Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

La Paloma Theatre restoration in progress

Tiles removed, replaced, good for another 80 years

Theater owner Alan Largent and his dog Oscar leaned up against the ticket booth
Theater owner Alan Largent and his dog Oscar leaned up against the ticket booth

The arts and music community of Encinitas recently got together and held a benefit concert to kick-start the restoration of La Paloma Theatre, built in 1928. "Love the Dove" (paloma is Spanish for dove) featured local bands and recording artists Cindy Lee Berryhill and Eagles songwriter Jack Tempchin, both Encinitas residents.

First up, remove and replace the aging, but vintage and colorful mosaic tiles, covering the ticket booth, which is still in use.

Sponsored
Sponsored
Place

La Paloma

471 South Coast Highway 101, Encinitas

Owner Alan Largent knows he has one of the last art deco-styled, single screen, independently owned theaters in the country. He knows some of the fixtures in the 390-seat house are original. But in removing the tiles for cleaning and resetting, he discovered he had some Southern California history.

The tiles were set at the time of the theater's construction, handmade and painted by Claycraft Potteries out of Los Angeles. Founded in 1922 on San Fernando Road, the company's father-son team of Fred and George Robertson sold their tiles around the country until 1939.

“Claycraft’s decorative tiles, among the more collectable on the market today, provide some of the most idyllic California imagery of the period,” states L.A.’s Wells Tiles and Antiques website.

By happenstance, it was a father-son team that helped Largent reset the tiles. Largent said John and Logan Funk, local tile-setters, made sure the tiles' resetting would last another 80 years. “Logan used to work for me when he was younger, until he followed in his father’s footsteps.”

But it was Largent who removed each tile from the ticket booth over the course of many months. He first used a flex blade, then a diamond-bladed oscillating multitool to break up the grout under the hard ones. He said it took "a lot of patience. Some were missing and I only broke one. ”

Largent said each three-and-a-half-inch square tile is estimated to be valued at $20 each, if they can be found. The tiles are laid in a four-tile design pattern.

Next up for restoration, the Coast Highway 101 marquee, which has its large plastic lettering changed often daily to advertise upcoming films, concerts, premieres of surf, skate, and action-sports presentations, or — for decades now — the every-Friday-at-midnight showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Undocumented workers break for Trump in 2024

Illegals Vote for Felon
Next Article

Trophy truck crushes four at Baja 1000

"Two other racers on quads died too,"
Theater owner Alan Largent and his dog Oscar leaned up against the ticket booth
Theater owner Alan Largent and his dog Oscar leaned up against the ticket booth

The arts and music community of Encinitas recently got together and held a benefit concert to kick-start the restoration of La Paloma Theatre, built in 1928. "Love the Dove" (paloma is Spanish for dove) featured local bands and recording artists Cindy Lee Berryhill and Eagles songwriter Jack Tempchin, both Encinitas residents.

First up, remove and replace the aging, but vintage and colorful mosaic tiles, covering the ticket booth, which is still in use.

Sponsored
Sponsored
Place

La Paloma

471 South Coast Highway 101, Encinitas

Owner Alan Largent knows he has one of the last art deco-styled, single screen, independently owned theaters in the country. He knows some of the fixtures in the 390-seat house are original. But in removing the tiles for cleaning and resetting, he discovered he had some Southern California history.

The tiles were set at the time of the theater's construction, handmade and painted by Claycraft Potteries out of Los Angeles. Founded in 1922 on San Fernando Road, the company's father-son team of Fred and George Robertson sold their tiles around the country until 1939.

“Claycraft’s decorative tiles, among the more collectable on the market today, provide some of the most idyllic California imagery of the period,” states L.A.’s Wells Tiles and Antiques website.

By happenstance, it was a father-son team that helped Largent reset the tiles. Largent said John and Logan Funk, local tile-setters, made sure the tiles' resetting would last another 80 years. “Logan used to work for me when he was younger, until he followed in his father’s footsteps.”

But it was Largent who removed each tile from the ticket booth over the course of many months. He first used a flex blade, then a diamond-bladed oscillating multitool to break up the grout under the hard ones. He said it took "a lot of patience. Some were missing and I only broke one. ”

Largent said each three-and-a-half-inch square tile is estimated to be valued at $20 each, if they can be found. The tiles are laid in a four-tile design pattern.

Next up for restoration, the Coast Highway 101 marquee, which has its large plastic lettering changed often daily to advertise upcoming films, concerts, premieres of surf, skate, and action-sports presentations, or — for decades now — the every-Friday-at-midnight showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Raging Cider & Mead celebrates nine years

Company wants to bring America back to its apple-tree roots
Next Article

Drinking Sudden Death on All Saint’s Day in Quixote’s church-themed interior

Seeking solace, spiritual and otherwise
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader