Advice? Don;t worry about the post. After we saw this post, I spoke with the poster on the phone yesterday and had a wonderful conversation. As an FYI, he is not involved in the project at this time. He does not own or rent the building, nor have any involvement personally in it yet. He is a retired realtor who did a premilinary look up of some of the lot deed information with the County of San Diego. The information available on the five lots and two properties that make this building confused him as much as it did us when we started the project, and he posted the above post before doing further research.
This project has been a true adventure so far when it comes to the papered ownership history of the theatre. Once we get the project moving, we want the ownership to stay the same and end the quagmire for many generations to come.
Well Mario, it is not roofless. The arches actually protrude from the roof. It was part of the earthquake-safety design. The architect was the later author of the first California Earthquake Safety Code, and this was one of his first experiments with the concept.
To our knowledge, no one has been able to get inside without a key in about three years. There used to be a nice transient that kept them out and kept the leaks repaired inside, but the former owners had him removed.
The organ was indeed destroyed in a church fire where it was housed. Its last concert was in 1991, and the fire was in 1996. We are debating about whether to replace it. The owner of the old Jack Murphy organ is in San Diego, and we may bring that one in. It has not yet been decided.
The history of the theatre itself is extensive, and goes back to the late 1920’s. It was one of the first projects that R.E.Hazzard, the popular San Diego construction company, built. It was commissionened by West Coast Theatres, the largest chain in the West at the time. Fox bought West Coast out in the 1930’s, and it became the California Fox Theatre. Then Fox built another theatre, which is now the Copley Symphany Hall, and the California Fox became the New California Theatre, just blocks from the New Fox Theatre.
The theatre featured film and vaudeville with an occasional concert or event. In the 1960’s, it was sold to a private owner, who restored the building, rewired it, and replaced the marquee. It then showed films and concerts until 1971, when the owner died. He left it in a trust to some friends, to make sure it remains. On the trust, it went dark until 1979, when the Old Globe Theatre burned down in Balboa Park. The globe used the California Theatre to perform until the new Globe was built in 1981. The trust then held concerts in teh building until 1989. The last singer was Alice Cooper.
1989, it was deignated a city historic landmark class 4. The trust decided they wanted to be rid of it, and a rich investor came to town wanting the land to tear it down and build condos. The trust hired a man to write a report claiming that there is no historic significance to the building, and got it downgraded to a class 1, which means the building could be torn down. In 1991, just before the developer was to start, the real estate crash came allong and the project was dropped.
In an effort to rid himself of the biuilding, he sold it to a man who claimed to be a preacher for under $200,000. This man had the espestos removed and restored much of the facade.
It turned out he was not a preacher. He was a VC who had several properties going bad on him. In 1997, he ulled a mortgage using the theatre as collateral. In 2000, American National Investments bought it from him with the goal of restoring it and selling it to an organiaztion that would re-open it. However, while it was in escro, the mortgage company forclosed on the building, and told ANI that they would have to pay $10,000,000 for it if they still wanted it. This was way out of their funding range, and the deal died, leaving it the hands of the mortgage company, who though they could turn it around for a quick buck from a developer.
In 2001, the City of San Diego did away with the “class system” on historic buildings, turning the California Theatre into a protected building once more. New, more accurate reports of its historical significance had been brought out by ANI as well, so the mortgage company was not able to sell it. They tried three times, and three times the buyers backed out when they saw it was protected. Thankfully, that is where we came in.
Luck and economy have saved this building many times. We first saw the needs of the theatre back in 1995, but until this time, were unable to do much about it because of all of the contraversy around it. Now the opportunity has come that we are able to do something and we are.
We were able to bargain the price down and get guarantees from the city to greenlight the restoration. ANI is working with us, and it will cost nearly $40 million and two years to complete when it is officially started. We are almost there, with just $2 million left to raise to begin the work.
It has had a variety of business over the decades. Most of them have been resteraunts and cafes, and there was a book store for a short time. The last business to close there was a mexican grill. When it is reopened, we plan to have resteraunts there again, and a theatrical gift shop.
There is no penthouse. What you see on the top right as you face the entrance on top of the building is the elevator shaft.
Mario, the skull is just some creative grafitti. We are still trying to get the last bit of funding. I will be sure to post an upsate when we start moving forward again.
