Elmwood Theatre

SFGate article - “Berkeley is down to one movie theater. It’s reinventing itself to survive”

Elmwood

I’ve come across a reference to another remodeling job at the Strand Theatre, this from the March 24, 1924 issue of Moving Picture World:

“Plans are being prepared by Architect Mark T. Jorgensen of San Francisco for extensive remodeling work in the Strand Theatre, Berkeley, Cal., owned and operated by the Beach-Krahn Amusement Co.”

I checked George King in Berkeley building permits and city directories. He was actually George F. King and designed quite a number of buildings—both residential and commercial—in Berkeley.

chronicler: Thanks for the response and additional information. The mis-attribution of some of Dufour’s work to Cornelius has me wondering if the Rialto Theatre (first Alameda Theatre) in Alameda might also be mis-attributed. Cinema Treasures lists Cornelius as the architect of the Rialto, but the facade bears a strong resemblance to the Elmwood’s, and I can easily picture them being the work of the same designer.

There is a scan of an architect’s sketch of the Alameda on the Rialto’s photo page, but it has no name on it, nor is the source of the photo given, though it is probably from either a theater trade journal or one of the architectural journals of the period. I’ll see if I can find it on the Internet.

Joe Vogel, I found no way to edit my previous comment, so I had no choice but to delete it and start over.

In answer to your questions, the Berkeley Historical Plaque Project usually obtains its information from the landmark application submitted to the Landmarks Preservation Commission when a building is nominated. As it happens, many of these landmark applications were written decades ago, when research materials were not as readily available as they are now, and therefore contain basic errors. The Strand Theater is the fifth such case I discovered in the course of my research. I’ve initiated a discussion with the City to develop a procedure for correcting such errors.

The building permits we have at the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association (BAHA) are scans of microfilms that the City of Berkeley made many years ago from the actual paper permits. We salvaged the microfilms when the City disposed of them, and they’re an invaluable resource.

Permit #3865, issued on 20 June 1914, lists William Dufour as the designer of the Strand Theater and D.M Etter as the builder. Both shared the same business address, which happened to be Dufour’s real estate office at 2326 Santa Clara Avenue, Alameda.

More accurate information can hardly be considered bad news for this web site. However, it might be bad news for the Berkeley Historical Plaque Project, which names Cornelius as the architect. Plaques, unlike words on a web page, are costly to replace. Unfortunately, the BHPP page doesn’t give a source for its claim.

I’m not familiar with the form of Berkeley’s building permits from this period, so I do have a couple of questions. A number of east bay buildings are attributed to Dufour as architect, but he was also a builder. Was his company listed on this theater project’s permit as builder? Is the permit the actual form filled out by the person applying for it, or is it an abstract prepared by a clerk in the city office?

Sean, the photo comes from the Berkeley Historical Society, you can contact them here. I wish I could make your show, but I’m working that night.

Scott Neff asked if this theater ever had a sign displaying its name when it was the Strand. This PDF file has a photo of the house with the name Strand prominently displayed on the marquee. The caption dates the photo to 1915, but it has to be later. The truck and partial auto visible date from the 1920s.

The name Strand also appears on a sign above the doors in the ca.1917 photo I uploaded to the photo section a few months ago, but it’s partly hidden by the flag, and is barely readable in any case. Both photos show some of the architectural detail that was part of Albert Cornelius’s original 1914 design, most of which was probably removed in Alexander Cantin’s 1940s remodeling, but perhaps even earlier.

The Strand was listed as open as early as 1926.

Apparently that vertical was removed at some point during (or at least no later than) the mid-‘60s, for there was none to be found after that.

Not sure if it did as the Strand (as the Elmwood, its name was most often seen at the top of the movie display cases), but it definitely has “Elmwood” on both sides of the marquee as of very recently!

Here is a November 1951 ad from the Oakland Tribune:
http://tinyurl.com/ctyade

The Elmwood is up and running again, and its function should (obviously) be “Movies.”