Culture and Neutra in Claremont

"A group of local citizens joined together in the late 1920s and purchased about 2,000 acres of hillside land. One member, Sarah Bixby Smith, named the area Padua Hills because it reminded her of Mt. San Antonio in Italy, which overlooks the town of Padua."

"By 1930, they had decided to build a theater for the local Community Players. Padua Hills Inc. was formed, and Herman H. Garner was selected to head the new organization."

"In 1937 Garner's wife, Bess, had the idea of using the theater as a "dinner theater" for the Mexican Players, a group of waiters and waitresses of Mexican descent who worked in the theater's dining room and wanted to perform folk plays and offer authentic music and dance from different regions of Mexico."

Padua Hills began in the late 1920s when local citizens purchased 2,000 acres of hillside land in northeast Claremont, naming it after Mt. San Antonio in Italy. By 1930, they constructed an adobe-style theater for the Community Players. During the Great Depression, Bess Garner introduced the innovative dinner theater concept in 1937, featuring the Mexican Players—waiters and waitresses of Mexican descent who performed authentic folk plays, music, and dance from various Mexican regions. This unique programming continued until the theater's closure in 1974. The property was subsequently donated to Pomona College and later sold to the city of Claremont. Today, the hilltop site operates as a wedding reception venue managed by a catering service, while the Garners' Spanish Colonial residence remains in Memorial Park.

Read at Los Angeles Times