Foster Park Bowl in disrepair, 25 July 2009 | |
Address | 438 Casitas Vista Road Ventura, California 93001 |
---|---|
Coordinates | 34°21′08″N119°18′39″W / 34.352336°N 119.310898°W Coordinates: 34°21′08″N119°18′39″W / 34.352336°N 119.310898°W |
Owner | Ventura County Parks Department |
Type | Amphitheatre |
Capacity | 1,000 |
Construction | |
Built | 1928 |
The Foster Park Bowl is an outdoor amphitheatre located between Ojai and Ventura, California. Built in 1928, it has a seating capacity of 1,000.
An amphitheatre or amphitheater is an open-air venue used for entertainment, performances, and sports. The term derives from the ancient Greek ἀμφιθέατρον (amphitheatron), from ἀμφί (amphi), meaning "on both sides" or "around" and θέατρον (théātron), meaning "place for viewing".
Ojai is a city in Ventura County in the U.S. state of California. Located in the Ojai Valley, it is northwest of Los Angeles and east of Santa Barbara. The valley is about 10 miles (16 km) long by 3 miles (5 km) wide, surrounded by hills and mountains. The population was 7,461 at the 2010 census, down from 7,862 at the 2000 census.
Ventura, officially the City of San Buenaventura, is the county seat of Ventura County, California, United States. The coastal site, set against undeveloped hills and flanked by two free-flowing rivers, has been inhabited for thousands of years. European explorers encountered a Chumash village, referred to as Shisholop, here while traveling along the Pacific coast. They witnessed the ocean navigation skill of the native people and their use of the abundant local resources from sea and land. The eponymous Mission San Buenaventura was founded nearby in 1782 where it benefitted from the water of the Ventura River. The town grew around the mission compound and incorporated in 1866. The development of nearby oil fields in the 1920s and the age of automobile travel created a major real estate boom during which many designated landmark buildings were constructed. The mission and these buildings are at the center of a downtown that has become a cultural, retail, and residential district and visitor destination.
Ventura County pioneer and philanthropist Eugene Preston Foster initiated the idea of a county park system [1] in 1904; the 205-acre (0.83 km2) Foster Park was established in 1908. The concrete amphitheatre began construction in the summer of 1928 [2] and was dedicated on November 26, 1928. [3]
Ventura County is a county in the southern part of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2010 census, the population was 823,318. The largest city is Oxnard, and the county seat is the city of Ventura.
The bowl was used frequently into the 1960s, but in the 1970s it saw less use as people started to shift to Libbey Bowl in Ojai. The bowl was occasionally used after the 1970s but fell into disrepair. An attempt to renovate Foster Park Bowl was mounted in 1988 by the Ventura County Repertory Theatre. [4] [5]
As of 2009, Teenagers for The Preservation of Historical Landmarks, a student group based at Foothill Technology High School, are working to get the necessary permits and release forms in order to go to the bowl and do an initial cleanup. The group is planning various fundraisers to pay for the stage to be reinforced, which a 2007 assessment stated would require $30,000 worth of work.[ citation needed ]
Foothill Technology High School is a magnet school in Ventura, California. It has been a California Distinguished School since 2005 and won the National Blue Ribbon Award in 2006, and 2012. It is ranked 78th in California and 419th in the US by U.S. News & World Report in 2012.
The Ventura County Historic Landmarks & Points of Interest consist of buildings, sites, and neighborhoods designated by Ventura County, California, Cultural Heritage Board as historic landmarks and points of interest.
Greek Theatre is a 5,870-seat music venue located in Griffith Park, Los Angeles, California. The theatre is owned by the city of Los Angeles and is operated by SMG. Designed by architects Samuel Tilden Norton, Frederick Hastings Wallisand, and the Tacoma firm Heath, Gove, & Bell, the theatre stage is modeled after a Greek temple.
The Ventura County Courthouse, known since 1974 as Ventura City Hall, is a historic building in Ventura, California. It is located on a hill at the top of California Street, overlooking the city's downtown district with views of the Santa Barbara Channel and Channel Islands. It was the first building in the City of Ventura to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has also received historic designations at the state, county, and city levels.
The Ventura River, in western Ventura County in southern California, United States, flows 16.2 miles (26.1 km) from its headwaters to the Pacific Ocean. The smallest of the three major rivers in Ventura County, it flows through the steeply sloped, narrow Ventura Valley, with its final 0.7 miles (1.1 km) through the broader Ventura River estuary, which extends from where it crosses under a 101 Freeway bridge through to the Pacific Ocean.
