The January 22, 1927, issue of Building and Engineering News said that the contract had been awarded for the construction of a new theater on University Avenue between Waverley and Cowper streets in Palo Alto. The project had been designed by San Francisco architectural firm Reid Brothers.
Was there ever a theater at Taraval and 29th Avenue? Many of the same issues of Building and Engineering News from 1927 that carried notices about the proposed theater that became the Parkside also carried notices about a $65,000 theater designed by Reid Brothers which was to be built at Taraval and 29th. I can’t find any theater listed for that location at Cinema Treasures, so I don’t know if it is just unlisted, or if the project was never completed.
The 1926 Los Angeles City Directory lists the Red Mill Theatre at 4549 Whittier Boulevard. A comment by kenmc made on November 5, 2007, says that there is a 1930 listing in the Los Angeles Times for the Red Mill Theatre at the same address. The Los Angeles County Assessor’s office says that the building at this location was built in 1922, with an effectively-built date of 1928. The Boulevard is apparently older than we thought.
I didn’t find a theater listed at this address in the 1923 City Directory, and no theater is listed for it in the 1932 directory, but the 1929 directory lists the Red Mill Theatre at 4551 Whittier. The 1936 directory lists the Boulevard Theatre at 4549.
The April 23, 1927, issue of Building and Engineering News said that L. A. Smith had prepared plans for a 2-story and part 3-story theater to be built at S. Broadway and Church Street in Santa Maria for Principal Theatres Inc..
jmetcalf: Ken McIntyre won’t be able to fix the description, or correct the address. That will have to be done by one of Cinema Treasures' moderators. The reason Google Maps Street View is fetching a picture of the State Theatre is because the address on this page is wrong. This page is for the Marysville Theatre, at 1st and D Streets, which (along with the nearby Elks Lodge and a small building between them) burned down in 1926. The State Theatre has its own page.
There’s been quite a bit of confusion over the theaters that have operated at 1st and D streets (the Marysville/Atkins/National, and the Liberty/Tower,) and it has spilled over into confusion about the State Theatre. This comment by tspauld on the Tower Theatre page clears most of it up.
The Marysville Theatre was built in 1907. By 1921, it was being operated as the Atkins Theatre (here is a fresh link to the Marysville/Atkins Theatre page at Pacific Coast Architecture DB, cited in my earlier comment.) By the time of the 1926 fire that destroyed it, it had been renamed the National Theatre. After it was destroyed, the National Theatres circuit built the Liberty Theatre on part of the same site.
An earlier Liberty Theatre, located on 2nd Street, was closed a few days before the new Liberty was opened. Meanwhile, a new National Theatre, the one that later became the State Theatre, was built at 515 E Street.
The Tower Theatre, opened in 1941 at the Marysville/Atkins/National/Liberty’s historic address of 103 D Street, was apparently an extensive remodeling of the Liberty Theatre that had opened in 1927.
Although most of your comment of February 26, 2008, pertains to the State Theatre, I think the part about the temporary theater on the site of the burned National must pertain to the Liberty/Tower. The Tower occupies the Liberty’s footprint, but the Liberty’s footprint was different than the Marysville’s footprint. The Marysville’s building occupied the corner lot where the Tower’s parking lot is located, and probably the space where the Tower’s auditorium is located.
The Tower’s entrance, even though it has the same address as the Marysville Theatre, appears to be on the site of the small building that stood between the theater and the Elks Lodge before the fire. I would imagine that the temporary theater you mentioned was on what is now the site of the parking lot.
This web page says that the modern wing of the McPherson Playhouse, on the Pandora Street side of the building, was built in 1964-65, and designed by architect Alan Hodgson. There’s a small photo.
An extensive collection of photos depicting the restoration of the Royal’s exterior can be seen on this page (scroll down) at the web site of the architect for the restoration project, Allan R. Cassidy.
This web page has a bit of information about the 1992 expansion of the Royal Theatre, when wings were added to each side of the historic structure as part of its conversion into a modern performing arts venue. There are three small photos. The lead designer for that project was Alan Roy, then with Wagg and Hambleton Architects, Victoria.
I’ve been unable to discover the original architect of the Portola Theatre, but the February 27, 1918, issue of Building and Engineering News said that architect Alfred Henry Jacobs had prepared plans for a $5,000 renovation of the house, to include redecoration, new marble and tile work, and some plumbing.
