South Berkeley Photo Theatre

3192 Adeline Street,
Berkeley, CA 94703

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Additional Info

Previous Names: Luke's Nickelodeon, Pastime Theatre

Nearby Theaters

Front View

Opened in 1909 as Luke’s Nickelodeon.

Contributed by Margot Lind

Recent comments (view all 7 comments)

mlind
mlind on November 23, 2004 at 12:19 pm

This is also listed as the Pastime in an old city directory.

gsmurph
gsmurph on December 6, 2004 at 8:10 am

This long-closed single-screen was most recently used as a spoken-word venue, but is now vacant.

gsmurph
gsmurph on January 7, 2005 at 12:51 am

It was located in a building whose historic name is Luke’s Nickelodeon Building, and, according to a Berkeley Daily Planet article (January 4-6, 2005), is among several being considered for the National Register.

mlind
mlind on August 30, 2006 at 1:48 pm

It was built in 1909 as Luke’s Nickelodeon. It supposedly contains the original fully functional stage. The city of Berkeley wants to tear it down to provide parking for the police parking enforcement office next door.

smithdell
smithdell on June 13, 2008 at 5:32 pm

I would like to purchase the theater
cleo smith consider saling it

mlind
mlind on June 17, 2011 at 5:34 pm

I updated the street view to show the building. It’s the one with the light brown double doors. The parking enforcement office has moved, so I doubt the city wants to tear it down.

walterk
walterk on February 4, 2014 at 9:11 pm

I live a few blocks from this building and recently took the photo that I’m posting. Today I drove past and noticed a painter scraping loose paint off the upper part of the front. I stopped and and he let me take a peek inside, I had my ipad handy so I took a shot of the interior, which I am also posting and which also seems to be getting some work, perhaps it will be opening as some sort of venue again. The painter had no idea what was up. There was no stage, but the wood floor almost certainly dates from 1909. Alan Cohen writes in his “A History of Berkeley, From the Ground Up”, that this was the first movie theatre to open in town, followed shortly by the “It Theater” a short distance away.

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