Up from the Deep (The Hotel Project)

From the time of San Francisco’s reconstruction following the 1906 earthquake and fire, the stretch of Market Street between Powell and Polk Streets had been a lively and colorful theater district. Then in 1963, the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency demolished the celebrated Fox Theater, a San Francisco landmark on the corner of Polk and Market, designed by Thomas Lamb. It was replaced by high-rise apartments and commercial space covering the entire block of Market Street between Polk and Larkin, named Fox Plaza in memory of the theater. In 1964, BART began construction of its subway system, which for a decade turned downtown Market Street into a massive, gaping trench.

Source: San Francisco History Center, S.F. Public Library

Fox Theater, opening night, 1929.

The destruction of the Fox was a death knell signaling the end of an era. The district lost much of its glamor when, under the 1967 Market Street Beautification Act, all of Market Street’s brightly-lit marquees and most of its neon blade signs were removed. When traffic was diverted away from Market Street by BART construction, the district’s fate was sealed and it sank into a decline from which it has never recovered. Stores and theaters that had thrived for decades struggled on for awhile and then closed forever. Mid-Market became a constantly changing landscape of liquor stores, fast food outlets, porn shops, check-cashing companies and gaudy storefronts, few of which have survived more than a few years. The downturn in quality and character of Mid-Market commerce and a profusion of unused buildings and boarded-up storefronts have obscured the district’s glorious past and left in its stead an oppressive hollowness and blight. Transience and decay have become ingrained, attracting derelicts, outcasts, and petty criminals from far and wide. One consequence of these changes, largely overlooked, has been a harsh decline in the quality of life for the area’s many long-time residents.

Source: San Francisco History Center, S.F. Public Library

The fenced-off, post-demolition pit at Polk and Market, 1964.

Orpheum

^{ORPHEUM THEATER – 1192 MARKET STREET}

Marshall Square Building/Orpheum Theater (formerly Pantages Theater). 1926. Owner: Shorenstein Hays Nederlander Organization. Architect: B. Marcus Priteca. Spanish Moorish/Spanish Baroque design. Four stories, steel frame construction; stucco and galvanized iron facade. arcaded storefronts. Entrance and marquee altered, Market Street storefronts filled in and stuccoed.

Opened as a vaudeville house in 1926 to replace the original Pantages Theater at 939 Market Street, the theater was sold to RKO a few years later, soon afterward reopening as a first-run movie house named the Orpheum. From the premiere of This Is Cinerama! on Christmas Day 1953 until the final showing of Ice Station Zebra early in 1970, the Orpheum was San Francisco’s foremost Cinerama cinema. The theater was closed for a short time and then reopened in 1977 as a venue for live theater, but the conversion was unsuccessful and the theater was closed once again. It was purchased in 1981 by the Shorenstein Hays Nederlander Organization and since then has been a successful showcase for traveling Broadway shows.

Source: San Francisco History Center, S.F. Public Library

Pantages Theater, 1926.

Source: San Francisco History Center, S.F. Public Library

Orpheum Theater, 1931..

National

^{NATIONAL HOTEL – 1139 MARKET STREET}

Erected in 1906, the National Hotel is typical of rooming houses built to house a maximum number of occupants in a small space. There are storefronts at street level, all of which have been vacant for years, while the hotel occupies the second and third stories. The building is long and narrow, with forty-five roughly 10′ by 10′ rooms on each floor. There is no lobby, the entrance to the hotel being a stairway that leads directly to the second floor, where a small room with a teller’s window serves as the hotel office. The rooms have small sinks and case closets, with windows that open onto narrow light wells providing room ventilation. Bathrooms are located in the back of the building. Monthly rent in 2006 was $600, about average for SROs at the time.

For Sale

^{STRAND THEATER and NATIONAL HOTEL}

Strand Theater, 1127 Market Street. (Formerly the Jewel, 1917; Sun, 1920; College, 1920; Francesca, 1921.)

Named the Jewel when it first opened October 1917 as part of the Grauman chain, the theater saw its name change, along with its management, several times over the next decade. When it was renamed the Strand in 1928, the name stuck, and so it remained until the very end. Operated by the West Side Theater Company from 1940 to 1977, the programming was triple bills, changed daily, with nightly bingo games. In 1977, the theater was purchased by Mike Thomas, who around the same time also acquired the Warfield, Crest and Embassy theaters. Thomas remodeled the Strand and hired security to keep out undesirables, then reopened the theater with a revival of Howard Hughes’ 1943 production of The Outlaw. The show was a sell-out and the Strand soon became known as a venue for revival cinema, hosting occasional guest appearances by such celebrities as Lana Turner, Sophia Loren and Mae West. The theater was also known for its midnight showings of The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Source: San Francisco History Center, S.F. Public Library

Strand Theater, circa 1945.

Market Street commerce, which had begun to decline in the mid-60s, took a sharp downward turn in the 1980s and, with the increasing popularity of home video, the revival cinema business declined as well. The theater was closed following the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake and then reopened under the management of Silver Screen Amusements. Following a brief closure in June 1997, the Strand reopened as a porn theater, showing projected video. In its final years, it was a haven for drug dealers and prostitutes. Early in 2003, after a raid by the San Francisco Police Department, the Strand was closed once again, this time for good.

