As JayAllenSanford noted in an earlier comment, the National Theatre has been demolished.
Given the opening year of 1928, it’s likely that the Bush Theatre was the house mentioned in the August 20, 1927, issue of Building and Engineering News, described as a two-story theater and store building for Major T. C. McCaully. The Los Angeles architectural firm T. C. Kistner & Co. designed the project.
Alexander Curlett would have been the lead architect on this project. His father, William Curlett, had died in 1914. Aleck Curlett later formed a partnership with Claud Beelman, which lasted until 1928. I’d love to see photos of the Rialto, if anyone can dig them up. Curlett tended to be overshadowed by Beelman in their later partnership, and it would be interesting to see what he came up with on his own.
The Boxoffice Magazine cover with the photo of the Flower Theatre’s auditorium that I linked to in an earlier comment has been moved. See it at this link.
I do believe I might have updated Street View to the wrong building. I was thinking auto repair shop, as in the description, and there is an auto repair shop that looks like it could have been a theater, but I got turned around and didn’t realize I was looking at the north side of the street. The auto repair is at 4050 24th Street. If the theater was on the south side of the street, at 4045, then it was where the Wells Fargo Bank is now. I don’t see a Rite Aid anywhere on the block.
Is it possible that the address is wrong, and the theater really was at 4050? The building there certainly looks the part.
I wonder if the Palmer Theatre could have been the house mentioned in the July 23, 1927, issue of Building and Engineering News? It was described as being at 24th and Noe, and was to be a reinforced concrete building with a theater and two stores, costing $70,000. The owner’s name was A. C. Franklin, and the working drawings were being prepared by architects Morrow & Morrow.
The Allendale Theatre, originally dating from 1914, was extensively altered in the late 1920s for the Blumenfield circuit. The architect was William I. Garren. Multiple notices about the project appeared in various issues of Building and Engineering News in 1927.
The May 7, 1927, issue of Building and Engineering News said that O. C. Williams was taking bids for construction of a theater, office, and store building to be built at Pismo Beach for W. W. Ward. The architectural style of the Central Coast Theatre indicates a late-1920s construction date. I’m sure the Ward Theatre and the Pismo/Central Coast Theatre are one and the same.
O. C. Williams, who had a Los Angeles address, might have been the architect for the project, but I’ve been unable to discover if he was indeed an architect. He might have only been a builder or general contractor.
The actual opening year of the National Theatre was 1927. This comment by tspauld on the Tower Theatre page says that the National on E Street was under construction when the Liberty Theatre, which replaced an earlier National Theatre at 1st and D Streets, opened on January 1 that year.
Indeed, the January 15, 1927, issue of Building and Engineering News ran an item saying that subcontracts had been awarded for work on the new theater being built on E Street between 5th and 6th in Marysville for the National Theatres Syndicate. That could only have been the National/State.
The item said that the new theater had been designed by the San Francisco architectural firm of Bliss & Fairweather.
The January 22, 1927, issue of Building and Engineering News said that the contract had been awarded for the construction of a new theater on University Avenue between Waverley and Cowper streets in Palo Alto. The project had been designed by San Francisco architectural firm Reid Brothers.
Was there ever a theater at Taraval and 29th Avenue? Many of the same issues of Building and Engineering News from 1927 that carried notices about the proposed theater that became the Parkside also carried notices about a $65,000 theater designed by Reid Brothers which was to be built at Taraval and 29th. I can’t find any theater listed for that location at Cinema Treasures, so I don’t know if it is just unlisted, or if the project was never completed.
The 1926 Los Angeles City Directory lists the Red Mill Theatre at 4549 Whittier Boulevard. A comment by kenmc made on November 5, 2007, says that there is a 1930 listing in the Los Angeles Times for the Red Mill Theatre at the same address. The Los Angeles County Assessor’s office says that the building at this location was built in 1922, with an effectively-built date of 1928. The Boulevard is apparently older than we thought.
I didn’t find a theater listed at this address in the 1923 City Directory, and no theater is listed for it in the 1932 directory, but the 1929 directory lists the Red Mill Theatre at 4551 Whittier. The 1936 directory lists the Boulevard Theatre at 4549.