I’ve come across this rendering of the California Theatre in the December, 1917, issue of The Architect and Engineer of California. The problem is that it is part of a portfolio of recent work by architect Louis Christian Mullgardt, not Alfred Henry Jacobs.
The August, 1918, issue of the San Francisco-based journal The Architect has three photos of the California Theatre, and attributes the design to Alfred H. Jacobs (scan at Google Books.)
Naturally, I’m a bit puzzled. Did Jacobs and Mullgardt collaborate on the building? Did Jacobs design the theater and Mullgardt the office and commercial parts of the structure? Can anyone clear up this mystery?
Given the September, 1918, opening, the location on South School Street, and the fact that the opening manager was named A. A. Richards, it looks like this must have been the theater that was the subject of the following item in the February 6, 1918, issue of Building and Engineering News:
“Architects Stone & Wright, San Joaquin Valley Bank Bldg., Stockton, are taking figures for a three-story Class ‘A’ theatre and store building to be erected on South School Street in Lodi for the Lodi Investment Company. A. Richards of Lodi is also a part owner in the proposed structure.”
The names of the architects were Louis S. Stone and George Alexander Wright.
Could the Orpheus Theatre have been the house at San Rafael for which plans were then being completed, according to the January 30, 1918, issue of Building and Engineering News? The item listed the owner of the house as Thomas Phillips, General Manager of the American-Irish Players Company of New York City. The architect for the project was New Yorker Francis H. Kimball.
The June, 1912, issue of The Pacific Coast Architect ran the following item: “Theater—Pasco. Architect E. W. Houghton, Seattle, prepared plans for a modern theater building, for George D. Cort.” The name Cort must have been a typo for Cord.
Completion of the project was delayed. The following excerpt from a 1917 issue of the legal journal The Pacific Reporter concerns a lawsuit, Lee vs Pasco Theater Co, filed in early 1915: “Some time during the early part of the year 1914, the Pasco Theater Company was organized for the purpose of taking over, completing, and operating an incomplete theater in Pasco, Wash., known as the Cord Theater Company property.”
Though no theater name is mentioned, the following item in the December 20, 1913, issue of Domestic Engineering probably refers to the Empire: “Work is progressing on the fireproof theater, being erected on the corner of Seventh and Commercial Avenues, through the winter.”
The first aka should be Jensen’s Theatorium, not Theatrium. The aka’s Globe Theatre and Sunset Theatre also need to be added (links of September 22, 2009, from jeff bridges.)
The Globe circuit didn’t last very long, but the downtown Globe was in operation at least as late as 1919, and the Globe on Central Avenue (later to become the Florence Mills Theatre) was being listed as the Amusu Theatre by 1923.
The Holly Theatre was located in one of the rare areas where the Google camera truck recorded the alleys as well as the streets. Pan Street View to the right and go to the corner of Logan Street. Turn left on Logan and go south to the alley, and turn left again. The former theater has a religious painting on its back wall— probably depicting Our Lady of Guadalupe, a common icon in Mexican American neighborhoods.
En route, the three-story brick building you’ll see at the southwest corner of Sunset and Logan is another of Henry Jensen’s projects; Jensen’s Recreation Center, built in 1924.
In light of pgrembi’s comment, I’m now wondering if the Victory’s building might have survived the fire that destroyed the theater and still be standing. There’s a building on the north side of Chestnut extending from First to Church, and the section at its west end looks as though it could have easily housed a theater.
I don’t know the source of Chuck’s information, but it probably dates from several years after the Zelda Theatre opened. A 1926 issue of The Film Daily made a reference to “…the late Bill Abrahamson at the Zelda, Duluth….” so F&R probably took over the house after he died; although another Film Daily item from 1926 mentioned a Gus Carlson as operator of the Zelda. He could have been an independent operator, or a manager for F&R.
I’ve found a couple of other mentions of W. M. Abrahamson in publications from the 1910s. A biennial report of the Minnesota treasurer’s office said that the office had received a fifty dollar incorporation fee from the W. M. Abrahamson Theater Co. on February 17, 1913. The 1913-1914 edition of Julius Cahn’s Official Theatrical Guide listed a 1200-seat, ground floor vaudeville and picture theater in Duluth called the Empress, with W. M. Abrahamson as manager.
