the Pico House
The Pico House Built by Pío Pico, last governor of California under Mexican rule, who lived almost the entire length of the nineteenth century, from 1801 to 1894. This was the first three story building and the first grand hotel in Los Angeles. Pico chose architect Ezra F. Kysor to design the "finest hotel in Los Angeles". Construction began on September 18, 1869, and the hotel opened for business on June 9, 1870. To raise funds for the building and furnishing of the hotel, Pío and his brother Andrés sold most of their vast landholdings in the San Fernando Valley. The hotel was built in the Italianate style, with deep set round-arched windows and doors and the Main Street and Plaza facades were stuccoed to resemble blue granite. The hotel had eighty two bedrooms and twenty one parlors as well as bathrooms and water closets for each sex on each floor.
The Pico House's soaring pillars, three balconies and open-air amphitheater layout are strongly reminiscent of Shakespeare's Globe Theater in London and make the perfect playing space for classic works. It is not, however, ideal for classics alone; the 'theater' has also portrayed a New York Tenament, the fields of California and a provincial garrison town in Russia. The space is a character in each show, and we let it influence our choices in each production.
The Pico House's soaring pillars, three balconies and open-air amphitheater layout are strongly reminiscent of Shakespeare's Globe Theater in London and make the perfect playing space for classic works. It is not, however, ideal for classics alone; the 'theater' has also portrayed a New York Tenament, the fields of California and a provincial garrison town in Russia. The space is a character in each show, and we let it influence our choices in each production.
