El Campanil Theatre in our Historic Downtown Antioch was recently recognized by The Art Deco Society of California with their 2018 Eclectic Architecture Award. Rick Carraher, Executive Director of El Campanil Theatre Preservation Foundation, was presented with the honor at this past Saturday’s Annual Art Deco Preservation Ball and Awards Ceremony in Oakland. We are deeply appreciative of this honor, especially with its presentation in El Campanil Theatre’s 90th Birthday Year!
Every year the Art Deco Society of California presents Art Deco Preservation Awards to the people who have helped preserve the buildings, art, and culture from the Art Deco era. The awards recognition are not only given to those establishments that are done in the Art Deco style, but those that were built during that period. To include other types of architecture, The Art Deco Society of California established the “Eclectic Architecture Award” 4 years ago as its own category.
In 2015, Hearst Castle won in Eclectic Architecture of the Art Deco era. In 2016 the Eclectic Architecture Award went to the Chinese Historical Society of America, and in 2017 it went to Mills College for the preservation and stewardship of its 1920’s buildings. El Campanil Theatre is the 4th proud recipient of the 2018 Award in the Eclectic Architecture category, having been built in the height of the Art Deco period of the 1920’s and 1930’s.
“When it opened in 1928, El Campanil Theatre served as a venue for both vaudeville and movies. It was built at a cost of $500,000. Among the performers to appear (in the earlier years) at the theater were Roy Rogers, Mary Pickford, Sally Rand, and Donald O’Connor.
Its Spanish Colonial/Spanish Gothic style facade was unusual because as the theatre’s name suggests, it had three archways, each with a bell inside it, with the largest arch and bell being in the middle over the main entrance, three stories up. The auditorium still has its original ornate painting and Moorish chandeliers and wall sconces. The dressing rooms are adorned with hundreds of autographs that date back to the theater’s opening” …Cinema Treasures
Happy Early Birthday Present El Campanil Theatre!
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