The April 23, 1927, issue of Building and Engineering News said that L. A. Smith had prepared plans for a 2-story and part 3-story theater to be built at S. Broadway and Church Street in Santa Maria for Principal Theatres Inc..
jmetcalf: Ken McIntyre won’t be able to fix the description, or correct the address. That will have to be done by one of Cinema Treasures' moderators. The reason Google Maps Street View is fetching a picture of the State Theatre is because the address on this page is wrong. This page is for the Marysville Theatre, at 1st and D Streets, which (along with the nearby Elks Lodge and a small building between them) burned down in 1926. The State Theatre has its own page.
There’s been quite a bit of confusion over the theaters that have operated at 1st and D streets (the Marysville/Atkins/National, and the Liberty/Tower,) and it has spilled over into confusion about the State Theatre. This comment by tspauld on the Tower Theatre page clears most of it up.
The Marysville Theatre was built in 1907. By 1921, it was being operated as the Atkins Theatre (here is a fresh link to the Marysville/Atkins Theatre page at Pacific Coast Architecture DB, cited in my earlier comment.) By the time of the 1926 fire that destroyed it, it had been renamed the National Theatre. After it was destroyed, the National Theatres circuit built the Liberty Theatre on part of the same site.
An earlier Liberty Theatre, located on 2nd Street, was closed a few days before the new Liberty was opened. Meanwhile, a new National Theatre, the one that later became the State Theatre, was built at 515 E Street.
The Tower Theatre, opened in 1941 at the Marysville/Atkins/National/Liberty’s historic address of 103 D Street, was apparently an extensive remodeling of the Liberty Theatre that had opened in 1927.
Although most of your comment of February 26, 2008, pertains to the State Theatre, I think the part about the temporary theater on the site of the burned National must pertain to the Liberty/Tower. The Tower occupies the Liberty’s footprint, but the Liberty’s footprint was different than the Marysville’s footprint. The Marysville’s building occupied the corner lot where the Tower’s parking lot is located, and probably the space where the Tower’s auditorium is located.
The Tower’s entrance, even though it has the same address as the Marysville Theatre, appears to be on the site of the small building that stood between the theater and the Elks Lodge before the fire. I would imagine that the temporary theater you mentioned was on what is now the site of the parking lot.
This web page says that the modern wing of the McPherson Playhouse, on the Pandora Street side of the building, was built in 1964-65, and designed by architect Alan Hodgson. There’s a small photo.
An extensive collection of photos depicting the restoration of the Royal’s exterior can be seen on this page (scroll down) at the web site of the architect for the restoration project, Allan R. Cassidy.
This web page has a bit of information about the 1992 expansion of the Royal Theatre, when wings were added to each side of the historic structure as part of its conversion into a modern performing arts venue. There are three small photos. The lead designer for that project was Alan Roy, then with Wagg and Hambleton Architects, Victoria.
I’ve been unable to discover the original architect of the Portola Theatre, but the February 27, 1918, issue of Building and Engineering News said that architect Alfred Henry Jacobs had prepared plans for a $5,000 renovation of the house, to include redecoration, new marble and tile work, and some plumbing.
I’ve come across this rendering of the California Theatre in the December, 1917, issue of The Architect and Engineer of California. The problem is that it is part of a portfolio of recent work by architect Louis Christian Mullgardt, not Alfred Henry Jacobs.
The August, 1918, issue of the San Francisco-based journal The Architect has three photos of the California Theatre, and attributes the design to Alfred H. Jacobs (scan at Google Books.)
Naturally, I’m a bit puzzled. Did Jacobs and Mullgardt collaborate on the building? Did Jacobs design the theater and Mullgardt the office and commercial parts of the structure? Can anyone clear up this mystery?
Given the September, 1918, opening, the location on South School Street, and the fact that the opening manager was named A. A. Richards, it looks like this must have been the theater that was the subject of the following item in the February 6, 1918, issue of Building and Engineering News:
“Architects Stone & Wright, San Joaquin Valley Bank Bldg., Stockton, are taking figures for a three-story Class ‘A’ theatre and store building to be erected on South School Street in Lodi for the Lodi Investment Company. A. Richards of Lodi is also a part owner in the proposed structure.”
The names of the architects were Louis S. Stone and George Alexander Wright.
