Our story
A movie house, a blizzard and a second act.
Before it was Skyland, it was the Village Theatre, the mountain's movie house on Lake Drive. This is how a 1930s cinema, a historic snowstorm and a lot of stubbornness turned into a new home for the arts.
The Village Theatre on Lake Drive. Photo: Russ Keller Collection, courtesy of the Mountain History Museum.
1930s to 2012
The Village Theatre.
The theater opened on Lake Drive in the 1930s: a curved, Quonset-style hall with a Streamline Moderne interior, right in the middle of the village.
For decades, this was where the mountain went to the movies. Double features, cheap family nights, first dates. Local theater groups staged plays here for many seasons, and for a while it housed the local historical museum's movie collection.
People still stop us on Lake Drive to tell us they saw Jaws here the summer it came out, or their very first movie.
2012
The lights go out.
Like a lot of small-town cinemas, the Village Theatre couldn't keep going, and the movies stopped. The building was converted into a church, used for services and the occasional concert or screening.
By 2012 that had closed too, and the old movie house sat empty and up for sale for years.
2022
The studio moves in.
When we moved up the mountain, we bought the old theater and spent a year turning it into a home for Foxhound Productions, our film and creative studio. We built sound stages and workspaces, and saved pieces of the building's history to go back on the walls.
Winter 2023
Snowmageddon.
In late February 2023 a historic blizzard buried the San Bernardino Mountains. People were snowed in for days, and roofs gave way all across the ridge.
Ours was one of them. The back of the roof collapsed, water poured into the floors below, and the building was red-tagged.
The storm made national news. The New York Times covered it, and Foxhound was part of the story.
The New York Times · March 10, 2023 · Read the article →
2024 to now
Rebuilding, differently.
We were told to tear it down and sell. We chose to rebuild.
But we didn't want to put back exactly what was there. This part of the mountains can't support a full-time movie theater, and it doesn't need one. What it needs is a flexible room: a cinema one night, a concert hall the next, a market on Saturday morning, a classroom, a gallery, a place to celebrate.
And people want to be in a room together again. Micro movie theaters, small screening rooms and in-person events are having a real moment, with new ones opening in towns across the country and pulling people off their screens at home and back into a room with their neighbors. That's the idea here: a place where watching a film together is part of everyday life on the mountain.
Today
Ready for its next act.
The outside is finished: a new roof, new walls and a solid shell. Inside, the building is framed out and wide open, a blank canvas ready for the interior build-out. It's a rare chance to help shape a home for the arts from the ground up.
What's next
That idea became Skyland Arts Foundation.
Skyland Arts Foundation is the nonprofit we started to give this building back to the community, and to give artists across the region a place to make, perform, learn and gather.
Jonathan on the roof after the collapse, 2023.
Remember the Village Theatre?
We're collecting stories and old photos from people who went to the movies here. If you have one, we'd love to hear it.
Press
In the news.
- The Alpine MountaineerA Vision to Bring the Arts to LifeVol. 46, Issue 29. Skyland Arts Foundation and the plan for the building's next act.2026
- The Mountain NewsThe Crestline Theater Gets a New Lease on LifeHow the old movie house is being rebuilt as a creative hub for the community.Aug 7, 2024
- The Alpine MountaineerFoxhound Studios on the mendInsurance, permits and a stubborn decision to rebuild instead of sell.Aug 7, 2024
- The Mountain NewsFoxhound SurvivesInside the building after Snowmageddon brought the roof down.Aug 9, 2023
- The New York TimesIn the San Bernardino Mountains, Coping With Mountains of SnowThe 2023 blizzard that buried the ridge, including Foxhound Productions.Mar 10, 2023
- The Alpine MountaineerProduction studio comes to CrestlineA film studio moves into the long-empty Village Theatre.Feb 16, 2023