Two buildings stand next to each other on Venice Boulevard. One was the City Hall of the independent City of Venice, and the other was a police station that held prisoners for more than four decades. Venice's most distinctive events this Halloween weekend happen inside them. On Saturday afternoon, Beyond Baroque stages a Poe variety show in the room that once served as Venice's courtroom and city council chamber. On Sunday evening, SPARC holds its free 24th annual Día de los Muertos celebration at the old jail next door.
Neither building was designed for performances or altars, and this weekend both host them, one day apart.
Two Buildings That Used to Run a City
Venice City Hall went up in 1906, and the City of Los Angeles took it over after Venice was annexed in 1926. In 1979, Beyond Baroque turned it into a nonprofit literary arts space. The theater sits where the courtroom and council chamber were. The bookstore, workshop space, archive and gallery fill the former municipal offices and treasury. George Drury Smith founded Beyond Baroque in 1968 as an experimental literary magazine, so the organization had already been running for eleven years when it moved into the building.
Next door, the former Venice Division station of the LAPD operated as an active jail from 1929 until the early 1970s. SPARC, the Social and Public Art Resource Center, was founded in 1976 by Judith F. Baca, Donna Deitch and Christina Schlesinger. A year later it moved into the jail as its headquarters and marked the opening with what it called a "Jail House Break" celebration. The old cellblock is now the Durón Gallery.
Both buildings appear on the City of Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument list.
| Old Venice City Hall | Former Venice Division Police Station | |
|---|---|---|
| Original role | City Hall, courtroom and council chamber | Police station with active jail, 1929 to early 1970s |
| Current occupant | Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center | SPARC |
| Occupant since | 1979 | 1977 |
| Address | 681 N. Venice Blvd. | 685 N. Venice Blvd. |
| Historic-Cultural Monument | No. 749, adopted 2003 | No. 595, adopted 1994 |
| This weekend | Saturday, October 31, 2 to 4 p.m. | Sunday, November 1, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. |
Yo! Venice has described SPARC as sitting right next to Beyond Baroque, so both weekend events share the same stretch of sidewalk.
Saturday Afternoon in the Old Council Chamber
Beyond Baroque's Halloween show is Poe-Etic License: See Edgar Allan Poe as You Never Have Befo'. It runs Saturday, October 31, from 2 to 4 p.m. The theater describes it as an Edgar Allan Poe-inspired variety show "full of 19th century American gothic and tragicomedy." Dr. Bradley Bobbs stars alongside Alayha Aquarian as The Raven. Ellen Rooney plays the Funereal Chanteuse and Alan Ishii plays The Mysterious Stranger, and music director Janet Housden leads a live band.
The show runs in person and streams live on YouTube. Anyone who wants to see it but has a full Halloween afternoon at home can still watch from the couch. Tickets and details are on the event page.
Because of the 2 p.m. start, the show ends before any of the evening events begin. That makes it the one Halloween event in Venice that won't compete with trick-or-treating for your time.
Sunday Evening at the Old Jail
The next evening, the event next door is older and more participatory. SPARC's 24th annual Día de los Muertos celebration and ritual runs Sunday, November 1, from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. at 685 Venice Blvd. It is free.
At sunset, the evening opens with a traditional invocation ritual in Nahuatl, Spanish and English. After that come traditional altars, art, performances and Oaxacan treats. The community altar is where visitors take part, and the instructions are simple:
- Bring photos of the people you want to honor.
- Add them to the community altar during the evening.
- Take your photos home when the event ends.
SPARC's project history credits Professor Martha Ramirez-Oropeza with leading the celebration. The same history describes a community ofrenda, a multilingual invocation, Aztec dancers and traditional Oaxacan food. This year Ramirez-Oropeza also led the lead-up series. It began with an October 10 talk on the tradition's history and continued with decoration workshops on October 17 and 24. The 2026 celebration is supported by the Office of Councilwoman Traci Park and the Los Angeles County Department of Arts & Culture.
SPARC has been giving the old jail new public uses since the "Jail House Break" that opened its tenancy in 1977.
The Rest of the Weekend Runs on the Same Kind of Host
Venice's other Halloween events this year follow the same pattern as the Venice Boulevard pair. Each one is hosted by a community organization or a public facility, in a space residents already know.
The Venice Canals Association holds Canalloween at Linnie Canal Park on October 31 from 5 to 6 p.m. It's an all-ages costume gathering with pizza and music, aimed at kids and families. The one-hour window works well for a household that wants a park stop before or after trick-or-treating.
Oakwood Recreation Center, at 767 California Ave., has a free all-ages Halloween Festival with an Addams Family theme, running 4 to 8 p.m. It includes games, food, a contest and a haunted house. LA Recreation and Parks' 2026 Halloween list places it on Friday, October 30. Call the center at 310-452-7479 to confirm the date before you go.
None of these events depends on the boardwalk, and each happens in a place residents use the rest of the year. A neighborhood park, a recreation center and two historic civic buildings carry most of the weekend.
Four Days, Laid Out
Taken in order, the stretch from Friday to Sunday runs like this, and the next Friday adds a final event:
- Friday, October 30, 4 to 8 p.m. Oakwood Recreation Center's Addams Family Halloween Festival, 767 California Ave. Free; confirm the date with the center first.
- Saturday, October 31, 2 to 4 p.m. "Poe-Etic License" at Beyond Baroque, 681 N. Venice Blvd., in person and on YouTube.
- Saturday, October 31, 5 to 6 p.m. Canalloween at Linnie Canal Park. Free.
- Sunday, November 1, 5:30 to 8:30 p.m. SPARC's 24th annual Día de los Muertos celebration and ritual, 685 Venice Blvd. Free; bring photos for the community altar.
- Friday, November 6, 5 to 9:30 p.m. First Friday Food Truck Fest on Abbot Kinney.
The Abbot Kinney Boulevard Association runs First Friday as a monthly event, so November's edition goes back to the boulevard's usual routine once the holiday weekend is over. That same Friday morning, the Venice Farmers' Market runs from 7 to 11 a.m. in LA City Parking Lot #701 at 500 Venice Blvd., where it operates every Friday year-round.
If you only have time for one event, choose based on what you want from the weekend. Pick Saturday at Beyond Baroque for a ticketed show in the 1906 council chamber. Pick Sunday at SPARC for a free evening where you can add a photo to a shared altar in a former cellblock building. Both sit side by side at 681 and 685 Venice Boulevard, so if you can make both, you'll be on the same sidewalk both days.
Venice's historic buildings shape how the neighborhood lives as much as how it looks, and The Grady Group tracks both in our neighborhood reports. If you own property near the Venice Boulevard civic core, or are weighing a home with its own history, Michael Grady and the team can walk you through the market in detail. Work with us, including on off-market opportunities shared privately with our clients.