Embassy

^{EMBASSY THEATER SITE – 1125 MARKET STREET}

American Theater, 1907; Rialto, 1916; Rivoli Opera House, 1923; Embassy Theater, 1927 (Warner Brothers, 1932-1933).

Although the theater’s construction was interrupted by the 1906 earthquake and fire, it nevertheless opened the following January as the American Theater. After a couple of name changes over the next two decades, it was named the Embassy in 1927 when it premiered Vitaphone Talking Pictures. The theater was briefly known as Warner Brothers in the early ’30s, but its name soon reverted to the Embassy. Much later, under the management of Dan McLean, it was a popular second-run Market Street cinema that highlighted nightly games of Ten-O-Win, a spin-the-wheel game originated by McLean.

Source: San Francisco History Center, S.F. Public Library

Embassy Theater, 1927.

During the 1980s, the Embassy suffered much the same fate as the Strand, becoming a harbor for drug dealers, prostitutes and the homeless. The theater was condemned after suffering severe structural damage in the 1989 earthquake and was finally demolished in 1994. A popular source of entertainment for several generations of San Francisco theatergoers, the Embassy is unique in the annals of San Francisco history as the only theater to have been shaken by both the 1906 and 1989 earthquakes.

Farmers Market

^{U N PLAZA, WEST END}

One of the nicest things to happen to the central city in recent years has been the farmers market, which takes place every Wednesday and Sunday in the U N Plaza near Seventh and Market. Fresh produce, fish, hand-crafted cheeses, potted plants and fresh cut flowers—all at extremely affordable prices—are now available in an area that is notoriously lacking in grocery stores.

^{ORGANICALLY GROWN PRODUCE}

^{FRESH CUT FLOWERS}

Odd Fellows

^{ODD FELLOWS HALL – 26 SEVENTH STREET}

Odd Fellows Building. 1909. Architect: George Andrew Dodge. Five stories. Steel frame construction, brick and fine terra-cotta facade, three-story galvanized iron windows, galvanized iron cornice.

From the time I first laid eyes upon this building, I have admired it; partly for its dramatic, ornate windows, partly for its name, Odd Fellows, and partly for the wonderful two-and-a-half story terra-cotta cartouche illustrating the Odd Fellows’ symbols. Formerly the Grand Lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, this unusual building was built as a replacement for the original lodge that was destroyed during the 1906 earthquake and fire. While their Grand Lodge is now in Saratoga, California, four Odd Fellows lodges still meet here, including Apollo Lodge #123.

Source: Bancroft Library, U.C. Berkeley

Odd Fellows Hall, 1906. The collapsed roof of the original hall is clearly visible in this photo, taken from Leavenworth near Golden Gate on the morning of the ‘quake.

^{ODD FELLOWS HALL – 26 SEVENTH STREET}

In need of repair and a paint job, the Odd Fellows’ elaborate windows show the building’s age. In the background are the U. N. Plaza fountain and the old Federal Building.

Looking closely at this photograph, you will note in a window at the very bottom a sign proclaiming the end is near.  Another sign indicates that this corner of the building is the studio of one Richard L. Perri. Both of these signs have been there for as long as I can remember, and as I have always relished dark humor, I often wondered who this Mr. Perri could be. At last, near the beginning of 2008, I met Richard when I was invited to a meeting of the Yerba Buena Lodge of the Odd Fellows. There, I discovered him to be a most charming and witty fellow, who was delighted to know that for years I had been an admirer of his sign.

Source: Bancroft Library, U.C. Berkeley

Seventh and Market, 1906. Captured in this dramatic photo are the Grant Building and the earthquake-damaged Odd Fellows Hall, just before it was dynamited and before both buildings were swallowed up by the fire.

Early Morning – Market Street

^{SEVENTH and MARKET}

The Grant Building and Odd Fellows Hall are seen in this late autumn view, taken around seven o’clock in the morning.

Grant Building

^{GRANT BUILDING – 1095 MARKET STREET}

1904. Owner: Seligman Western Enterprises. Architect: Newton Tharp. Nine stories. Steel frame construction; pressed brick facade, sandstone lintels and keystone, galvanized iron parapet, double-hung sash.

The Grant Building is one of the very few large buildings on Market Street to have survived the 1906 earthquake and fire. Although it has been upgraded over the years, the original interior marble finishes and beautiful cast iron staircases have been preserved. The building has for years been the home of numerous non-profit organizations, including the San Francisco Study Center, which publishes a monthly neighborhood paper, the Central City Extra.

Market Street Cinema

^{MARKET STREET CINEMA – 1077 MARKET STREET}

Grauman’s Imperial, 1912; Imperial, 1916; Premier, 1929; United Artists, 1931; Loew’s, 1970; Market Street Cinema, 1972. Architect: Cunningham and Politeo.

