The Mabel Shaw Bridges Hall of Music, more commonly known as Little Bridges (to distinguish it from nearby

Bridges Auditorium The Mabel Shaw Bridges Music Auditorium, more commonly known as Bridges Auditorium or Big Bridges (to distinguish it from nearby Bridges Hall of Music, known as Little Bridges), is a 2,500-seat auditorium at Pomona College in Claremont, Califor ...

, known as Big Bridges), is a

concert hall A concert hall is a cultural building with a stage (theatre), stage that serves as a performance venue and an auditorium filled with seats. This list does not include other venues such as sports stadia, dramatic theatres or convention ...

Pomona College Pomona College ( ) is a private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was established in 1887 by a group of Congregationalism in the United States, Congregationalists ...

Claremont, California Claremont () is a suburban city in eastern Los Angeles County, California, United States, east of Los Angeles. It lies in the Pomona Valley at the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains. As of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 census it had ...

, designed by

Myron Hunt Myron Hubbard Hunt (February 27, 1868 – May 26, 1952) was an American architect whose numerous projects include many noted landmarks in Southern California and Evanston, Illinois. Hunt was elected a Fellow in the American Institute of Archi ...

and opened in 1915. It was sponsored by a $100,000 gift (equivalent to $ in ) from the parents of Mabel Shaw Bridges, a student in Pomona's class of 1908 who died of illness her junior year. It is used for a variety of musical and non-musical purposes, and is considered the "architectural gem" of Pomona's campus and one of Hunt's finest works.

History

The hall was designed as the primary anchor point for the south side of Marston Quadrangle in Hunt's Master Plan for the Pomona campus. In its early history, it was the premier destination of choice for prominent visitors to

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...

. The hall was closed in 1969 following the discovery of structural defects, and fears that it would be demolished prompted a successful fundraising campaign that enabled a renovation, including a

seismic retrofitting Seismology (; from Ancient Greek σεισμός (''seismós'') meaning "earthquake" and -λογία (''-logía'') meaning "study of") is the scientific study of earthquakes (or generally, quakes) and the generation and propagation of elastic w ...

, beginning in 1971. It was renovated again three decades later, reopening in fall 2000. Pomona's 2015 master plan identifies Little Bridges as one of five "architecturally distinguished buildings with historic stature", and a 2015

environmental impact report An environmental impact statement (EIS), under United States environmental law, is a document required by the 1969 National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for certain actions "significantly affecting the quality of the human environment". An EIS ...

from the college identifies it as eligible for listing on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the Federal government of the United States, United States federal government's official United States National Register of Historic Places listings, list of sites, buildings, structures, Hist ...

, although the college has not yet applied for it to be listed. John Neiuber, writing for the ''

Claremont Courier The ''Claremont Courier'' is a community newspaper based in Claremont, California, United States. It is widely regarded as the city's newspaper of record, and is often cited by other news outlets covering the city. It publishes an annual almana ...

'' in 2017, expressed surprise it is not listed.

Architecture

The building takes the form of a

basilica In Ancient Roman architecture, a basilica (Greek Basiliké) was a large public building with multiple functions that was typically built alongside the town's forum. The basilica was in the Latin West equivalent to a stoa in the Greek Eas ...

, and is built in a modified

Spanish Renaissance The Spanish Renaissance was a movement in Spain, emerging from the Italian Renaissance in Italy during the 14th century, that spread to Spain during the 15th and 16th centuries. This new focus in art, literature, Quotation, quotes and scienc ...

style, incorporating a number of influences. It is split into two halves. The northern half contains the concert hall, featuring a heavy wood beam ceiling painted with coats of arms from the

Medici family The House of Medici ( , ; ) was an Italian banking family and political dynasty that first consolidated power in the Republic of Florence under Cosimo de' Medici and his grandson Lorenzo "the Magnificent" during the first half of the 15th ...

. The seating was inspired in part by the British

Houses of Parliament The Palace of Westminster is the meeting place of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and is located in London, England. It is commonly called the Houses of Parliament after the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two legislative ch ...

, and was designed so that the hall would appear occupied even when filled only to a small portion of its capacity. The southern half contains a

colonnade In classical architecture, a colonnade is a long sequence of columns joined by their entablature, often free-standing, or part of a building. Paired or multiple pairs of columns are normally employed in a colonnade which can be straight or curv ...

with Ionic columns surrounding Lebus Court, home to the college's art history department and ''

The Spirit of Spanish Music ''The Spirit of Spanish Music'' is a sculpture by Burt William Johnson (25 April 1890—27 March 1927). It was commissioned by the Pomona College class of 1915 www.pomona.edu/ and placed in the Lebus Court of the Mabel Shaw Bridges Hall of Music ...

'', a bronze sculpture by

Burt William Johnson Burt William Johnson (April 25, 1890 – March 27, 1927)Moore, Nancy Dustin Wall. ''Dictionary of Art and Artists in Southern California Before 1930''. Los Angeles: Privately printed, 1975, p.130 was an American sculptor. Biography Johnson was b ...

Pipe organ

The hall's current

pipe organ The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurised air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a Musical keyboard, keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single tone and pitch, the pipes are provide ...

is the Hill Memorial Organ, named after Carrie Schitker Hill. It was constructed by C. B. Fisk and installed in 2001 after a planning process that lasted over a decade, and has 3519 pipes over 66 ranks, weighing . Previously, the hall used pipe organs by M. P. Moller installed at construction and in 1939.

Usage

Pomona uses Little Bridges for a variety of musical and non-musical events, including

convocation A convocation (from the Latin ''wikt:convocare, convocare'' meaning "to call/come together", a translation of the Ancient Greek, Greek wikt:ἐκκλησία, ἐκκλησία ''ekklēsia'') is a group of people formally assembled for a specia ...

, practices and performances by the Pomona College Orchestra, and guest speaker lectures. The college also allows community and other outside groups to use the hall. It hosts roughly 45 musical performances per year, most of which are free to all.

References

External links

* {{authority control Pomona College Spanish Revival architecture in California Concert halls in California 1915 establishments in California Claremont, California Music venues completed in 1915 School buildings completed in 1915