Scaffolding now climbs 55 feet inside Bridges Auditorium on the Pomona College campus in Claremont, where conservators are scrubbing nearly a century of grime off a 22,000-square-foot ceiling painted with zodiac figures. The 1931 theater, known to generations of students simply as “Big Bridges,” seats 2,400 people, and its restoration marks the first cleaning of that ceiling since a 1976 renovation.
The project is the subject of a report by David Allen of the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, who visited the site on a brutally hot afternoon. Bridges Auditorium director Matt Pavey told the paper that the ceiling had grown heavily dirty over decades when audiences were still permitted to smoke inside the hall, and he said the reporter's visit brought him closer to the ceiling than any audience member had ever been. Bridges Auditorium still has no air conditioning, and Pomona College is actively fundraising to fix that gap along with other infrastructure needs, according to the same report.
A Fresco Built on Artistic License, Not Astronomy
A Fresco Built on Artistic License, Not Astronomy The ceiling itself is the work of Giovanni “John” Battista Smeraldi, an Italian American artist whose work includes Grand Central Terminal, the White House, and the Los Angeles Biltmore, according to the L.A. Conservancy. His 1931 mural for Bridges Auditorium layers nine major zodiac figures over a blue wash, scattered stars, and a white Milky Way band. The mural is not a scientifically accurate astronomical map: an August 1998 photographic examination by Griffith Observatory Director Dr. E.C. Krupp confirmed that Smeraldi arranged the constellations for artistic effect rather than astronomical accuracy, per background compiled by Pomona College.
Restoration crew member Brynn Griffiths called the project fun and said the constellations were beautiful, the Daily Bulletin reported. As of late August, the work was 70 percent complete, with conservators applying gold leaf to the balcony's plaster corbels and repainting the proscenium arch from a faded tan back to its original aqua color.
The Timken Family's Century-Long Tie to the Hall
Bridges Auditorium traces its origins to a 1920s donation from the Timken family that funded construction of the Beaux Arts-style theater, and that connection has now stretched across nearly a hundred years. The Timken Foundation of Canton, Ohio, provided the $1 million gift behind the current ceiling restoration, extending a philanthropic thread that began when Timken Roller Bearing chairman H.H. Timken helped fund the hall's original 1928 construction, according to Pomona College. H.H. Timken was the uncle of Mabel Shaw Bridges, the Pomona College student in whose memory the building was erected after she died in 1907 at age 22 during her junior year, per Claremont Heritage. Her parents, Appleton Shaw Bridges and Amelia Timken Bridges, had already financed the smaller “Little Bridges” music hall in 1915 before funding the larger auditorium. The Timken Foundation provided the $1 million behind the current cleanup and repair effort, the Daily Bulletin reported.
In the broader historic-preservation landscape, the California State Portal calls the Mills Act the single most important economic incentive program in California for the restoration and preservation of qualified historic buildings. A California State Portal guide dated 13 Sept 2013 says its listed programs can help people interested in historic preservation locate funding and incentives.
Historic preservation provides broader context for Bridges Auditorium's restoration.
San Diego architect William Templeton Johnson designed the auditorium in the Northern Italian Renaissance style after touring European opera houses, according to Pomona College. The ceiling spans 120 feet without internal support columns. Construction began in 1930.
Brooklyn Firm Leads a Massive Scaffolding Job
The restoration contract belongs to EverGreene Architectural Arts, a Brooklyn-based firm, according to Historic Preservation Tax Credit Consultants. Marlene Sophia, the project lead from New York City, is overseeing the work on-site, per the Daily Bulletin's reporting. Getting scaffolding into place beneath the soaring ceiling required 50 transport trucks' worth of material, the paper noted.
Restoration work is expected to wind down by mid-September, with the scaffolding coming down in time for events scheduled in October. The project aims to return Bridges Auditorium to full glory ahead of its 2031 centennial. The restoration has been covered by David Allen.
A Stage for Presidents, Music Legends, and TV Cameras
Bridges Auditorium originally opened in 1931, according to Pomona College's own historical timeline. Over its nearly century-long run, the hall has hosted the L.A. Philharmonic, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Goodman, Winston Churchill, Marian Anderson, and Amelia Earhart. Its grand foyer, with Carrara marble columns and hand-painted coffered ceilings, was used by The West Wing, according to a 2019 account from IAMNOTASTALKER. The building has also appeared in the films Dave and Beaches.
The venue's civic profile remains active well beyond film sets. In April, Bridges Auditorium hosted a live, statewide televised California gubernatorial debate co-hosted by CBS news stations and the Asian Pacific American Public Affairs Association, a role Hoodline previously reported ahead of the event. With scaffolding scheduled to come down in October, the newly cleaned ceiling and restored aqua proscenium arch will be ready for whatever the historic hall's next chapter brings.