Thanks Stephmc. If you have any questions about its history, I am one of the only four people who have all that is available on it. No other one organization has all of the available pieces of its remarkable story, but many have parts of it. My researchers and I physcially combed everything there is on it down to 1927 phone book ads and 1964 movie ads. I have copies of every article written on it from San Diego to San Francisco, and every news and industry photo taken of it, including all that the San Diego Historic Society and San Diego County Library have been able to gather on it. Most of their information is from the ‘80’s. I also spoke with the (now retired) reporters who wrote most of the articles and the current and former city staff involved in various parts of its history, and have been in contact with the original architect’s wife, who now lives in Northern California. If you need information for your article, I will be glad to help. I hope you are enjoying Holland.
On the restoration, we have reached a temperarry financial barrier, and are working on rasing the remaining needed funds. We are not looking so much for donations as loans, so if anyone is interested in being a financial part of seeing this amazing place reopen, leave a comment on the photo album and we will promptly respond.
The Cabrillo Theatre of San Diego was demolished many years ago. The Fairmont (also known as the Crest) was closed, and the building has been redesigned for other uses.
The marquee is on 4th, and the side with the retail is on C. Today, an empty wall faces a parking lot where the building you refer to used to be.
In short, if facing the front of the New California Theatre Building from across 4th, the resteraunt would be to the right of the building.
In the picture above on this page, the resteraunt would have been where that ACE Parking sign now is and coming closer from there, to the right of that tree in the photo. This angle is the NorthEast corner of the building.
That is if the restaraunt was on 4th Ave. and not 4th St.
It is the lot just to the North of the theatre. There is a parking lot at that location now. I have photos of the theatre with the resteraunt next to it, and will see if I can find the name for you. Also, the 1927 to 1929 phone books are available for viewing at The San Diego Historic Society Archives in the Prado at Balboa Park.
Thanks William. The New California Theatre did not have the old milk glass type though, but it was actually black using white lettering (there is a photo of it as well). Fox did not build the theatre, they only took it over from West Coast Pictures later. However, it may be that they went ahead and replaced it at that time anyway. I have checked, and they have no records of when it actually happened. It would make sense that they would replace them all around the same time.
One of the projects in the upcoming renovation is to restore the artwork that was atop the original marquee.
It is steel and steel lined reinforced masonry. On the photo page posted above, there are some photos of the skelletal phase of the early construction.
The marquie in the photo was not installed until 1962 according to the Historical Society. However, I have found much of their information to be flawed, and will further research the origin of this marquie. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.
The album is up. You can now find 72 photos of the California Theatre at View link . Some will be ones you found also at the San Diego Histircal Society. Most will not. I shot all of the color indoor photos and most of the color outdoor photos myself.
When construction begins on the restoration, I will continue to photo-document the progress.
You may wish to bookmark the album if you want to return to it, since it will not be publically listed among my other albums for a while.
It sure is :) I am putting together an online album of photos of this theatre right now and should have it up in a couple of days. There will be a few dozen photos in this album, both recent and as far back as the digging of the foundation in 1926. I’ll post a link here when the album is ready for viewing.
Just for info., The San Diego Historical Society (where that link is to) has many more photos than what are on the website, and they are missing large chunks of its history. I have personally gathered everything they have, and it is, unfortunately, lacking a great deal, and I had to find other sources for more of its history.
I have the info that is lacking, and a correction. First, it does not have 2200 seats, but 1750 seats.
Status: Closed
Screens: Single Screen
Style: Spanish Colonial Revival
Function: Vaudeville, Concerts, Silent Cinema, Early Talking Cinema, Cinema
Seats: 2200 from 1927 to 1941. 1750 from 1941 to current.
Chain: West Coast Theatres 1927 to 1931, Fox West Coast from 1931 to 1978
Architect: John Paxton Perrine
Firm: Edwards Wildey & Dixon, 1926
Perrine later went on to help design the San Francisco Fox Theatre, and created most of the earthquake safety laws for building that we have today while he was in charge of the Port of Oakland construction. All of his buildings, including the California Theatre, survived every major earthquake. He also designed one of the runways at Oakland Airport that is still in use today.
Fox West Coast took over the California Theatre in 1931, and used it for exclusively cinema, whereas West Coast Theatres has also used it for vaudeville.
