Collection context
Summary
- Title:
- Leonard F. Starks Collection,
- Dates:
- 1916-1923
- Creators:
- Starks, Leonard F., 1892-1986
- Language:
- English.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Leonard F. Starks Collection, California State Library.
Background
- Scope and content:
-
Blueprints, correspondence and notes, plans
- Biographical / historical:
-
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.
Indexed terms
About this collection guide
- Date Prepared:
- © 1998
- Date Encoded:
- Machine-readable finding aid derived from WordPerfect.
Access and use
- Restrictions:
-
Unrestricted.
- Terms of access:
-
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.
- Preferred citation:
-
[Identification of item], Leonard F. Starks Collection, California State Library.
- Location of this collection:
-
900 N Street, Room 200, P.O. Box 942837Sacramento, CA 94237-0001, US
- Contact:
- (916) 654-0176