Hollywood United Methodist Church
History
In 1909, a little group from a Los Angeles Methodist congregation began organizing a new church and started by renting a space above the Owl Drugstore on a street known as Prospect Street. In 1910, this street was renamed Hollywood Blvd. The original building still stands today on the southeast corner of Wilcox and Hollywood Blvd.
The First Methodist Episcopal Church of Hollywood was built in 1911 on the northeast corner of Hollywood Blvd and Ivar. It was built in the Mission Revival style and cost $35,000 at the time, but due to its limited seating capacity of 800 it was demolished in the early 1920s and replaced by the Guaranty Building in 1923 which still stands today.
The congregation bought a new plot of land at the corner of Franklin Ave and Highland Ave, and construction began on the Recreational Hall and Gymansium in the early 1920's. Then the Education and Administrative wing was built, and in 1927 construction began on the iconic gothic styled sanctuary. The structure was completed and dedicated on March 16, 1930.
The building was adopted as Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument #248 in 1981.
The church erected a large red ribbon on its bell tower in 1993 in honor of World AIDS day. The ribbons were replaced with more permanent versions in 1996, and were repainted in 2004. Since then, the church has been at the forefront of fighting for gay rights within the United Methodist Church, and has attracted a largely LGBT congregation.
Architecture
The church building was designed by Thomas P. Barber, and based in part on the English Gothic style of Westminster Hall in London. The structure is steel-framed concrete, which makes it relatively earthquake resistant, and was realized with the contribution of the Italian structural engineer Francesco (Ciccio) Sabato Ceraldi. The church is also an example of American Gothic architecture with its sanctuary roof having an open hammer beam construction.
Use as a movie filming location
Due to its convenient location near several Hollywood movie studios and its mixture of Gothic and modern architecture, the church has been used frequently as a filming location for Hollywood movies. The "Enchantment Under the Sea" dance scenes in Back to the Future and Back to the Future Part II were filmed in the church's gymnasium, as was the talent show scene in That Thing You Do!. Interior scenes for the movie Sister Act were filmed in the hallways, classrooms, and offices of the church, although the film crew repainted the interior to make it appear much older. Scenes from The War of the Worlds, Anger Management, Big Momma's House, Jarhead, and several other movies were filmed on the premises.
The Oaks School
The Oaks School is an independent private K-6 school founded in 1985 which rents space from the church. The school is non-religious and not affiliated with the church, although the school and church communities do work together frequently and share some staff.