In 1978, the theatre was switched to just concert uses, where it housed several concerts until 1988, when the San Diego Foundation restored much of the building to its 1927 look. In 1991, they sold it to a developer who intended to level the building and build condos. However, the building had already achieved a San Diego Historic Landmark status, and the developer gave up on the demolition plans and sold it to a preacher.
The preacher had some bad real estate dealings, and in 2002, a mortgage company forclosed on the property and building.
At the moment, some historic preservation foundations, an investment company and a theatre group are finalizing a deal to restore and reopen the theatre. Thier current timeline is an opening in 2007. It now has a water leak with extensive wall damage, and that is the bulk of the restoration work that will be taking place if the deal is finalized.
Joe, Lee did replace the original marquee. The theatre was then restored again in 1964, and again in 1988, when the city declared the outside facade a historical landmark. In 1991, a developer greased some city council palms to get the guts torn down to put a new high rise hotel in, but he ran out of funding. He sold it to a church pastor for $300,000.
The theatre was foreclosed on in 2003 since the pastor had used the theatre as collateral for another debt he did not pay. At that time, a major leak had begun in the roof.
The mortgage company, thinking they could sell the property off quickly for a profit (8 million dollars to be precise), let the leak stay, because they thought anyone would tear it down.
The water damage is extensive, but not unrepairable. The floors remain undamaged. Perrine, the original architect, designed this building to last, and it was an engenius design.
It is now in the stages of being transfered to a new owner who wishes to fully restore it and re-open it. If all goes well, you should start seeing new work on it by March.
You are incorrect, Ken. The wall of boards outside the door at this time is for construction safety. It is being fully restored. This construction has been in progress since 1997. The espestos was removed, then the lead, and then the statues were restored. Currently, the plumbing and upholstry is being worked on.
It has not shown a show since 1977, but it is hardly empty. And if all goes well, it will be open again in 2006.
It is a nice area of downtown, just a block from Horton Plaza.
My name is David Young, and I will be making an offer to pay for finishing the renovations and opening the theatre in the coming months. If all goes well, I will have it showing plays again by summer of 2006. Keep watching.
We have hundreds. Feel free to contact me.
Advice? Don;t worry about the post. After we saw this post, I spoke with the poster on the phone yesterday and had a wonderful conversation. As an FYI, he is not involved in the project at this time. He does not own or rent the building, nor have any involvement personally in it yet. He is a retired realtor who did a premilinary look up of some of the lot deed information with the County of San Diego. The information available on the five lots and two properties that make this building confused him as much as it did us when we started the project, and he posted the above post before doing further research.
This project has been a true adventure so far when it comes to the papered ownership history of the theatre. Once we get the project moving, we want the ownership to stay the same and end the quagmire for many generations to come.
Well Mario, it is not roofless. The arches actually protrude from the roof. It was part of the earthquake-safety design. The architect was the later author of the first California Earthquake Safety Code, and this was one of his first experiments with the concept.
To our knowledge, no one has been able to get inside without a key in about three years. There used to be a nice transient that kept them out and kept the leaks repaired inside, but the former owners had him removed.
The organ was indeed destroyed in a church fire where it was housed. Its last concert was in 1991, and the fire was in 1996. We are debating about whether to replace it. The owner of the old Jack Murphy organ is in San Diego, and we may bring that one in. It has not yet been decided.
The history of the theatre itself is extensive, and goes back to the late 1920’s. It was one of the first projects that R.E.Hazzard, the popular San Diego construction company, built. It was commissionened by West Coast Theatres, the largest chain in the West at the time. Fox bought West Coast out in the 1930’s, and it became the California Fox Theatre. Then Fox built another theatre, which is now the Copley Symphany Hall, and the California Fox became the New California Theatre, just blocks from the New Fox Theatre.
The theatre featured film and vaudeville with an occasional concert or event. In the 1960’s, it was sold to a private owner, who restored the building, rewired it, and replaced the marquee. It then showed films and concerts until 1971, when the owner died. He left it in a trust to some friends, to make sure it remains. On the trust, it went dark until 1979, when the Old Globe Theatre burned down in Balboa Park. The globe used the California Theatre to perform until the new Globe was built in 1981. The trust then held concerts in teh building until 1989. The last singer was Alice Cooper.
