Coliseum Theatre

Jamey_monroe45…the condos inside the gutted Coliseum are on the 2nd and 3rd floors - posted a photo in June ‘21 showing the front and the condo’s windows on the 9th Ave side. They were built in 2002. The Walgreens that occupied the ground floor closed in late 2021 or early 2022 and a google map image capture from last January shows it still boarded up. Apparently it is still empty from my online search showing the space for lease. A call to Smart and Final this morning confirmed that they have only 2 stores in SF - the one moose1111 mentioned on 7th Ave and another in the Bayview Dist.

There are condos in what was the Alexandria’s parking lot behind the theater on 18th Ave but the theater itself is still there and sits in a dilapidated state.

moose1111 - the 7th Ave Smart & Final is quite large and occupies the former supermarket QFI.

Now Smart & Final! Please update.

BTW the condos are at the Alexandria on 18th & Geary. The Coronet is similar but with senior housing on Arguello & Geary.

FYI I used to go 2 these 3 and the Metro all the time in the 70’s and 80’s! 😘😘🥳🥳😇😇

BTW the Loma Prieta Earthquake brought the house down this one! LITERALLY! RIP COL! 😇😇😔

Hi bigjoe59…seem to remember a discussion about this (Titanic) but cannot find the comments on either the Presidio or Marina theater pages here which are the 2 theaters on Chestnut St. - Titanic played at both. I saw it at the Presidio, G. DeLuca posted a pic on the Marina page from when it played there. The first THX installation in SF was at the UA Galaxy on Van Ness according to a Feb 2018 comment on the AMC Kabuki page.

Hello from NYC-

to stevenj thanks for the info. whether in NYC or SF when grand old movie theaters are gutted or repurposed its usually for retail. this is the 1st instance I’ve come across in either NYC or SF where a grand old movie theater was turned into condos.

Hello from NYC-

the last thing the intro at top says is that the theater was gutted in 2000. since it says it was gutted rather than demolished what is it being used as today?

Grand opening ad in the photo section.

It was turned into a Walgreen’s with expensive living space above (a 2 bd, 1200 sf, apt sold for $800,000 last year). Sad but at least the building wasn’t ripped down like so many others. Just turned into housing that no one can afford.

There was a fire at the Coliseum on July 2, 1935:

The Coliseum Theater at Ninth Avenue and Clement Street, one of San Francisco’s largest neighborhood theaters, was swept by a major fire causing undetermined damage early today. An unidentified motorist at 2:30 a.m. notified a special policeman two blocks from the playhouse that he had seen smoke issuing from the building as he drove past it. An alarm summoned firemen, who broke down the heavy doors of the main entrance. This action, they said, resulted in a draft which caused the entire balcony section of the theater to burst into flames. A second alarm brought additional men and apparatus to the scene and a stubborn battle against the flames began. Five hours later the battle was still in progress.

Reports from the scene said the whole balcony section of the theater had been destroyed and the main floor seriously damaged by smoke and water. Valuable projection and sound equipment also was lost, the report said. The origin of the fire had not been determined, but fire department officials expressed belief that it was caused by a carelessly discarded cigaret in the balcony section, where smoking was permitted. The theater is owned by the San Francisco Theater Corporation, with offices at Taylor Street.

I grew up on the Presidio,( 1976-81 ) and used to sneak through a hole in the fence that put you on 15th ave. and Lake, rather than go all the way around to the Lincoln/25th ave. entrance. Through the summers of 1976-‘77 my buddies and I saw many films at the Coliseum, the Coronet, and the Alexandria. The Alexandria was a particular favorite place because of the Atari Gand prix game in the lobby. I remember seeing the Sorcerer, A bridge to far, a double feature of both the Godfather and the GodfatherII !, and more that I can’t recall at the moment. The last film I saw there was The adventures of Yellow dog in 1994. A few years ago I was walking in the richmond, and was devastated to see the coliseum just after they finished a phase, the building was gutted, no insides, no roof just the outside walls, I just stopped and stared, just seeing it like that …and just like now as I’m typing this,it made me cry. It made me remember not only the films I saw there, but also the buddies and girlfriends I went there with. Remember the line in the classic film Vertigo that the tycoon said to James Stewart’s character “ The things that mean San Francisco to me are quickly disappearing ” I guess this happens to all of us who live long enough.

This is a photo from 1944. The theater is on the right:

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From the SF Public Library website:

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Though the interoir is hollowed out and gone, Coliseum’s status should be “Closed,” not “Closed-Demolished.”