Could the Orpheus Theatre have been the house at San Rafael for which plans were then being completed, according to the January 30, 1918, issue of Building and Engineering News? The item listed the owner of the house as Thomas Phillips, General Manager of the American-Irish Players Company of New York City. The architect for the project was New Yorker Francis H. Kimball.
The June, 1912, issue of The Pacific Coast Architect ran the following item: “Theater—Pasco. Architect E. W. Houghton, Seattle, prepared plans for a modern theater building, for George D. Cort.” The name Cort must have been a typo for Cord.
Completion of the project was delayed. The following excerpt from a 1917 issue of the legal journal The Pacific Reporter concerns a lawsuit, Lee vs Pasco Theater Co, filed in early 1915: “Some time during the early part of the year 1914, the Pasco Theater Company was organized for the purpose of taking over, completing, and operating an incomplete theater in Pasco, Wash., known as the Cord Theater Company property.”
Though no theater name is mentioned, the following item in the December 20, 1913, issue of Domestic Engineering probably refers to the Empire: “Work is progressing on the fireproof theater, being erected on the corner of Seventh and Commercial Avenues, through the winter.”
The first aka should be Jensen’s Theatorium, not Theatrium. The aka’s Globe Theatre and Sunset Theatre also need to be added (links of September 22, 2009, from jeff bridges.)
The Globe circuit didn’t last very long, but the downtown Globe was in operation at least as late as 1919, and the Globe on Central Avenue (later to become the Florence Mills Theatre) was being listed as the Amusu Theatre by 1923.
The Holly Theatre was located in one of the rare areas where the Google camera truck recorded the alleys as well as the streets. Pan Street View to the right and go to the corner of Logan Street. Turn left on Logan and go south to the alley, and turn left again. The former theater has a religious painting on its back wall— probably depicting Our Lady of Guadalupe, a common icon in Mexican American neighborhoods.
En route, the three-story brick building you’ll see at the southwest corner of Sunset and Logan is another of Henry Jensen’s projects; Jensen’s Recreation Center, built in 1924.
As JayAllenSanford noted in an earlier comment, the National Theatre has been demolished.
Given the opening year of 1928, it’s likely that the Bush Theatre was the house mentioned in the August 20, 1927, issue of Building and Engineering News, described as a two-story theater and store building for Major T. C. McCaully. The Los Angeles architectural firm T. C. Kistner & Co. designed the project.
Alexander Curlett would have been the lead architect on this project. His father, William Curlett, had died in 1914. Aleck Curlett later formed a partnership with Claud Beelman, which lasted until 1928. I’d love to see photos of the Rialto, if anyone can dig them up. Curlett tended to be overshadowed by Beelman in their later partnership, and it would be interesting to see what he came up with on his own.
The Boxoffice Magazine cover with the photo of the Flower Theatre’s auditorium that I linked to in an earlier comment has been moved. See it at this link.
I do believe I might have updated Street View to the wrong building. I was thinking auto repair shop, as in the description, and there is an auto repair shop that looks like it could have been a theater, but I got turned around and didn’t realize I was looking at the north side of the street. The auto repair is at 4050 24th Street. If the theater was on the south side of the street, at 4045, then it was where the Wells Fargo Bank is now. I don’t see a Rite Aid anywhere on the block.
Is it possible that the address is wrong, and the theater really was at 4050? The building there certainly looks the part.
I wonder if the Palmer Theatre could have been the house mentioned in the July 23, 1927, issue of Building and Engineering News? It was described as being at 24th and Noe, and was to be a reinforced concrete building with a theater and two stores, costing $70,000. The owner’s name was A. C. Franklin, and the working drawings were being prepared by architects Morrow & Morrow.
The Allendale Theatre, originally dating from 1914, was extensively altered in the late 1920s for the Blumenfield circuit. The architect was William I. Garren. Multiple notices about the project appeared in various issues of Building and Engineering News in 1927.
This theater should be listed in Los Angeles. West Los Angeles is a district, not an independent city.
The May 7, 1927, issue of Building and Engineering News said that O. C. Williams was taking bids for construction of a theater, office, and store building to be built at Pismo Beach for W. W. Ward. The architectural style of the Central Coast Theatre indicates a late-1920s construction date. I’m sure the Ward Theatre and the Pismo/Central Coast Theatre are one and the same.