1989, it was deignated a city historic landmark class 4. The trust decided they wanted to be rid of it, and a rich investor came to town wanting the land to tear it down and build condos. The trust hired a man to write a report claiming that there is no historic significance to the building, and got it downgraded to a class 1, which means the building could be torn down. In 1991, just before the developer was to start, the real estate crash came allong and the project was dropped.
In an effort to rid himself of the biuilding, he sold it to a man who claimed to be a preacher for under $200,000. This man had the espestos removed and restored much of the facade.
It turned out he was not a preacher. He was a VC who had several properties going bad on him. In 1997, he ulled a mortgage using the theatre as collateral. In 2000, American National Investments bought it from him with the goal of restoring it and selling it to an organiaztion that would re-open it. However, while it was in escro, the mortgage company forclosed on the building, and told ANI that they would have to pay $10,000,000 for it if they still wanted it. This was way out of their funding range, and the deal died, leaving it the hands of the mortgage company, who though they could turn it around for a quick buck from a developer.
In 2001, the City of San Diego did away with the “class system” on historic buildings, turning the California Theatre into a protected building once more. New, more accurate reports of its historical significance had been brought out by ANI as well, so the mortgage company was not able to sell it. They tried three times, and three times the buyers backed out when they saw it was protected. Thankfully, that is where we came in.
Luck and economy have saved this building many times. We first saw the needs of the theatre back in 1995, but until this time, were unable to do much about it because of all of the contraversy around it. Now the opportunity has come that we are able to do something and we are.
We were able to bargain the price down and get guarantees from the city to greenlight the restoration. ANI is working with us, and it will cost nearly $40 million and two years to complete when it is officially started. We are almost there, with just $2 million left to raise to begin the work.
It has had a variety of business over the decades. Most of them have been resteraunts and cafes, and there was a book store for a short time. The last business to close there was a mexican grill. When it is reopened, we plan to have resteraunts there again, and a theatrical gift shop.
There is no penthouse. What you see on the top right as you face the entrance on top of the building is the elevator shaft.
Mario, the skull is just some creative grafitti. We are still trying to get the last bit of funding. I will be sure to post an upsate when we start moving forward again.
jst, if you e-mail me at the address I gave above, I will be happy to discuss the ownership information with you.
Thanks Stephmc. If you have any questions about its history, I am one of the only four people who have all that is available on it. No other one organization has all of the available pieces of its remarkable story, but many have parts of it. My researchers and I physcially combed everything there is on it down to 1927 phone book ads and 1964 movie ads. I have copies of every article written on it from San Diego to San Francisco, and every news and industry photo taken of it, including all that the San Diego Historic Society and San Diego County Library have been able to gather on it. Most of their information is from the ‘80’s. I also spoke with the (now retired) reporters who wrote most of the articles and the current and former city staff involved in various parts of its history, and have been in contact with the original architect’s wife, who now lives in Northern California. If you need information for your article, I will be glad to help. I hope you are enjoying Holland.
On the restoration, we have reached a temperarry financial barrier, and are working on rasing the remaining needed funds. We are not looking so much for donations as loans, so if anyone is interested in being a financial part of seeing this amazing place reopen, leave a comment on the photo album and we will promptly respond.
The Cabrillo Theatre of San Diego was demolished many years ago. The Fairmont (also known as the Crest) was closed, and the building has been redesigned for other uses.
The marquee is on 4th, and the side with the retail is on C. Today, an empty wall faces a parking lot where the building you refer to used to be.
In short, if facing the front of the New California Theatre Building from across 4th, the resteraunt would be to the right of the building.
In the picture above on this page, the resteraunt would have been where that ACE Parking sign now is and coming closer from there, to the right of that tree in the photo. This angle is the NorthEast corner of the building.
That is if the restaraunt was on 4th Ave. and not 4th St.
It is the lot just to the North of the theatre. There is a parking lot at that location now. I have photos of the theatre with the resteraunt next to it, and will see if I can find the name for you. Also, the 1927 to 1929 phone books are available for viewing at The San Diego Historic Society Archives in the Prado at Balboa Park.
BKM, contact me at . I can answer all of those questions. There are a couple of red tape delays at this stage, but it will go on.
Thanks William. The New California Theatre did not have the old milk glass type though, but it was actually black using white lettering (there is a photo of it as well). Fox did not build the theatre, they only took it over from West Coast Pictures later. However, it may be that they went ahead and replaced it at that time anyway. I have checked, and they have no records of when it actually happened. It would make sense that they would replace them all around the same time.
