The Playhouse Village

The Playhouse area was developed in the 1920’s on the eastern edge of town, a collection of gracious Mediterranean revival and Beaux Arts buildings surrounding the community’s new performing theater, the 1924 Pasadena Playhouse, just east of the 1927 City Hall and Civic Center. Building stalled during the Depression and remained quiet until the 1980’s when a group of local residents organized a neighborhood revival. They enlisted urban planner Donlyn Lyndon and his colleagues who united the community around a vision of preserving historic buildings and building anew to integrate a breadth of urban uses— residential, office, retail, performing arts, churches, parks and open space.

 

The neighborhood’s revitalization continues today through a business improvement district, the Playhouse Village Association.

 

The Playhouse itself is engaged in a major transformation during its centennial year, an award-winning season of plays and a breadth of new community programs.