Victory Theatre

918 1st Street,
Benicia, CA 94510

Unfavorite No one has favorited this theater yet

Showing 3 comments

Prof David Ducay
Prof David Ducay on March 9, 2021 at 7:12 am

A photograph of the Victory above was taken in 1943, but was probably built in 1939 - wondering if this theatre opened specifically for wartime entertainment(?). Raymond Syufy’s Victory theatre in south Vallejo was built in 1942 (next to the Victory wartime housings built for the Mare Island defense workers) and closed in 1950. I’m guessing this Benicia Victory Theatre probably close that same year.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on December 25, 2017 at 2:16 pm

Since Google Maps has chosen to do something weird and limiting with the street view image it fetches for this page, here is a quick link to a street view that can actually be moved around normally.

Joe Vogel
Joe Vogel on December 24, 2017 at 5:13 pm

A document prepared for the City of Benicia (very large PDF here) and containing a survey of historic resources says that the building at 918 First Street, currently occupied by the Benicia Antique Mall, was built as a theater in the late 1930s. The document doesn’t give the theaters name, but I think that’s the most likely location to have been the Victory Theatre.

If you look at the corner building from the side street, it actually has a pretty low roof, disguised on the First Street side by a false parapet, and would have been ill suited for a theater. The building at 918 has a higher roof, and extends back farther.