One of the projects in the upcoming renovation is to restore the artwork that was atop the original marquee.
It is steel and steel lined reinforced masonry. On the photo page posted above, there are some photos of the skelletal phase of the early construction.
The marquie in the photo was not installed until 1962 according to the Historical Society. However, I have found much of their information to be flawed, and will further research the origin of this marquie. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.
The album is up. You can now find 72 photos of the California Theatre at View link . Some will be ones you found also at the San Diego Histircal Society. Most will not. I shot all of the color indoor photos and most of the color outdoor photos myself.
When construction begins on the restoration, I will continue to photo-document the progress.
You may wish to bookmark the album if you want to return to it, since it will not be publically listed among my other albums for a while.
It sure is :) I am putting together an online album of photos of this theatre right now and should have it up in a couple of days. There will be a few dozen photos in this album, both recent and as far back as the digging of the foundation in 1926. I’ll post a link here when the album is ready for viewing.
Just for info., The San Diego Historical Society (where that link is to) has many more photos than what are on the website, and they are missing large chunks of its history. I have personally gathered everything they have, and it is, unfortunately, lacking a great deal, and I had to find other sources for more of its history.
A letter has been sent.
I have the info that is lacking, and a correction. First, it does not have 2200 seats, but 1750 seats.
Status: Closed
Screens: Single Screen
Style: Spanish Colonial Revival
Function: Vaudeville, Concerts, Silent Cinema, Early Talking Cinema, Cinema
Seats: 2200 from 1927 to 1941. 1750 from 1941 to current.
Chain: West Coast Theatres 1927 to 1931, Fox West Coast from 1931 to 1978
Architect: John Paxton Perrine
Firm: Edwards Wildey & Dixon, 1926
Perrine later went on to help design the San Francisco Fox Theatre, and created most of the earthquake safety laws for building that we have today while he was in charge of the Port of Oakland construction. All of his buildings, including the California Theatre, survived every major earthquake. He also designed one of the runways at Oakland Airport that is still in use today.
Fox West Coast took over the California Theatre in 1931, and used it for exclusively cinema, whereas West Coast Theatres has also used it for vaudeville.
In 1978, the theatre was switched to just concert uses, where it housed several concerts until 1988, when the San Diego Foundation restored much of the building to its 1927 look. In 1991, they sold it to a developer who intended to level the building and build condos. However, the building had already achieved a San Diego Historic Landmark status, and the developer gave up on the demolition plans and sold it to a preacher.
The preacher had some bad real estate dealings, and in 2002, a mortgage company forclosed on the property and building.
At the moment, some historic preservation foundations, an investment company and a theatre group are finalizing a deal to restore and reopen the theatre. Thier current timeline is an opening in 2007. It now has a water leak with extensive wall damage, and that is the bulk of the restoration work that will be taking place if the deal is finalized.
Joe, Lee did replace the original marquee. The theatre was then restored again in 1964, and again in 1988, when the city declared the outside facade a historical landmark. In 1991, a developer greased some city council palms to get the guts torn down to put a new high rise hotel in, but he ran out of funding. He sold it to a church pastor for $300,000.
The theatre was foreclosed on in 2003 since the pastor had used the theatre as collateral for another debt he did not pay. At that time, a major leak had begun in the roof.
The mortgage company, thinking they could sell the property off quickly for a profit (8 million dollars to be precise), let the leak stay, because they thought anyone would tear it down.
The water damage is extensive, but not unrepairable. The floors remain undamaged. Perrine, the original architect, designed this building to last, and it was an engenius design.
It is now in the stages of being transfered to a new owner who wishes to fully restore it and re-open it. If all goes well, you should start seeing new work on it by March.
You are incorrect, Ken. The wall of boards outside the door at this time is for construction safety. It is being fully restored. This construction has been in progress since 1997. The espestos was removed, then the lead, and then the statues were restored. Currently, the plumbing and upholstry is being worked on.
It has not shown a show since 1977, but it is hardly empty. And if all goes well, it will be open again in 2006.
It is a nice area of downtown, just a block from Horton Plaza.
My name is David Young, and I will be making an offer to pay for finishing the renovations and opening the theatre in the coming months. If all goes well, I will have it showing plays again by summer of 2006. Keep watching.