As well as being one of the most important cities in the world in the film industry, Los Angeles, California, is also one of the most important places in the world for the recorded music industry. Many landmarks in Los Angeles - such as Capitol Records, which resembles a stack of albums - are representative of this. A&M Records long occupied a studio off Sunset Boulevard built by Charlie Chaplin. The Warner Bros. built a major recording business in addition to their film business.
The San Buenaventura Mission Aqueduct was a seven-mile long, stone and mortar aqueduct built in the late 18th and/or early 19th century to transport water from the Ventura River to the Mission San Buenaventura in Ventura, California.
Elizabeth Bard Memorial Hospital, now known as The Elizabeth Bard Memorial Building, is a historic building in downtown Ventura, California. Built in 1901, it is a Mission Revival structure featuring covered terraces and a covered porch with a three-story bell tower at the southeast corner. The building was listed as Ventura Historic Landmark No. 19 in 1976 and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1977.
Bardsdale United Methodist Church is a historic church located at 1498 Bardsdale Avenue in the unincorporated community of Bardsdale, California, in Ventura County. It is south of the Santa Clara River approximately 3 miles (5 km) from Fillmore.
St. Thomas Aquinas Chapel is a former Catholic chapel located in Ojai, in Ventura County of southern California. It now houses the city's museum, research library, and historical society.
Ventura County Library is a free public library system of 12 community libraries and a museum library in Ventura County, California, organized in 1916. At the time of its centennial in 2016, the system provided access to 412,715 physical volumes and more than 500,000 virtual items to its nearly 300,000 card holders.
The John Anson Ford Theatre is in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. The 1,200-seat outdoor amphitheater is situated within the Cahuenga Pass within the Santa Monica Mountains. Located in a County regional park, the facility is owned by the County of Los Angeles and operated in partnership with the Ford Theatre Foundation and the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation.
Ventura Theatre is a historic live concert venue in downtown Ventura, California. This was "the only luxury theatre built in Ventura County in the 1920s in the "style of the great movie palaces." The lavish, elegant interior of gilt and opulence was originally designed by Robert E. Power Studios of San Francisco and has been restored. The theatre with a capacity of 1,150 and a flanking office building were designed by architect L. A. Smith in the Spanish Colonial Revival architecture that was favored by architects of motion picture theaters during the 1920s.
The Matilija Wilderness is a 29,207-acre (11,820 ha) wilderness area in Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties, Southern California. It is managed by the U.S. Forest Service, being situated within the Ojai Ranger District of the Los Padres National Forest. It is located adjacent to the Dick Smith Wilderness to the northwest and the Sespe Wilderness to the northeast, although it is much smaller than either one. The Matilija Wilderness was established in 1992 in part to protect California condor habitat.
The City of Ventura Historic Landmarks and Districts consist of buildings, sites, and neighborhoods designated by the City of Ventura, California, as historic landmarks and districts.
The Serra Cross, sometimes also known as the Cross on the Hill or the Grant Park Cross, is a Christian cross on a hill known as "La Loma de la Cruz" in Ventura, California. The site is in Serra Cross Park, a one-acre parcel within the larger Grant Park that overlooks downtown Ventura, the Santa Barbara Channel, and Anacapa and Santa Cruz Islands.
Eugene Preston Foster, commonly known as E. P. Foster, was a rancher, entrepreneur, banker, and philanthropist in Ventura County, California.
The State Bank Amphitheatre is an outdoor amphitheatre within historic Chastain Park in Atlanta, Georgia. The venue opened in 1944 and is decreed "Atlanta’s Oldest Outdoor Music Venue". The venue attracts more than 200,000 spectators per season after being renovated and re-designed by architect and Atlanta native, Nelson Brackin. The venue, designed by Nelson Brackin, opened in 1944 and is decreed "Atlanta’s Oldest Outdoor Music Venue". The venue attracts more than 200,000 spectators per season.
With the dedication of Foster Bowl tomorrow afternoon Ventura county will have taken another important cultural stride.
The group, which has roamed from theater to theater in Ventura and Oxnard over its lifetime, hopes to persuade county officials to allow it to thoroughly renovate Foster Bowl as a permanent, year-round venue for children's theater and Broadway musicals.
Ventura County parks officials have turned over the keys to the Foster Park Bowl to Elizabeth Harris in return for a promise that she will renovate and upgrade the open-air amphitheater that is tucked into the side of a hill between Ojai and Ventura.
This article about a California building or structure is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |