Ace Hotel Los Angeles, Historic movie theater in Broadway Theater District, Los Angeles, US.
Ace Hotel Los Angeles is a 13-story, 74-metre tower at 937 South Broadway, built in 1927 as the California Petroleum Corporation Building and later known as the Texaco Building. Its tan facade is Spanish Gothic, patterned after Segovia Cathedral, with pointed arches and carved figures at the lower levels and narrow window bays above. The United Artists Theatre occupies three floors of the building, with a 2,214-seat auditorium whose orchestra rows sink toward the stage.
Built in 1927 for United Artists, the studio of D. W. Griffith, Charlie Chaplin, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, the theater was designed by C. Howard Crane of Walker & Eisen and was the tallest building in Los Angeles for a year. Televangelist Gene Scott leased it in 1989, held Sunday services from 1990 and bought it in 2002; Wescott Christian Center sold it to Greenfield Partners in October 2011 for $11 million, and it reopened as a hotel in 2014.
The building's name changed with its uses: United Artists Theatre from 1927, University Cathedral under televangelist Gene Scott from 1990, the Theatre at Ace Hotel from 2014, and The United Theater on Broadway from 2024. The "Jesus Saves" neon signs from the Church of the Open Door stood on the rear lower roof until one was removed by crane on September 10, 2011.
The theater occupies three floors of the 13-story building, so expect to climb or take stairs between the lobby and the 2,214-seat auditorium. In the orchestra section the seat rows sink toward the front, so those ticket holders look up at the stage. The building stands at 937 South Broadway, and the hotel side now runs as a rooms-only operation without food or beverage service.
The building was first leased in 1989 by televangelist Gene Scott, who broadcast Sunday services from the theater until his death in 2005; his widow Melissa Scott continued them. For years two "Jesus Saves" neon signs, originally from the Church of the Open Door, stood on the rear lower roof, one facing west and one north, until one was removed by crane on September 10, 2011.
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