New Mexico New Deal Sites June 2019 - Photo #13 - Albuquerque Little Theatre

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Albuquerque NM 18 June 2019: The Albuquerque Little Theater, 224 San Pasquale Avenue SW, corner of Chacoma Place. ALT spent its first six years in the ornate KiMo movie theater, then moved in 1936 to a new building of their own created specially for it by the Works Progress Administration and designed by the famed southwestern Architect John Gaw Meem; it was the first structure to be built in Albuquerque by FDR's New Deal. The labor was supplied by the WPA and the NYA; the land and lumber were provided on credit by private companies and all other materials were were paid for the Little Theater itself. The building was dedicated in 1936 and Harry Hopkins was the honored guest. In the early years, well-known guest performers included Edward Everett Horton, ZaZu Pitts, Lon Chaney, and Leo G. Carroll.

The cream and white structure shown in this and some of the following structures is a post-New-Deal façade fronting the original brick building which contains the theater itself.

References
  1. Albuquerque Little Theatre website, albuquerquelittletheatre.org/about-us/history/, accessed 12 July 2019.
  2. Terry Ray, The Albuquerque Little Theatre, New Mexico Quarterly, Volume 30, Issue 1, 1960.
  3. Hispana/Hispano Artists and their Works, internationalfolkart.org, accessed 12 July 2019: Idelbert Delgado of the WPA's Federal Art Project, who contributed sconces, niches, mirrors, flower vases, and candleholders to the Theater.
  4. Kathryn A. Flynn, Public Art and Architecture in New Mexico 1933-1943: A guide to the New Deal Legacy, Sunstone Press (2012), pp.29-30.
  5. Albuquerque Little Theatre, Wikipedia, accessed 12 July 2019.