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Guide to the Leonard F. Starks Collection, 1916-1923
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Table of contents
Title: Leonard F. Starks Collection,
Date (inclusive): 1916-1923
Box Number: 205
Creator:
Starks, Leonard F., 1892-1986
Repository:
California State Library
Sacramento, California
Language:
English.
Unrestricted.
Please credit California State Library.
Copyright has not been assigned to California State Library. All requests for permission
to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing. Permission for
publication is given on behalf of California State Library as the owner of the physical
items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which
must also be obtained by the reader.
[Identification of item], Leonard F. Starks Collection, California State Library.
Starks, Leonard F., 1892-1986
Architects--California
Architecture--California--Sacramento
Sacramento (Calif.)--Buildings, structures, etc.
Blueprints, correspondence and notes, plans
Leonard F. Starks, a native of Humboldt County, grew up in San Francisco and helped
design the buildings for the Pan Pacific Exposition of 1915 in the early years of his
architectural career.
Moving to New York, he joined the architectural firm of Thomas Lamb, famed designer of
theaters in the East. Mr. Starks contributed to the surge of theater construction in the
United States and became a nationally recognized expert on planning and design.
He moved to Sacramento in 1921 to set up an office for completion of drawing for the Fox
Senator Theater at Ninth and L Street. The beautiful, stately theater was demolished in
1978.
Mr. Starks also designed the Alhambra Theater at what was then 31st and K Streets. He
laid out the details of the theater's elegant interior and later supervised the
construction. The Alhambra, Moorish in design, was opened to a gala crowd in 1927 with a
60-piece orchestra and the first talking picture on the West Coast. Mr. Starks employed
an acoustical engineer to help in design of the theater--a new idea at the time. The
theater later was demolished to make way for a supermarket on the Alhambra Boulevard site
despite an effort to save it.
His towering, then-modern design of the Elks Temple at 11th and J Streets included the
use of terra cotta on the building's exterior. He also designed Sacramento's C.J.
McClatchy High School.
Mr. Starks retired in 1965.
He organized the Rocky Rollers Art Group, a group of five men over the age of 70 who
painted in water color and oil. He continued painting until 1982 when his eyes began to
fail. He died at age 94, April 13, 1986.
- Brown, Arthur, Jr.
- Hays, William C.
- Reid, John, Sr.
Material Transferred from the Collection
Title: [The Sketchbook of Leonard F. Starks], 1962-1963.
Identifier/Call Number: (c*F 866.2 S72 1962).