Cedar Avenue Complex - Lancaster CA

City:: Lancaster, CA
Site Type:: Civic Facilities, Education and Health, Libraries, Courthouses (State & Local), Auditoriums and Arenas, Auxiliary Civic Facilities
New Deal Agencies:: Public Works Administration (PWA), Public Works Funding
Started:: 1938
Completed:: 1938
Designer:: Edward Brett
Quality of Information:: Good
Marked:: No
Site Survival:: Extant

Description

The Cedar Avenue Complex was constructed in 1938 with funding from the Public Works Administration (PWA). It began life as a county civic center in Lancaster CA, forty years before that city was incorporated (1977). It included a library, memorial hall, courthouse and sheriff’s office, as well as an older jail from the 1920s. The simple Art Moderne (Art Deco) design was by Los Angeles County architect Edward C. M. Brett.

The Cedar Avenue Complex was successfully nominated for listing on the National Register of Historic Places in the 1990s. The entire complex was renovated by the city in 2014 and opened as the Cedar Center for the Arts, including the MOAH:CEDAR Art Gallery, Cedar Memorial Hall and arts classroom spaces.

Source notes

CRM Tech. 2008. Historic-Period Building Survey: Lancaster Downtown Specific Plan. Colton, CA.

Wilson, Sonja. 1993 National Register of Historic Places Registration Form, Cedar Avenue Complex (Site 19-188011). On file, South Central Coastal Information Center, California State University, Fullerton.

Thanks to Alyssa Borge of the Museum of Art + History (MOAH) of Lancaster for providing historical documents on the Cedar Center.

Site originally submitted by Joan Greer on March 13, 2019.
Additional contributions by Richard A Walker.