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Oakland’s restored Fox Theater “worth the trip”
posted by
Michael Zoldessy
on
February 18, 2009 at 9:40 am
OAKLAND, CA — Another positive account of the reopening of the Fox Theatre.
But if I’m part of Oakland’s problem and have played my own small role in holding back a long overdue urban renaissance in Downtown Oakland, I’m ready to make amends. Last week, I had the privilege of attending the Grand Opening of the Fox Oakland Theater, and I gotta say, I was blown away. If Oakland too frequently comes up short in head-to-head comparisons with San Francisco, its time to recognize a fundamental fact: Somehow, a profound attack of cultural amnesia allowed San Francisco’s magnificent 1929 Fox Theatre to be demolished just months after its closure in 1963. The Fox Oakland could easily have met the same fate, but Oaklanders never completely gave up on their Fox Theater, which opened the year before the San Francisco Fox and closed thee years after the closure of its sibling across the bay.
Read more at PreservationNation.
Comments (1)
San Francisco has lost more notable buildings than just the Fox. The City of Paris comes to mind immediately. Land in SF is much more valuable (and sought after) than land in Oakland and maybe that’s what ultimately saved the Oakland Fox. The voters of SF signed the Fox’s death warrant in 1961 when they voted down a proposal to have the City buy the Fox for a little over a million dollars for use as a convention center. Fortunately today, for those of us that live in SF, the beautiful Oakland Fox is a 20 min or less subway ride away.