In mid-December, our team spotted Kristen Stewart doing a photoshoot atop the historic Highland Theatre in L.A.’s Highland Park neighborhood.
Now, Architectural Digest has revealed that Stewart purchased the over-100-year-old theater, which shuttered in 2024, with plans to revitalize it and give it a new start in the community.
Here’s a closer look at Stewart’s plans for the building.
‘Something for the community’
Kristen Stewart confirmed that she purchased the Highland Theatre in a feature story for Architectural Digest, which explains the winter photoshoot. “I ran toward it with everything I had,” she told them.
While the historic theater will need a significant restoration, Stewart asserted that her plans for the space go beyond the superficial.
“… This project is about creating a new school and restructuring our processes, finding a better way forward,” she said.
“We want to make it a family affair, something for the community. It’s not just for pretentious Hollywood cinephiles… I see it as an antidote to all the corporate bullshit, a place that takes movie culture away from just buying and selling. I think there’s a huge desire and craving for what this kind of space can offer.”
Stewart plans to restore and embrace the theater’s original details, many of which have been around since it opened since 1925. According to LAist, many of the theater’s vintage elements were hidden by a triplex renovation in the 1980s, including the original ceiling, murals, frescoes, and moldings.
This move comes soon after the actress’s feature film directorial debut, The Chronology of Water. Based on a memoir of the same title by Lidia Yuknavitch, the film offers a cinematic exploration of memory, trauma, and womanhood, and early reviews praise its audacity and lyrical quality.
A century of film and entertainment
Located at 5604 N. Figueroa Street in Los Angeles’s Highland Park neighborhood, the Highland Theatre opened in 1925 with a screening of Lady of the Night. The building was designed by architect Lewis Arthur Smith, known for similar elegant theaters including Hollywood’s Vista Theatre, North Hollywood’s El Portal Theatre, and the Ventura Theatre in Ventura.
Under a series of owners throughout the 20th century, Highland Theatre screened everything from vaudeville to adult films. When the Akarakian family bought the theater in the 1975, they reinstated more mainstream films, and introduced Spanish language screenings and children’s movies. They later converted the theater from a single-screen venue into a triplex, and the building became a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument in 1991.
After several more owners took over the theater in the 2000s, it ultimately closed in February 2024 after struggling to recover post-pandemic.
Now, under Kristen Stewart’s ownership, the Highland Theatre faces a hopeful future where it may continue to serve Angelenos for decades to come.