{"nrhp_refnum":"86000107","name":"Yost Theater-Ritz Hotel","other_names":["Yost Theater--Santa Ana Bath House and Athletic Club"],"category":"building","location":{"address":"301--307 N. Spurgeon St.","address_restricted":false,"city":"Santa Ana","county":"Orange County","state":"CA","lat":33.747320853000076,"lon":-117.86535385799999,"geom_source":"nps_gis"},"listed_date":"1986-01-23","is_nhl":false,"nhl_designated_date":null,"areas_of_significance":["Entertainment/Recreation","Architecture"],"significance_levels":["local"],"summary":{"what_it_is":"A two-story classical commercial building at 301-307 N. Spurgeon St., Santa Ana, Orange County, California, built in 1913 as two adjoining halves: the Auditorium (later Yost) Theater and the Santa Ana Bath House and Athletic Club (later Ritz Hotel).","why_significant":"The nomination argues the building is significant for its Classical Revival commercial architecture, which it says is unrepresented by intact examples in downtown Santa Ana. It also contains Santa Ana's earliest extant theater building and the county's oldest continuous theater business. The design is by noted local architect Fred Eley, and the Yost was the first Orange County theater to show Spanish-language movies.","narrative":"Two buildings share one classical facade at the corner of Spurgeon and Third streets in Santa Ana. Completed in 1913 to designs by local architect Fred Eley, with T.H. Fowler as builder, the structure combined the Auditorium Theater with the Santa Ana Athletic Club and Bath House. Its pedimented fronts, four simple pilasters and triple sets of double-hung windows make it an unusually intact example of commercial Classical Revival design in the downtown area. The theater later became the Clunes and then the Yost, after Ed Yost bought it in 1919 and added a larger stage and flyloft. It drew first-run films, Broadway productions and vaudeville acts, and from 1952 it became the first Orange County theater to show Spanish-language movies. The athletic club closed in 1919 and its half became the Ritz Hotel. The exterior remains largely original, with a 1935 Moderne marquee and 1983 seismic reinforcement as the main changes.","period_of_significance":"1900- (specific dates 1912-1913)","architect_builder":"Fred Eley, Architect; T.H. Fowler, Builder","architectural_style":"Commercial Classical Revival","criteria":[],"status_note":"Marked both occupied and unoccupied; the theater has shown Spanish-language films for 33 years, while the Ritz interior is in decayed condition and the original basement pool is degraded and unused since the early 1920s.","vacant_flag":null,"machine_generated":true,"model":"claude-sonnet-5-5","prompt_version":"v1.0-2026-10-29","generated_at":"2026-10-29 02:54:26.892908-05","source_pdf":"https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/lz/electronic-records/rg-079/NPS_CA/86000107.pdf"},"photo":{"url_800":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86000107/ffa53af05c-800.webp","url_1600":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/media/86000107/ffa53af05c-1600.webp","licence":"CC BY 3.0","author":"AVALOS714 at en.wikipedia","credit_html":"<a href=\"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Yost_Theater2.jpg\" rel=\"noopener\">AVALOS714 at en.wikipedia</a>, <a href=\"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0\" rel=\"license noopener\">CC BY 3.0</a>, via Wikimedia Commons","source_page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Yost_Theater2.jpg"},"district":null,"sources":{"nps_snapshot_date":"2026-05-22","nara_catalog":"https://catalog.archives.gov/id/123860376","wikipedia":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yost_Theater","wikidata":"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q8056388"},"indexable":true,"url":"https://nationalhistoricalregister.com/california/orange-county/yost-theater-ritz-hotel-86000107/"}