Judging from the photos and captions at PSTOS, the Rivoli was on the east side of 6th Street at or near the corner of of E Street. The address would have been in the range of 301-305 NE 6th Street.
A survey of buildings designed by architect Frank C. Clark lists Hunt and Antle’s Rivoli Theatre at Grants Pass as one of his designs, with the date ca.1915.
For those who don’t like to copy and past, here’s Jack’s link. Comparison of historic photos on that page with the modern Google Street View shows that the theater has been demolished.
A survey of buildings designed by architect Frank C. Clark includes the Roxy, though it is listed as Page Theater Building #2 (the original Page Theatre, opened in 1913, had been severely damaged by fire in 1923 and never reopened. Parts of the original building might have been incorporated into the new theater; the sources I’ve seen are ambiguous. Photos show that the Roxy was much smaller than the Page had been.)
The Roxy was remodeled and renamed the Esquire Theatre in 1947. A link at the bottom of the Roxy page leads to a page about the Esquire Theatre. It includes an ad from February 19, 1956, which it says was the Esquire’s last known film showing.
The survey of Clark’s buildings, which was prepared in 1982-83, lists the theater building as gone, so demolition had to have taken place no later than 1983.
Here is Jack’s link, for people who don’t like to copy and paste. The page indicates that the Rialto closed on January 3, 1953.
A survey of buildings designed by architect Frank C. Clark lists the Rialto Theatre as one of his works, though it gives the year of the project as 1919. I don’t know if they simply got the year wrong, or if it indicates that Clark designed some alterations to the theater in 1919. The 1982-83 survey lists the theater as gone, but doesn’t give the year of its demolition.
The January 22, 1927, issue of Building and Engineering News said that the contract had been awarded for the construction of a new theater on University Avenue between Waverley and Cowper streets in Palo Alto. The project had been designed by San Francisco architectural firm Reid Brothers.
Was there ever a theater at Taraval and 29th Avenue? Many of the same issues of Building and Engineering News from 1927 that carried notices about the proposed theater that became the Parkside also carried notices about a $65,000 theater designed by Reid Brothers which was to be built at Taraval and 29th. I can’t find any theater listed for that location at Cinema Treasures, so I don’t know if it is just unlisted, or if the project was never completed.
The 1926 Los Angeles City Directory lists the Red Mill Theatre at 4549 Whittier Boulevard. A comment by kenmc made on November 5, 2007, says that there is a 1930 listing in the Los Angeles Times for the Red Mill Theatre at the same address. The Los Angeles County Assessor’s office says that the building at this location was built in 1922, with an effectively-built date of 1928. The Boulevard is apparently older than we thought.
I didn’t find a theater listed at this address in the 1923 City Directory, and no theater is listed for it in the 1932 directory, but the 1929 directory lists the Red Mill Theatre at 4551 Whittier. The 1936 directory lists the Boulevard Theatre at 4549.
The April 23, 1927, issue of Building and Engineering News said that L. A. Smith had prepared plans for a 2-story and part 3-story theater to be built at S. Broadway and Church Street in Santa Maria for Principal Theatres Inc..
jmetcalf: Ken McIntyre won’t be able to fix the description, or correct the address. That will have to be done by one of Cinema Treasures' moderators. The reason Google Maps Street View is fetching a picture of the State Theatre is because the address on this page is wrong. This page is for the Marysville Theatre, at 1st and D Streets, which (along with the nearby Elks Lodge and a small building between them) burned down in 1926. The State Theatre has its own page.
There’s been quite a bit of confusion over the theaters that have operated at 1st and D streets (the Marysville/Atkins/National, and the Liberty/Tower,) and it has spilled over into confusion about the State Theatre. This comment by tspauld on the Tower Theatre page clears most of it up.
The Marysville Theatre was built in 1907. By 1921, it was being operated as the Atkins Theatre (here is a fresh link to the Marysville/Atkins Theatre page at Pacific Coast Architecture DB, cited in my earlier comment.) By the time of the 1926 fire that destroyed it, it had been renamed the National Theatre. After it was destroyed, the National Theatres circuit built the Liberty Theatre on part of the same site.
