Comments from saturnine14

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saturnine14
saturnine14 commented about Florencita Theatre on Dec 31, 2007 at 2:43 am

I will tell you what I know about the building mentioned in the post added by Ken MC.

Elias' Pet Warehouse is a pet store owned by members of the Ornelas family (Elias and Rosa who are brother and sister). It is part of a chain of many small community-oriented pet stores in the Los Angeles area that was started by Miguel Ornelas SR. (d.1992). Some of the original Elias' Pet Shop / Warehouse businesses were purchased by Jesse Ornelas and converted into the more commercial Pet Source.

The Elias' Pet Warehouse’s address is:

1808 E. Florence Ave.
Los Angeles, California 90001
(323)581-3156

The building that the pet warehouse is in is composed of two floors. The upper floor is the residence of Rosa Ornelas and her family. The lower level is the pet store itself. The pet store has been around since the early 1990’s. It is well known for the beautiful artwork that the owners of the business change around often due to vandalism by graffiti. The Elias' Pet Warehouse building has been featured on a popular Latin Saturday night variety show named “Sabado Gigante” and a Disney movie still in production featuring a guinea pig. The Ornelas family, particularly Miguel Sr. and Elias have previously been featured on popular Latin television shows like “Christina” in which they displayed many of their beautiful birds.
Before the Ornelas family purchased the building, it belonged to Dr. John N.S. White who used the building as an animal hospital for decades.

I do not know if it may have been the Florencita Theatre at one point. The building itself is rather large, however, the layout inside gives no impression of a theatre. If one is TRULY interested, Dr. White still services the pet store on Sundays for animal vaccinations and a quick phone call to the business to ask Dr. White about the history in the Florence Ave. area may help.