O. C. Williams, who had a Los Angeles address, might have been the architect for the project, but I’ve been unable to discover if he was indeed an architect. He might have only been a builder or general contractor.
The actual opening year of the National Theatre was 1927. This comment by tspauld on the Tower Theatre page says that the National on E Street was under construction when the Liberty Theatre, which replaced an earlier National Theatre at 1st and D Streets, opened on January 1 that year.
Indeed, the January 15, 1927, issue of Building and Engineering News ran an item saying that subcontracts had been awarded for work on the new theater being built on E Street between 5th and 6th in Marysville for the National Theatres Syndicate. That could only have been the National/State.
The item said that the new theater had been designed by the San Francisco architectural firm of Bliss & Fairweather.
The January 22, 1927, issue of Building and Engineering News said that the contract had been awarded for the construction of a new theater on University Avenue between Waverley and Cowper streets in Palo Alto. The project had been designed by San Francisco architectural firm Reid Brothers.
Was there ever a theater at Taraval and 29th Avenue? Many of the same issues of Building and Engineering News from 1927 that carried notices about the proposed theater that became the Parkside also carried notices about a $65,000 theater designed by Reid Brothers which was to be built at Taraval and 29th. I can’t find any theater listed for that location at Cinema Treasures, so I don’t know if it is just unlisted, or if the project was never completed.
The 1926 Los Angeles City Directory lists the Red Mill Theatre at 4549 Whittier Boulevard. A comment by kenmc made on November 5, 2007, says that there is a 1930 listing in the Los Angeles Times for the Red Mill Theatre at the same address. The Los Angeles County Assessor’s office says that the building at this location was built in 1922, with an effectively-built date of 1928. The Boulevard is apparently older than we thought.
I didn’t find a theater listed at this address in the 1923 City Directory, and no theater is listed for it in the 1932 directory, but the 1929 directory lists the Red Mill Theatre at 4551 Whittier. The 1936 directory lists the Boulevard Theatre at 4549.
The April 23, 1927, issue of Building and Engineering News said that L. A. Smith had prepared plans for a 2-story and part 3-story theater to be built at S. Broadway and Church Street in Santa Maria for Principal Theatres Inc..
jmetcalf: Ken McIntyre won’t be able to fix the description, or correct the address. That will have to be done by one of Cinema Treasures' moderators. The reason Google Maps Street View is fetching a picture of the State Theatre is because the address on this page is wrong. This page is for the Marysville Theatre, at 1st and D Streets, which (along with the nearby Elks Lodge and a small building between them) burned down in 1926. The State Theatre has its own page.
There’s been quite a bit of confusion over the theaters that have operated at 1st and D streets (the Marysville/Atkins/National, and the Liberty/Tower,) and it has spilled over into confusion about the State Theatre. This comment by tspauld on the Tower Theatre page clears most of it up.
The Marysville Theatre was built in 1907. By 1921, it was being operated as the Atkins Theatre (here is a fresh link to the Marysville/Atkins Theatre page at Pacific Coast Architecture DB, cited in my earlier comment.) By the time of the 1926 fire that destroyed it, it had been renamed the National Theatre. After it was destroyed, the National Theatres circuit built the Liberty Theatre on part of the same site.
An earlier Liberty Theatre, located on 2nd Street, was closed a few days before the new Liberty was opened. Meanwhile, a new National Theatre, the one that later became the State Theatre, was built at 515 E Street.
The Tower Theatre, opened in 1941 at the Marysville/Atkins/National/Liberty’s historic address of 103 D Street, was apparently an extensive remodeling of the Liberty Theatre that had opened in 1927.
Although most of your comment of February 26, 2008, pertains to the State Theatre, I think the part about the temporary theater on the site of the burned National must pertain to the Liberty/Tower. The Tower occupies the Liberty’s footprint, but the Liberty’s footprint was different than the Marysville’s footprint. The Marysville’s building occupied the corner lot where the Tower’s parking lot is located, and probably the space where the Tower’s auditorium is located.
The Tower’s entrance, even though it has the same address as the Marysville Theatre, appears to be on the site of the small building that stood between the theater and the Elks Lodge before the fire. I would imagine that the temporary theater you mentioned was on what is now the site of the parking lot.
