A $1 million gift from the Timken Foundation will restore the iconic ceiling mural in Pomona College’s Mabel Shaw Bridges Music Auditorium, securing the future of the beloved venue known as “Big Bridges.”
Pomona prepares for a larger effort to restore Bridges Auditorium to upgrade critical infrastructure and preserve the auditorium for its next century of service.
Pomona College’s historic Bridges Auditorium hosted the most inclusive debate of the 2026 race for California governor in April.
A $1 million gift from the Timken Foundation of Canton, Ohio, will restore the iconic ceiling mural in Pomona College’s Mabel Shaw Bridges Music Auditorium. The Timken family hopes the restoration will spark additional support to secure the future of the historic venue affectionately known as “Big Bridges.”
As the auditorium approaches its centennial in 2031, its spectacular ceiling mural depicting stellar constellations in silver and gold continues to delight visitors — from concertgoers to those attending events of national significance, including the recent California gubernatorial debate, the first ever held at Pomona.
Italian American artist Giovanni (John) Smeraldi’s hand-painted fresco stretches across 22,000 square feet along the curved arch of the ceiling. It depicts an elaborate celestial scene set against a cerulean sky soaring 55 feet above the auditorium’s seating.
“The Smeraldi mural is a priceless work of art that should be preserved for future generations to enjoy,” says Kurt Timken ’86, a Timken Foundation board member. “You walk in there and it takes your breath away.”
A second-generation Timken to attend Pomona, he hopes the foundation’s gift can help plant a seed that encourages others to consider funding future renovations of the auditorium.
“I graduated in front of Big Bridges,” Timken says, recalling a joyous memory that many alumni share. “But there’s a lot behind its doors that can be enjoyed, especially once the auditorium is fully upgraded.”
“The idea from the very beginning was to create something more than just a building,” Pomona College President G. Gabrielle Starr says. “Over decades of service, the auditorium has become a symbol of The Claremont Colleges and one of the most photographed buildings in Southern California. We are grateful to the Timken Foundation for stepping up to protect and enhance its remarkable ceiling mural.”
But preserving the awe-inspiring beauty of the Smeraldi mural is more than a restoration project — it reflects a family’s enduring bond with Pomona and The Claremont Colleges.
Honoring a Beloved Daughter
Henry Timken, the family patriarch, was an inventor, industrialist and founder of the Timken Roller Bearing Corporation. He helped revolutionize transportation at the turn of the 20th century, inventing and patenting a tapered roller bearing that proved invaluable to the emerging American automotive industry. Today, the Timken Company is a global technology leader in engineered bearings and industrial motion products.
His daughter Amelia and her husband, Appleton Bridges, made a gift to Pomona College to construct Bridges Auditorium. The venue would be a memorial to their daughter Mabel, who died in 1907 during her junior year at Pomona. The family had also funded a smaller music building, the Mabel Shaw Bridges Hall of Music (“Little Bridges”), in 1915 to honor her memory.
“Amelia remembered what her daughter experienced at Pomona,” Timken says of his great-aunt. “When she decided to help fund Little Bridges, she made a commitment and gave back. The devastating loss of her only child left an indelible mark.”
James Blaisdell, who served as president of the College during the construction of both Bridges venues, explained his vision for Pomona in spirited letters he exchanged with Amelia Bridges.
“President Blaisdell wanted the quadrangle to have great buildings and to form a core at the center of the campus,” Timken says. “Our family jumped in to help.”
In 1925, a decade after the construction of Little Bridges, Appleton Bridges spoke with President Blaisdell about his continuing interest in supporting music at the College and constructing another auditorium, this one much larger. Appleton Bridges and H.H. Timken — Amelia’s younger brother, who was chairman of the Timken Company and later founded the Timken Foundation — made a gift to Pomona for Big Bridges in 1928, at the end of Blaisdell’s presidency. The auditorium opened to audiences in 1931.
The Timken Foundation, which makes a practice of giving back to communities around the world where the Timken Company has manufacturing plants, has continued to support renovations at Little Bridges and Big Bridges since they were built, taking pride in supporting music and the arts at Pomona.
“Those buildings are the heart of the campus,” Kurt Timken says.
The ‘Sistine Ceiling’ of Claremont
Designed by noted San Diego architect William Templeton Johnson, Bridges Auditorium was widely regarded as the finest hall in Southern California when it opened. It quickly became one of the area's major cultural assets.
Over nearly 100 years of service, the auditorium has seen countless artists and personalities. It is historically one of the area’s leading cultural venues — hosting Amelia Earhart, Ella Fitzgerald, Taylor Swift, Dave Chappelle and the L.A. Philharmonic, among many others — comprising a list that has defined the best in arts and culture for the better part of the 20th century.
Presiding over it all has been Smeraldi's 22,000-square-foot ceiling mural. The artist is known for painting many ceilings and designs, including artwork in Grand Central Terminal in New York and the White House and murals at the Los Angeles Biltmore Hotel and the Santa Barbara Courthouse.
Smeraldi was part of the Spanish Mission Revival style of Southern California, which presented a grandiose vision of the United States from coast to coast, notes George L. Gorse, the Viola Horton Professor of Art History at Pomona College.
“John Smeraldi’s cosmic zodiacal ceiling in Big Bridges brought the Renaissance tradition of mural painting from his native Sicily to Los Angeles in the 1920s and ‘30s,” Gorse says. “You might call it the ‘Sistine Ceiling’ of the Claremont Colleges. Its restoration, along with Big Bridges, is vital to our future here in Claremont.”
The mural has brought beauty and sophistication to a concave surface designed to offer ideal acoustics for vocal and instrumental music. “That’s what Amelia fell in love with,” Timken says. “Here we are, almost one hundred years later, and it’s still taking people’s breath away.”
To learn more about supporting efforts to upgrade critical infrastructure and preserve Bridges Music Auditorium for its next century of service, email Laura Wensley, assistant vice president of development at Pomona College.