Photo by Martha Benedict
With the flick of a ceremonial switch, the 502 green and white bulbs that spell out “Highland Theatre” were turned on last night during a ceremony to celebrate the renovation and relighting of the Highland Park landmark. The sign atop the 1924 Figueroa Street movie house had been repaired about seven years ago but about 80% of the bulbs had burned out because no timer had been installed, said Amy Inouye of the Friends of the Historic Signs of Figueroa Street. The group won a $6,800 grant from the National Park Service to relight the sign and then raised the matching funds by seeking sponsorships of individual bulbs at $19.24 a piece or an entire letter for up to $1,000. After a music and speeches, a crowd gathered to watch the light show. Josef Bray-Ali was there to shoot the video and describe what happened on the Flying Pigeon blog:
The sign got turned on at 8pm – with the Franklin High marching band and a big crowd of now-familiar local business owners, community activists, political types, just plain folk, and e’rbody else. Free cake at the end of the ceremony! Along with Chicken Boy, this corner now has a phone booth converted into a free library, knitted tree cozies, and a lit up historic theater sign. Things are on the mend in the big city, and definitely looking brighter in Highland Park.
Click here to see more photos of the event by Martha Benedict.
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
See this I support, there’s actully a theatro community people go to enjoy. The sign on the Jensen’s is just that an old sign. There is no bowling, If I was looking for something to do , saw the lights on with bowling I would want to go bowl, once you get there you see it’s all just an illusion, an old sign. /So off to spend my money in another community not my own.
Now all they need to do is to clean up the whole entire Highland Park area!
I was there. It was SO GREAT to see the community come together. That delicious cake was from local vendor, Mardy’s Munchies. Great photos by Martha Benedict. Franklin High Marching Band was awesome. I live here and love the community feel. There are still some losers in the area, but mostly I feel as if people really want the area to be better and get better. Call me a crazy optimist, but I feel like if we work together we can do this thing!.
so THAT’S why the marching band was there! i wish i’d hung around to see this. Great work, FHSFS!