Pictorial Travel Diary - Day 2 - Manzanar Auditorium

Pictorial Travel Diary - Day 2 - Manzanar Auditorium
Originally uploaded by Nana S

"MANZANAR AUDITORIUM
Welcome to a piece of history. This building was constructed by internee carpenters, electricians, plumbers, and painters as the Manzanar High School auditorium-gymnasium in 1955. Its use soon expanded, however, to embrace a variety of needs. Instead of holding dances in the mess halls and showing movies in the firebreaks, internees finally had a large, comfortable gathering place. Camp Director Ralph Merritt called it the community’s “living room.”

Internees and camp staff used the auditorium for a year and a half, until Manzanar War Relocation Center closed in November, 1945. For the next fifty years, it served the Owens Valley community. The auditorium underwent several transformations before becoming the building you stand in today."