This web page says that the modern wing of the McPherson Playhouse, on the Pandora Street side of the building, was built in 1964-65, and designed by architect Alan Hodgson. There’s a small photo.
Here is the official web site of the Royal Theatre. The house is operated, along with the McPherson Playhouse, by the Royal and McPherson Theatre Society.
The Hallmark Society, a local preservation group, has several photos of the Royal on its web site.
An extensive collection of photos depicting the restoration of the Royal’s exterior can be seen on this page (scroll down) at the web site of the architect for the restoration project, Allan R. Cassidy.
This web page has a bit of information about the 1992 expansion of the Royal Theatre, when wings were added to each side of the historic structure as part of its conversion into a modern performing arts venue. There are three small photos. The lead designer for that project was Alan Roy, then with Wagg and Hambleton Architects, Victoria.
I’ve been unable to discover the original architect of the Portola Theatre, but the February 27, 1918, issue of Building and Engineering News said that architect Alfred Henry Jacobs had prepared plans for a $5,000 renovation of the house, to include redecoration, new marble and tile work, and some plumbing.
I’ve come across this rendering of the California Theatre in the December, 1917, issue of The Architect and Engineer of California. The problem is that it is part of a portfolio of recent work by architect Louis Christian Mullgardt, not Alfred Henry Jacobs.
The August, 1918, issue of the San Francisco-based journal The Architect has three photos of the California Theatre, and attributes the design to Alfred H. Jacobs (scan at Google Books.)
Naturally, I’m a bit puzzled. Did Jacobs and Mullgardt collaborate on the building? Did Jacobs design the theater and Mullgardt the office and commercial parts of the structure? Can anyone clear up this mystery?
I don’t know what became of the Post Office I thought had replaced the Lodi Theatre. There is now a ready-to-wear clothing store on the site.
Given the September, 1918, opening, the location on South School Street, and the fact that the opening manager was named A. A. Richards, it looks like this must have been the theater that was the subject of the following item in the February 6, 1918, issue of Building and Engineering News:
The names of the architects were Louis S. Stone and George Alexander Wright.Could the Orpheus Theatre have been the house at San Rafael for which plans were then being completed, according to the January 30, 1918, issue of Building and Engineering News? The item listed the owner of the house as Thomas Phillips, General Manager of the American-Irish Players Company of New York City. The architect for the project was New Yorker Francis H. Kimball.
The June, 1912, issue of The Pacific Coast Architect ran the following item: “Theater—Pasco. Architect E. W. Houghton, Seattle, prepared plans for a modern theater building, for George D. Cort.” The name Cort must have been a typo for Cord.
Completion of the project was delayed. The following excerpt from a 1917 issue of the legal journal The Pacific Reporter concerns a lawsuit, Lee vs Pasco Theater Co, filed in early 1915: “Some time during the early part of the year 1914, the Pasco Theater Company was organized for the purpose of taking over, completing, and operating an incomplete theater in Pasco, Wash., known as the Cord Theater Company property.”
Though no theater name is mentioned, the following item in the December 20, 1913, issue of Domestic Engineering probably refers to the Empire: “Work is progressing on the fireproof theater, being erected on the corner of Seventh and Commercial Avenues, through the winter.”
The correct names of the architects of the Royal are William D'Oyly Rochfort and Eben W. Sankey.
The first aka should be Jensen’s Theatorium, not Theatrium. The aka’s Globe Theatre and Sunset Theatre also need to be added (links of September 22, 2009, from jeff bridges.)
The Globe circuit didn’t last very long, but the downtown Globe was in operation at least as late as 1919, and the Globe on Central Avenue (later to become the Florence Mills Theatre) was being listed as the Amusu Theatre by 1923.
The Holly Theatre was located in one of the rare areas where the Google camera truck recorded the alleys as well as the streets. Pan Street View to the right and go to the corner of Logan Street. Turn left on Logan and go south to the alley, and turn left again. The former theater has a religious painting on its back wall— probably depicting Our Lady of Guadalupe, a common icon in Mexican American neighborhoods.
En route, the three-story brick building you’ll see at the southwest corner of Sunset and Logan is another of Henry Jensen’s projects; Jensen’s Recreation Center, built in 1924.