Pacific Grove's Performing Arts Center
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Pacific Grove’s Performing Arts Center: If these halls could talk . or even sing By Dixie Layne many. His pride in his schools was justified ...” Pacific Grove has a long and storied performing arts history. A mere four years Build It and They Will Come after the Pacific Grove Retreat Association Nearly three decades held its first summer encampment in 1875, later, Weeks was called upon to the western branch of The Chautauqua Lit- design an addition to the high erary and Scientific Circle was established school; nine class rooms that in Pacific Grove. The Chautauqua brought connected to an auditorium with entertainment and culture for the whole construction costs allowed at community; orators, musicians, entertain- $80,000. JJ Grodem of Alameda ers, poets, thespians, singers, and “special- was given the contract to build ists of the day,” such as ventriloquists and the addition in August, 1930. comedians. The building permit provided Music was important to Chautauqua. for $85,000 in construction Band music was much in demand as were costs and $15,000 for heating spirituals, ballads, and popular songs. John and electric. The auditorium was completed April 1931. Phillip Souza’s band was frequently seen Pacific Grove High School, September 1911 on the circuit. Opera become a part of the On Wednesday evening, Chautauqua experience and a permanent April 22, 1931, the Pacific school students can be attributed to the state adding high school to the free public school Chautauqua Opera Company was estab- Grove High School held a “The Feast of the Little Lanterns,” a Chinese Operetta, performed in 1913 system in 1904. Between 1910 and 1920 the number of public school students more than lished. dedication ceremony to offi- doubled in California and Kindergartens became part of the system in 1920. In the follow- The last Pacific Grove Chautauqua As- cially open the new auditorium. ing years, California passed tax and finance laws that, for the first time, provided backing The PGHS Glee Club, Band, Orchestra, on the edge of greatness, and it is said her persuasive manner put Pacific Grove on their for a comprehensive, statewide public school system. and Mixed Chorus presented a program of tour schedule. The plea for a new school was heard and the community pulled together to start the classical and popular music. A one act play, process. February 1904, an agreement was reached to offer a 20-year bond to finance the The Fifteenth Candle, was presented by the And They Came, Pen and Ink drawings from The Sea Urchin high school and in April the Pacific Improvement Company (PIC) offered to sell Pacific Junior Class. The 1,000 seat auditorium These Talented (Pacific Grove High School yearbook), 1933. Grove two parcels of land for $2,500; offered were five acres of land on Forest Avenue was filled with theater goers for the event, Performers Above, the auditorium. Below, the entrance to just outside the City plat for the high school and a block on Pine Street for a playground the largest concert hall on the Monterey One of her first “gets” was the von to the primary and grammar school. The PIC offered to fill in the ravine on the Pine Av- Peninsula. Trapp family who immigrated to the United enue property at their expense in order to make it useful for a playground. The price with From the day the auditorium opened States in 1939, and started touring in 1940. the work to level the Pine Avenue block was considered generous and “indicated the PIC it has been used for untold numbers of Today they are probably most famous for is ready at all times to do every thing in their power to advance the interest of the Grove”, school, Civic, and social events. Eight the movie musical, The Sound of Music, wrote the Pacific Grove Review. years after the auditorium opened, Elmarie and not their perfect four part harmonies The Board of Education published a “notice to architects” in the May 1905 Pacific H. Dyke found the Monterey Peninsula and octave range. The very year they began Grove Review inviting architects to submit a plats, specifications, and detailed estimates Concert Association whose purpose was to their tour as the von Trapp Family Singers, of a proposed high school building to include bring the performing arts to Pacific Grove. they performed on our auditorium’s stage as Robert Joffrey Theater Ballet four classrooms, Library, principal’s room, Each year it would present a concert series part of the 1940-1941 concert series. necessary laboratories, cloak rooms, etc. of four remarkable artists to its member- In 1949, the Philharmonic Piano Quartet The complete cost of the building was not ship of who’s who on the Peninsula. In made their public