Raven Performing Arts Center

Joe Vogel on November 19, 2008 at 10:56 pm

Thanks, Ken. If the Plaza was on West Street, then the Raven must be the 1950 house designed by Gale Santocono. Santocono, like his father, Matteo, was an artist and designer based in San Francisco (he did the decoration the Varsity Theatre in Davis, California, among others), but there are also a couple of cards in the California Index citing 1950 issues of Architect & Engineer saying which refer to him as an architect, specifically of this theater. I’ve been unable to confirm that he was actually a licensed architect, though. He might have been working with an engineer, but doing the actual architectural design himself.

The February 2, 1952, issue of Boxoffice Magazine cites him as the designer of the Seaview Theatre in Pacifica, the Village Theatre in Sacramento, and the Guild Theatre in San Francisco, as well as the Terrace Drive-In (the subject of the article- and yet to be added to Cinema Treasures) in San Francisco.

The February 16, 1952, issue of Boxoffice refers to Santocono as a “theater architect” and says that he is preparing designs for improvements to the Vacaville Theatre in Vacaville.

Also, ken mc unearthed a 1962 L.A. Times article naming Santocono as the architect of the Showcase Theater in Oakland (see Ken’s comment on that page.) And, as robertgippy says in the first comment above, the Raven was a near twin of the Clover Cinema in Cloverdale, before the Clover was remodeled, so that’s probably one of Santocono’s designs as well. The Boxoffice article says, after listing four of Santocono’s theaters, that he designed “many others” as well. I wish there was more about him on the Internet.

By the way, the aka’s listed for this theater should be Avon Theater and Raven Theater. Currently it just says “Aven” Theater.

Joe Vogel on November 22, 2008 at 4:37 pm

Ken: I’ve been trying to discover if the Plaza had formerly been the Fox’s Hall mentioned on this page, and this page at the Healdsburg Museum’s web site. The former page says that Fox’s Hall was built “behind” the Masonic building, suggesting a ground floor site, and the latter page gives the location as the west side of West Street between Plaza and North Streets, which is the block where the Plaza was (it also has a smallphoto of Fox’s Hall in 1904.) Healdsburg has short blocks, and I can’t find any evidence for another theater of the Plaza’s size ever being on that block, but I can’t find the exact address of Fox’s Hall to confirm that they were the same building.

DavidZornig on December 6, 2008 at 11:32 am

There is also a Raven Theatre in Chicago on Western Ave near Granville. Though it is strictly live stage and was built inside of a former Jewel Foods grocery store.

kencmcintyre on September 25, 2009 at 6:09 pm

Here are a couple more from the same time:
http://tinyurl.com/y9q9zfz
http://tinyurl.com/y942f3u

CarolSantocono on June 6, 2012 at 5:59 am

Gale Santocono was my father, and no, that house was not “normal” but I loved that house. To answer all of the old questions, my father became a licensed architect in the early 1960’s. He was the first person in California to be allowed to sit for the architect exam without the college background, or the requirement of working for an architectural firm. After obtaining his license in CA, he became licensed in several Western states, and then obtain a national license.