An earlier Liberty Theatre, located on 2nd Street, was closed a few days before the new Liberty was opened. Meanwhile, a new National Theatre, the one that later became the State Theatre, was built at 515 E Street.
The Tower Theatre, opened in 1941 at the Marysville/Atkins/National/Liberty’s historic address of 103 D Street, was apparently an extensive remodeling of the Liberty Theatre that had opened in 1927.
Although most of your comment of February 26, 2008, pertains to the State Theatre, I think the part about the temporary theater on the site of the burned National must pertain to the Liberty/Tower. The Tower occupies the Liberty’s footprint, but the Liberty’s footprint was different than the Marysville’s footprint. The Marysville’s building occupied the corner lot where the Tower’s parking lot is located, and probably the space where the Tower’s auditorium is located.
The Tower’s entrance, even though it has the same address as the Marysville Theatre, appears to be on the site of the small building that stood between the theater and the Elks Lodge before the fire. I would imagine that the temporary theater you mentioned was on what is now the site of the parking lot.
This web page says that the modern wing of the McPherson Playhouse, on the Pandora Street side of the building, was built in 1964-65, and designed by architect Alan Hodgson. There’s a small photo.
Here is the official web site of the Royal Theatre. The house is operated, along with the McPherson Playhouse, by the Royal and McPherson Theatre Society.
The Hallmark Society, a local preservation group, has several photos of the Royal on its web site.
An extensive collection of photos depicting the restoration of the Royal’s exterior can be seen on this page (scroll down) at the web site of the architect for the restoration project, Allan R. Cassidy.
This web page has a bit of information about the 1992 expansion of the Royal Theatre, when wings were added to each side of the historic structure as part of its conversion into a modern performing arts venue. There are three small photos. The lead designer for that project was Alan Roy, then with Wagg and Hambleton Architects, Victoria.
I’ve been unable to discover the original architect of the Portola Theatre, but the February 27, 1918, issue of Building and Engineering News said that architect Alfred Henry Jacobs had prepared plans for a $5,000 renovation of the house, to include redecoration, new marble and tile work, and some plumbing.
I’ve come across this rendering of the California Theatre in the December, 1917, issue of The Architect and Engineer of California. The problem is that it is part of a portfolio of recent work by architect Louis Christian Mullgardt, not Alfred Henry Jacobs.
The August, 1918, issue of the San Francisco-based journal The Architect has three photos of the California Theatre, and attributes the design to Alfred H. Jacobs (scan at Google Books.)
Naturally, I’m a bit puzzled. Did Jacobs and Mullgardt collaborate on the building? Did Jacobs design the theater and Mullgardt the office and commercial parts of the structure? Can anyone clear up this mystery?
I don’t know what became of the Post Office I thought had replaced the Lodi Theatre. There is now a ready-to-wear clothing store on the site.
Given the September, 1918, opening, the location on South School Street, and the fact that the opening manager was named A. A. Richards, it looks like this must have been the theater that was the subject of the following item in the February 6, 1918, issue of Building and Engineering News:
The names of the architects were Louis S. Stone and George Alexander Wright.Could the Orpheus Theatre have been the house at San Rafael for which plans were then being completed, according to the January 30, 1918, issue of Building and Engineering News? The item listed the owner of the house as Thomas Phillips, General Manager of the American-Irish Players Company of New York City. The architect for the project was New Yorker Francis H. Kimball.
The June, 1912, issue of The Pacific Coast Architect ran the following item: “Theater—Pasco. Architect E. W. Houghton, Seattle, prepared plans for a modern theater building, for George D. Cort.” The name Cort must have been a typo for Cord.
Completion of the project was delayed. The following excerpt from a 1917 issue of the legal journal The Pacific Reporter concerns a lawsuit, Lee vs Pasco Theater Co, filed in early 1915: “Some time during the early part of the year 1914, the Pasco Theater Company was organized for the purpose of taking over, completing, and operating an incomplete theater in Pasco, Wash., known as the Cord Theater Company property.”
Though no theater name is mentioned, the following item in the December 20, 1913, issue of Domestic Engineering probably refers to the Empire: “Work is progressing on the fireproof theater, being erected on the corner of Seventh and Commercial Avenues, through the winter.”
