Rialto Theatre

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. 15 historic topographic surveys show this location, the earliest from 1894.

From the record

“The Rialto Theatre is a 1,200-seat theater in South Pasadena, California. Located on Fair Oaks Avenue, it is considered one of the last single-screen theaters in Southern California and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.”
Wikipedia article Rialto Theatre (South Pasadena, California), CC BY-SA 4.0.

One of 616 National Register listings published here for Los Angeles County · listed in 1978 · category: Building.

Sources: the Wikipedia article · the case file at the National Archives · the National Register database, National Park Service · the Wikipedia article

The listing

What is counted as historic. The nomination lists 1 building as contributing to the listing.
Address. 1019--1023 Fair Oaks Ave., South Pasadena, 91030
When was it listed? May 1978
Category. building
Census division. Pasadena
National Register reference number. 78000700 - the number the National Park Service assigned this property when it was listed, and the key its nomination file is catalogued under at the National Archives.

Then and now

1894 to 1979

The ground this property stands on, surveyed 85 years apart. Drag the handle to wipe between them. Both sheets are United States Geological Survey originals; neither has been altered.

Topographic sheet covering Rialto Theatre, surveyed 1979

Topographic sheet covering Rialto Theatre, surveyed 1894

Fires near this property

236 since 2005

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal wildfire occurrence database lists 236 fires within 5 miles of Rialto Theatre between 2005 and 2020, burning about 388 acres in total. None started naturally. 25 were recorded as arson. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a fire counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Reported cause	Fires
Missing data/not specified/undetermined	141
Arson/incendiarism	25
Smoking	24
Misuse of fire by a minor	20
Equipment and vehicle use	17
Debris and open burning	8
Power generation/transmission/distribution	1

The most recent of them, most recent first, with the day each was reported and the service that recorded it.

Date	Cause	Size	Reported by	Name on the report
9 September 2019	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	Los Angeles County Fire Department	not named
5 September 2009	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	not named
5 September 2005	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	not named
4 September 2016	Misuse of fire by a minor	under an acre	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	not named
25 September 2009	Arson/incendiarism	2.0 acres	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	not named
21 September 2010	Debris and open burning	under an acre	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	not named
21 September 2008	Arson/incendiarism	under an acre	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	not named
20 September 2005	Missing data/not specified/undetermined	under an acre	California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection	not named

Every fire recorded in Los Angeles County

Mines and quarries near this property

10 of 14 shown

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The federal mineral resources record lists 14 workings within 5 miles of Rialto Theatre: 13 past producers, 1 prospect. None of them still produces. What was taken out: Sand and Gravel, Construction, Clay, Stone, Crushed/Broken. Distance is straight-line from the map coordinates, so a quarry counted here may appear on a neighbouring settlement's page as well.

Site	Commodity	Status	Recorded
Monterey Park Granite Co.	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Reynolds Crushed Gravel Co. Pit	Stone, Crushed/Broken	Past Producer
Anderson and Sandquist	Clay	Past Producer
Higgins Brick and Tile Co	Clay	Prospect	Sedimentary
Los Angeles Pottery Co.	Clay	Past Producer
Simmons Brick Co.-Pasadena Plant	Clay	Past Producer
Torrance Brick Co.-Monterey Park 2	Clay	Past Producer
Beyrle	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
City of Los Angeles	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer
Home Teaming and Transfer Co.	Sand and Gravel, Construction	Past Producer

Every working recorded in Los Angeles County

Storms near this property

1 since 2004

Regional context, not property-specific evidence. The National Weather Service names South Pasadena, the town this property stands in, in 1 storm report in 2004: 1 lightning. No death or injury is recorded in these reports. Each account below is quoted exactly as the forecast office filed it, from the NOAA Storm Events Database, and each date opens the federal record of that event.

When	Event	Place named	Harm	What the report says
February 2004	Lightning	South Pasadena	-	no account filed

Every storm recorded in Los Angeles County

Maps showing this location

15 surveys

United States Geological Survey topographic sheets whose coverage includes this point. Matched by taking the coordinate the National Park Service records for this property, then testing that coordinate against the published boundary of every sheet.

1894 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:62500
1896 USGS Pasadena quadrangle1:62500 - 2 printings
1900 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:62500 - 4 printings
1900 USGS Pasadena quadrangle1:62500 - 10 printings
1901 USGS Southern California Sheet No. 1 quadrangle1:250000 - 6 printings
1904 USGS Southern California Sheet No. 1 quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1928 USGS Altadena quadrangle1:24000 - 2 printings
1949 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1953 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:24000
1955 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000
1959 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000 - 3 printings
1966 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:24000 - 5 printings
1966 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000
1975 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:250000 - 2 printings
1979 USGS Los Angeles quadrangle1:100000

Listed places nearby

6 within 8 miles

Other National Register properties close enough to walk or drive between, ordered by distance from this one. Both positions come from the same geocoding pass that matched these properties to their map sheets.

Property	Distance	Listed
Oaklawn Bridge and Waiting Station	0.4 miles	1973
Merwin House	0.4 miles	2013
South Pasadena Historic District	0.4 miles	1982
Miltimore House	0.5 miles	1972
Adobe Flores	0.5 miles	1973
Wynyate	0.5 miles	1973

Sources for this property

National Archives record	The nomination case file for reference 78000700 in Record Group 79.
Wikipedia article	Community-written account of this property, licensed CC BY-SA.
Los Angeles County	All 616 listed properties in this county.

Provenance

Listing record. National Park Service National Register of Historic Places, listed-properties dataset, current to 2026-05-22.
Map join. Address geocoded through the United States Census geocoder, then tested against the published boundary of every sheet in the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection.
How this page is made. Listing fields come from federal records; map-sheet coverage is a labelled coordinate-to-boundary calculation, not a source-field claim.
Wildfire. Short, Karen C. 2022. Spatial wildfire occurrence data for the United States, 1992-2020 [FPA_FOD_20221014]. 6th Edition. Fort Collins, CO: Forest Service Research Data Archive. https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0009.6 Collected with United States Government funding and usable without additional permissions or fees.
Mines and quarries. USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105.
Storms. NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, Storm Events Database https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/stormevents/ A work of the United States government, no copyright under 17 U.S.C. 105. Narratives are quoted verbatim from the National Weather Service report and are not edited or summarised.