State Theatre
350 N. State Street,
Ukiah,
CA
95482
350 N. State Street,
Ukiah,
CA
95482
1 person
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Additional Info
Previously operated by: Redwood Theatres Inc.
Previous Names: Victory Theatre
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Opened as the Victory Theatre on February 6, 1914, this theatre was very simplistic in design. It was renamed State Theatre on March 14, 1923.
As happened at many others of this time, until the 1940’s, and the ending of segregation, Native Americans were only allowed to sit in the theatre’s balcony. The State Theatre was operated by Redwood Theatres prior to 1941
The theatre closed on March 19, 1948 when the building was condemned. The nearby Ukiah Theatre had been opened by Redwood Theatres. At the time, the building was converted into use as a grocery store, called the State Market.
In the late-1970’s, most of the theatre was demolished to make way for a new office building. As an homage to the theatre which formerly sat on its site, the building was named after the Victory Theatre.
Contributed by
William French
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Recent comments (view all 3 comments)
Only a small portion of the orignal building survives. It is a brick wall covered in metal siding. It can be seen in the rear parking lot of the building to the south. Much of the brick from the demolition was reused in the current structure. The brick can been seen inside on some of the walls. The brick was also used for the exterior walkways.
Cool vintage photo in the header of this page. 900 seats pretty big.
Here is a photo of the auditorium of the Victory Theatre, with a note on it indicating that it was taken on the opening night, February 6, 1914.
I’m wondering if this theater might have actually been built a few years earlier and operated for a while as the Ukiah Opera House. A house of that name is listed in the 1912 Cahn guide, with 400 seats on the main floor and 250 in the balcony. The photo of the Victory shows that it had just about 400 seats on the main floor. The balcony is a bit harder to count, as the seats are smaller and the rows of different lengths, but it does appear to seat about 250.
There was an earlier opera house in Ukiah, but it was probably not the one listed in the Cahn guide, as it was a single-floor building, and appears much too small to have held 650 seats. Here’s a photo of it.
The September 2, 1908, issue of The American Architect and Building News has an item saying that San Francisco architects Banks & Copeland were preparing plans for a brick and concrete theater to be built at Ukiah. This could have been the Opera House.
I’ve been unable to find any mention of any other theater in Ukiah before the Victory opened, and 1912 is the last mention of the Ukiah Opera House I’ve found. It seems possible that the Opera House was equipped for movies and renamed the Victory in 1914, and that its first few years of operation as a live theater have since been forgotten.