new entry plaza along Washington Boulevard, which the college says is needed for pedestrian safety and visibility. There are no immediate plans to build a replacement theater.

A longtime professor in the Humanities and Theatre department put it this way: “While the Grand Theatre was once a magnificent space, it had become infected with mold and had to be demolished for health reasons. It would have been far more expensive to attempt to save it rather than tear it down and build something new… We need a space suitable for large campus events like graduations and a theatre to accommodate our extensive fashion-design program.”