Majestic Theater
2510 Durant Avenue,
Berkeley,
CA
94704
2510 Durant Avenue,
Berkeley,
CA
94704
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If this theater opened as the Campus in 1914, it didn’t keep the name for long. The August, 1915, issue of professional journal The Architect & Engineer mentioned that the construction firm of Gaspard & Hamilton, builders of the Majestic Theatre in Berkeley, had been dissolved. It must have been the same Majestic Theatre, as the item said that it had been designed by architect W.H. Ratcliffe, Jr..
The Campus (later Majestic as noted above, and not to be confused with the later Campus on Bancroft Way) was built in 1914 at a cost of $9,800 (Building Trust #4013, September 11, 1914) and was said to consist of “a two-story auditorium and two rooms.” The architect was Walter H. Ratcliffe, Jr.; the owners were J.A. Elston and George Clark for the Isis Motion Picture Company.
—-from “WALTER H. RATCLIFFE, JR.—-ARCHITECT, BERKELEY WORK” by Anthony Bruce.
It turns out that this is indeed the same building that would house Tower Records years later.
It was located at 2510 Durant Avenue and was originally called the Campus. No idea how (or if) it was related to the Campus Theater located on Bancroft Way.
Ironically, the Tower Records in Berkeley is no more, either!
Wonder if that one is the very building that housed Tower Records for a number of years (prior to its move into the former Leopold’s)??? Anyone know for sure?