State Theatre

The State was a second run Fox West Coast house at 501 McDonald Avenue (5th & McDonald) with 610 seats. It sometimes featured move over programs from the Costa, just two blocks away on McDonald. It closed in the early 1950’s.

The structure that housed the State Theatre originated as the Richmond Theatre, opened by the Turner and Dahnken (T & D) circuit on March 16, 1912. West Coast Theatres purchased the T & D circuit in 1924 and Fox West Coast Theatres got their theatre chain started by purchasing West Coast in 1927.

On January 14, 1938 the Richmond was re-born as Fox West Coast’s State. The Richmond Independent reported that only the walls remained from the former structure “and even these have been reconstructed with huge steel girders as to make the theater virtually earthquake proof”. Everything inside was brand new and a new modern front, box office and marquee made the makeover complete. “Mountain Music” and “Wings Over Honolulu” was the grand opening double feature attraction.

The State closed in 1951, the second Macdonald Avenue movie theatre casualty (after the Liberty) of RIchmond’s post war downturn economy and most likely the increasing popularity of television.

Thanks for that info from Film Daily Joe!

The 1914 City Directory for Richmond shows several other theaters in addition to the Richmond on Macdonald Avenue. Since film exhibition was still in it’s infancy then I suspect most or all were rather small storefront/nickelodeon affairs. Those theaters are: Central Theatre 507 Macdonald Ave., Vim Theatre 509 Macdonald Ave., Jewell Theatre 1106 Macdonald Ave. and Majestic Theatre 1106 Macdonald Ave (same address as Jewell).=

I’ve also found ads in the Richmond Independent during the same era (the 19-teens) for an Isis Theatre (“formerly the Helm”) at 11th & Macdonald.

The Macdonald Theatre apparently came along after all of the above and was located at 1104 Macdonald Ave. Most of the other early theaters had closed by the 1920’s but the Macdonald seems to have kept operating through the twenties or a bit beyond. A 1927 ad in the Independent shows it the lone independent survivor, still competing with the T & D and Richmond for patrons.

11th & Macdonald seems to have been a quite active corner for movie exhibition in the early days. I’m very familiar with that corner since it was the main bus stop for the Richmond to El Sobrante bus when I was growing up in the 1950’s. It’s been a while (!) but I don’t remember anything that looked remotely like an old theatre building at that location so I guess all was demolished by then!