Stumptown Coffee Revives 1913 Starland Theater in Lincoln Heights

A century-old movie theater lobby on North Broadway in Lincoln Heights is about to pour lattes instead of selling movie tickets. Stumptown Coffee Roasters is opening a new flagship café inside the former Starland Theater building, with a grand opening celebration set for Saturday, August 29, from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The building at 2624 N. Broadway first opened in 1913 as the Globe Theatre No. 7, an 850-seat single-level venue designed by architect George B. Campbell for the Globe Amusement Company to screen vaudeville acts and silent films, according to Los Angeles Theatres. It was part of a planned 15-theater chain the company developed across Southern California. As WhatNow first reported, Stumptown will now use the space as its Los Angeles hub for training and retail café services, calling the Starland a historic neighborhood landmark.

From Silent Films to Demolition to Retail

The theater closed as the Starland in February 1968, and its 850-seat auditorium was torn down that July and replaced with a parking lot, per Cinema Treasures. The demolition notice ran in the Lincoln Heights Bulletin-News that same month. Only the front lobby structure survived, and it was converted for commercial retail use — which is why Stumptown is moving into a renovated lobby rather than a full auditorium.

That lobby sat largely unremarked for decades until recent storefront renovation work uncovered an arched window and original terracotta lettering spelling out Starland Theatre, bringing the building's historic detailing back into public view. Stumptown says it has preserved the theater facade and original terrazzo tile as part of the buildout, the article notes, folding the site's early 20th-century bones into its new retail concept.

A Return to Central LA After a 2024 Closure

Stumptown first entered the Los Angeles retail market in September 2013 with a 7,000-square-foot roastery and cafe on Santa Fe Avenue in the Arts District, featuring a glass-walled 60-kilo Probat roaster and training lab, according to the LA Times. That facility closed in 2024, and the Lincoln Heights opening marks the company's return to central Los Angeles after roughly 11 years in the Arts District.

Founded in Portland, Oregon in 1999 by Duane Sorenson, Stumptown grew out of an initial cafe on Southeast Division Street before introducing its Direct Trade purchasing framework in 2003, a sourcing model built on direct farm visits and price negotiations rather than commodity exchanges, per Barista Magazine. The company was acquired in October 2015 by Emeryville-based Peet's Coffee & Tea, itself controlled by Luxembourg investment firm JAB Holding Co., though Stumptown continues to operate as an independent subsidiary, according to Daily Coffee News.

New Drinks Made for the Starland Space

For the grand opening, Stumptown plans special drinks created specifically for the Starland location, including a horchata cold foam shakerato and a passion fruit espresso tonic, WhatNow reports. The first 100 guests are set to receive exclusive Stumptown merchandise, and the celebration will include local pop-ups and specialty vendors: plant studio Lenita by Grita, shaved ice pop-up Sno Con Amor, Minor Figures oat milk, Spirit Tea, and Ranger Chocolate Co., according to the event listing on Partiful. Once open, the Lincoln Heights café is expected to run daily from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Landing on Lincoln Heights' Busiest Corridor

The commercial property at 2626-2634 N. Broadway spans 16,088 total building square feet with 90 feet of frontage, 19 on-site parking stalls, and an average daily traffic count of 36,000 vehicles — the highest of any spot in Lincoln Heights, according to a LoopNet listing. Settled in the 1830s and expanded rapidly during the 1880s housing boom, Lincoln Heights is considered the oldest residential neighborhood in Los Angeles outside of Downtown, per Realtor.com, with architecture ranging from Victorian to Art Deco.

Stumptown's arrival lands amid a broader wave of commercial and residential growth in the neighborhood, including the 468-unit A34 housing complex that opened near the A Line's Heritage Square Station in March, which added 16,000 square feet of ground-floor retail. That density expansion has already stirred resident concerns in Lincoln Heights, underscoring the tension between commercial revitalization and worries about gentrification in one of the city's oldest communities.