You pass under its glimmering marquee whenever you walk up State Street. The city’s only “skyscraper” can be seen from any part of Santa Barbara as it towers 119 feet above the 60-foot buildings below. This monumental building has lasted 100 years and survived without a single major crack in the 1925 Santa Barbara earthquake that destroyed 90% of downtown. “It makes me proud of Santa Barbara that we’ve been able to sustain a theater for that long,” Theater Instructor and Performing Arts Department Chair Dana Caldwell said. The Granada was built in 1924 and is celebrating its grand centenary this year. From a venue for live performances in its early years, to decades as a movie theater, to the theater we know today that hosts a plethora of shows and events, the Granada is and always has been a home for the arts. “You think of all the variety of shows that you can do in a season, much less 100 years,” French Instructor Valerie Yoshimura said. The Granada is a theater beyond compare with a rich history that has paid tribute to the diversity of the arts. In the 1930s, Warner Brothers owned the Granada Theater and used it as a preview site for major Hollywood productions, including the “Wizard of Oz” and “Guys and Dolls,” attracting hundreds of patrons. Since then, as the theater has grown and come under new ownership, the Granada has hosted numerous legendary performers such as Louis Armstrong, Simon & Garfunkel, Bernadette Peters, and The Beach Boys. In more recent years, it has also provided a venue for traveling Broadway shows, Santa Barbara Symphony concerts, State Street Ballet performances, UCSB Arts & Lectures talks, and several other events and speakers. “Performance venues with such history need to be celebrated; they enforce the connection of the arts through the times,” Opera Santa Barbara’s Director of Production Helena Kuukka said. During their centennial anniversary, the theater is hosting a multitude of performances, including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, speaker Yotam Ottolenghi, “Clue” with the American Theatre Guild, and the “Nutcracker” with State Street Ballet, among numerous other productions. Being such a uniquely flexible venue, the Granada is not only a great physical presence within Santa Barbara but a symbol within the community as well. As an enduring theater that is central to our town, the theater represents longevity, creativity, and joy. “It’s just my happy place,” freshman Sloan Brookshire said. “Whenever I’m there, that means I’m performing, and I love to perform.” Yet, it is certainly not an easy feat to keep a theater running and open for 100 years. It has taken the commitment of the Granada staff, owners, patrons, and Santa Barbara community to keep the theater buzzing and thriving. Through renovations accomplished in the late 2000s to improve the theater to repairs completed after the theater flooded in January, the Santa Barbara community members have worked together to ensure the theater’s continued success. “For a performance venue to be able to sustain and stay relevant, it takes a lot of work. It takes a village. It takes a commitment from the organization to want to do that,” Kuukka said. As a venue that has hosted such a variety of shows over 100 years, the Granada is an inspiration and a safe space for performers. It is uniquely positioned in the middle of State Street among restaurants that buzz with activity on show nights, has a history much deeper than simply what has been done in the theater itself, and provides joy to the community through the art of storytelling. “Live performance is important and telling stories is some of the most important work we do as humans,” Caldwell said. Celebrating the Granada’s grand anniversary is a milestone we will forever cherish in Santa Barbara history. The theater has symbolized resilience since its establishment in 1924 and the entire community, young and old, will always know that the Granada is a place to immerse themselves in the arts as they can see the beautiful building from all across town. “It’s the commerce, it’s the joy,” Yoshimura said. “It brings people into town and it fills them with a moment or a couple of hours of happiness and escape and thought and wonder and joy.”