debut in New York, and that same year they made an appearance in to exceed $25,000, outside of furniture and 1939, the Association started with 357 Pacific Grove. Seven years later the San Francisco Opera Quartet, whose mission it was architect’s fees. It can only be surmised members and membership grew every year to bring opera to non-operatic cities, was part of the concert series. The diversity of the that this notice and request to architects was until 1942 when its membership dropped entertainers that were presented by the Monterey Peninsula Concert Association in Pacific Grove continued to amaze through the years. Robert McFerrin was an operatic baritone Elmarie Hurlbert (Dyke) performing at unsatisfactory because the project met with to 407 because the required blackouts dur- Place cards Mrs. Dyke used to encour- and the first African-American to Chautauqua delay. It was five years later, August 1910, ing World War II caused concerts held in age Association membership. There sing on the stage at the Metropolitan that a subsequent “notice to architects” was the afternoon. The Association met its goal were a number of characters and musical Opera when he made his debut as published with more specificity not only of 1,000 members by 1944. Many of the instruments shown. They were cut out so Amonasro in Aida. In 1958, he came about the building specifications – one story artists Mrs. Dyke and her Board included that they stood up. with a finished basement for a contract price to California to work with Otto Pr- sembly was held in the summer of 1926. in their concert series each year were just of $28,000, but also regarding the architect’s eminger on Porgy and Bess. The Chautauqua’s national movement fee; to be3% of construction costs and an Porgy was played by Sidney for self-improvement through popular additional 2% if the architect supervised the Portier, who did not have the 1959 that station wagon pulled into Pacific education with lectures, concerts, dramatic construction. In hindsight the delay can only voice for the part, so, Portier Grove and the ensemble performed on our performances and a four-year reading be considered fortuitous because renowned lip-synced while McFerrin stage. Oh what a night. course had an obvious influence on Pacific architect William Henry Weeks submitted his sang. Yes, McFerrin is the At the invitation of President John Grove; it established a high regard for proposal and was awarded the contract. The father of 10-time Grammy Kennedy and First Lady Jacqueline Ken- education and the arts throughout the com- five acres on Forest Avenue was cleared in award winning artist Bobby nedy, 22 members of the Vienna Boys munity. Pacific Grove Unified School Dis- August 1910. The school built of reinforced McFerrin – Don’t Worry, Be Choir performed at the White House In trict was established in 1895, and Pacific concrete in Weeks signature Spanish Revival Happy. January 1961, This performance turned Grove High School (PGHS) was Monterey style with Greek Revival and Neoclassical The Robert Joffrey The- into a 9-month tour of the United State, County’s first high school, providing influences opened its doors September 1911. ater Ballet was founded in which included a stop in Pacific Grove to educational opportunities to residents of 1956 as a touring company perform as part of the 1960-1961 concert the Grove and students from surrounding that in 1965 became known series. Upon their return to Vienna they areas. As the number of students at PGHS William Henry Weeks, Architect as Joffrey Ballet. They were filmed Almost Angels for the Walt Disney grew, schools continued to be built and by (1894-1936) a six-dancer ensemble that Studios that was released in 1962. Just January 1904 the public made a plea for its “The construction of a new school toured the country in a sta- when did these boys go to school? third new high school. The School District building is so rare an occasion that it makes tion wagon pulling a U-haul explained that during the previous school an epoch in the average school system, trailer performing original Times They Are a Changing year the high school student body had “wrote Weeks in 1911. As epochal though the ballets by Robert Joffrey. In Although the Concert Association reached a total of 47, and by January 1904 event might be for an individual school dis- The von Trapp Family Singers was not officially dissolved until 1990, the enrollment had “already reached 93; Program ca. 1950s trict, new school buildings were going up all the concert series had stopped some years two teachers had been added and still there over California from 1910 through the 1920s, earlier as the powerhouse team that kept remains 76 pupils in the care of one teacher and Weeks was designing them.