The correct names of the architects of the Royal are William D'Oyly Rochfort and Eben W. Sankey.
The first aka should be Jensen’s Theatorium, not Theatrium. The aka’s Globe Theatre and Sunset Theatre also need to be added (links of September 22, 2009, from jeff bridges.)
The Globe circuit didn’t last very long, but the downtown Globe was in operation at least as late as 1919, and the Globe on Central Avenue (later to become the Florence Mills Theatre) was being listed as the Amusu Theatre by 1923.
The Holly Theatre was located in one of the rare areas where the Google camera truck recorded the alleys as well as the streets. Pan Street View to the right and go to the corner of Logan Street. Turn left on Logan and go south to the alley, and turn left again. The former theater has a religious painting on its back wall— probably depicting Our Lady of Guadalupe, a common icon in Mexican American neighborhoods.
En route, the three-story brick building you’ll see at the southwest corner of Sunset and Logan is another of Henry Jensen’s projects; Jensen’s Recreation Center, built in 1924.
meheuck: The Globe/Hollyway is listed at Cinema Treasures under the name Holly Theatre.
In light of pgrembi’s comment, I’m now wondering if the Victory’s building might have survived the fire that destroyed the theater and still be standing. There’s a building on the north side of Chestnut extending from First to Church, and the section at its west end looks as though it could have easily housed a theater.
I don’t know the source of Chuck’s information, but it probably dates from several years after the Zelda Theatre opened. A 1926 issue of The Film Daily made a reference to “…the late Bill Abrahamson at the Zelda, Duluth….” so F&R probably took over the house after he died; although another Film Daily item from 1926 mentioned a Gus Carlson as operator of the Zelda. He could have been an independent operator, or a manager for F&R.
I’ve found a couple of other mentions of W. M. Abrahamson in publications from the 1910s. A biennial report of the Minnesota treasurer’s office said that the office had received a fifty dollar incorporation fee from the W. M. Abrahamson Theater Co. on February 17, 1913. The 1913-1914 edition of Julius Cahn’s Official Theatrical Guide listed a 1200-seat, ground floor vaudeville and picture theater in Duluth called the Empress, with W. M. Abrahamson as manager.
Judging from the photos and captions at PSTOS, the Rivoli was on the east side of 6th Street at or near the corner of of E Street. The address would have been in the range of 301-305 NE 6th Street.
A survey of buildings designed by architect Frank C. Clark lists Hunt and Antle’s Rivoli Theatre at Grants Pass as one of his designs, with the date ca.1915.
For those who don’t like to copy and past, here’s Jack’s link. Comparison of historic photos on that page with the modern Google Street View shows that the theater has been demolished.
A survey of buildings designed by architect Frank C. Clark includes the Roxy, though it is listed as Page Theater Building #2 (the original Page Theatre, opened in 1913, had been severely damaged by fire in 1923 and never reopened. Parts of the original building might have been incorporated into the new theater; the sources I’ve seen are ambiguous. Photos show that the Roxy was much smaller than the Page had been.)
The Roxy was remodeled and renamed the Esquire Theatre in 1947. A link at the bottom of the Roxy page leads to a page about the Esquire Theatre. It includes an ad from February 19, 1956, which it says was the Esquire’s last known film showing.
The survey of Clark’s buildings, which was prepared in 1982-83, lists the theater building as gone, so demolition had to have taken place no later than 1983.
Here is Jack’s link, for people who don’t like to copy and paste. The page indicates that the Rialto closed on January 3, 1953.
A survey of buildings designed by architect Frank C. Clark lists the Rialto Theatre as one of his works, though it gives the year of the project as 1919. I don’t know if they simply got the year wrong, or if it indicates that Clark designed some alterations to the theater in 1919. The 1982-83 survey lists the theater as gone, but doesn’t give the year of its demolition.
The 1952 Boxoffice article about the Craterian Theatre, cited in a comment above by Gerald DeLuca, has been moved to this link.
Copying and pasting Robb’s links doesn’t work for me. This might be one of the photos, if this link works.
Here is a link to the UM digital library image search page. Searching with Esquire in one box and theatre (-re spelling) in the other will fetch 22 images of the Esquire.
There’s a photo on this page, where it’s listed under the name Lyric Theatre, but it’s very similar to the photo above.