United Artists Theater
823 MacDonald Avenue,
Richmond,
CA
94801
823 MacDonald Avenue,
Richmond,
CA
94801
2 people
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A long-lost Richmond theater.
Contributed by
Garrett Murphy
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Recent comments (view all 14 comments)
In light of the comment above by Gary Parks, saying that the original architect of this theater was A.W. Cornelius, I re-checked my source of information, and I think he is probably right. I found a reference to an article in the magazine Architect and Engineer of March, 1936, which says that the former T&D Theater in Richmond was being remodeled for Fox Theaters, to designs by Architect F. Frederic Amands.
It doesn’t give the name of the original architect, and I have been unable to find any other references to Cornelius in connection with this theater, but as this remodeling took place a year before the announcement of the proposed theater designed by Walker and Eisen, I think it likely that their project was for a different theater, intended for the same block of MacDonald Street, that remained unbuilt. Given the fact that Cornelius designed so many theaters for T&D, it does seem most likely that he was the original architect of the United Artists.
Also, I noticed that in his comment on the Fox Theater (formerly the Costa) in Richmond, jwr gives the address for the United Artists as 823 MacDonald.
I need to add to the list of similar-facaded theatres by A.W. Cornelius the T&D in Berkeley—long since renamed the California and remodeled several times—still in operation.
Yes, most definitely the Richmond UA was originally the T&D (and then the Fox). I have a postcard of the facade when new, with “Blood and Sand” starring Rudolph Valentino on the marquee. I have seen photos of the facade as remodeled by Amands, and it was sort of deco, and not altogether a good, cohesive design, in my opinion. It was, however, better than the plain and flat facade which replaced it.
This is a photo of MacDonald Avenue circa 1957. The United Artists Theater is on the right. Here is the UA Theater from another angle.
During WWII, photographer Dorothea Lange took numerous photographs of Richmond, most of them related to the Kaiser shipyards and their workers, but including quite a few that depicted scenes on McDonald Avenue. Today they are available in digital form as part of the Lange collection displayed online here by the Online Archives of California.
A very few of the photos depict the street’s theatres, including this one, showing the U.A. in 1942, when it was still the Fox, and also showing its next door neighbor, the Studio Theatre. Some time later the Studio was renamed the Crest, and its sign is visible just past the U.A. in the second of the two photos to which Lost Memory linked in the comment just above this one. I don’t think the Studio/Crest is listed at Cinema Treasures yet.
Here is a 1959 photo of MacDonald Avenue at night, with the Fox Theatre (formerly the Costa) on the left. The U.A.’s marquee would have been in the foreground on the right, but this picture was apparently taken when the theatre was being remodeled into a Woolworth store. The building is covered in scaffolding, the vertical sign is gone, and the marquee looks to have been rounded off for Woolworth’s use.
Thanks Joe.
My source for the name of the architect of the 1936 remodeling of this theater misspelled his surname. It should be F. Frederic Amandes.
Thanks again Joe.Your research is always welcomed.
The December, 1919, issue of The Architect and Engineer included a theater at Richmond for the T&D circuit among the projects slated for 1920 by the office of architect A. W. Cornelius. This house most likely opened that year. The T&D Theatre at Salinas was on the same list.