One of many links in the Grauman’s chain, the theater opened as Grauman’s Imperial on 22 December 1912. Known as the Premier for a short time in the late ‘20s, in 1931 it became the United Artists Theater, a first-run movie house, and so it remained until 1970, when the theater was briefly taken over by Loews. In 1972, the theater was renamed the Market Street Cinema, shortly thereafter becoming a venue for adult films, which in the ‘90s gave way to live entertainment and lap dancing.

Source: Bancroft Library, U.C. Berkeley

Grauman’s Imperial Theater, 1919.

Guild and Centre Theaters

^{GUILD and CENTRE THEATER SITES – 1069 and 1071 MARKET STREET}

Guild Theater, 1069 Market Street. (Egyptian Theater, 1924; Studio Theater, 1943; Guild Theater, 1947; Pussycat Theater, 1974.)

First named the Egyptian, the theater opened with The Last Man on Earth on 14 March 1925. Catering primarily to the Market Street walk-in trade, the theater showed low-priced, late-run releases until Christmas Eve 1943, when it was reopened as the Studio and, as a lure to on-leave servicemen, programming was changed to more sensational, B-movie fare. On 6 June 1947, the theater became the Guild, showing the first-run re-release of MGM’s The Great Waltz, which ran for two months, followed by a three-month run of the first major re-release of Gone with the Wind. At the end of 1947, the theater started showing low-priced, late-run action films, ultimately providing three features for fifty cents. Around 1970, the theater started showing adult films and was renamed the Pussycat in 1974. Along with the Centre, it closed late in 1987, and was afterward converted to retail space.

Centre Theater, 1071 Market Street. (Round Up Theater, 1944; Centre Theater, 1947.)

Opened first as the Round Up on 12 February 1944, the theater offered a program of double-feature Westerns, which changed daily. After it was renamed the Centre in 1947, it showed a hodgepodge of action films and re-releases until 1949, when it began to specialize in comedies, showing a single feature with assorted cartoons and short subjects in programs that changed weekly instead of daily. The tiny theater, which had a single aisle with rows of five seats on either side, was the quintessential “shooting gallery,” a theater type named for its long and narrow layout. When widescreen cinematography became the rage in the early ‘50s, the Centre’s narrowness prevented the theater from adapting its screen to the new format. It survived instead by changing its programming to adult films, which it showed until its closing in 1987. The theater has since then been converted to retail space.

McAllister and Market

^{INTERSECTION: McALLISTER, MARKET and JONES}

One of several flatiron buildings to be found along the north side of Market Street, the Renoir Hotel began its life in 1907 as a two-story office building named the Callaghan Building. When five more stories were added on in 1936, the building was converted to a hotel named the Shaw, which had such amenities as a street-level lounge and barbershop. Following a couple of name changes in the ’80s, in 1993 the hotel was purchased and renamed the Renoir by Regent West LLP. To the right of the Renoir, glowing red in the sunset, is the McAllister Tower (for more photographs and a detailed history, see “Sentinel” in Part Three: Uptown Tenderloin).

Source: Bancroft Library, U.C. Berkeley

Market and McAllister, 1906. Here photographed just months after the earthquake and fire, construction of the Callaghan Building was already well underway. On the right is the Hibernia Bank Building at 1 Jones Street.

Postcard, McAllister Tower, circa 1940.

Postcard, Hotel Shaw, circa 1945.

Hibernia

^{HIBERNIA BANK BUILDING – 1 JONES STREET}

Designed by Albert Pissis and completed in 1892, the Hibernia Bank Building suffered heavy fire damage following the 1906 earthquake, but it was soon after repaired. Professor Lin-Yun, Supreme Leader of Black Sect Tantric Buddhism at Its Fourth Stage, purchased the building in 2000, stating a desire to transform it into a Buddhist temple and school. Instead, the building was left empty and unmaintained, a magnet for drug dealers and homeless encampments (see also “Fallen from Grace” in Part Three: Uptown Tenderloin).

Postcard, circa 1895. The Hibernia Bank Building is in the lower left.

Billiards, Furniture and Carpets

^{(VANTAGE POINT: JONES STREET and GOLDEN GATE AVENUE)}

From a Market Street sidewalk perspective, the Furniture and Carpets building’s huge, monotonous expanse of brick is mostly hidden by the buildings on either side. The illusion created by the false front is largely dependent on looking upward at the building from street level. The faux columns with Corinthian capitals were constructed with terra-cotta tiles and the entablature that these columns support, which seems so massive, is just a hollow metal box. Architecture like this is for me transcendent; it turns the street into a stage set, which is probably why I like being able to see the entire building. The deus ex machina, you might say, is the utilitarian brick that makes up the building behind the facade.

The rough, brick wall advertising Hollywood Billiards (across Market Street from the Furniture and Carpets building) used to abut the beautiful Paramount Theater, which was closed down in the mid-60s and razed by the Shorenstein Company to make way for . . . a parking lot.

Paramount Theater

Source: San Francisco History Center, S.F. Public Library

Granada Theater, opening day, 1921. The Boyd Hotel and part of the Hibernia Bank Building are visible on the far left; in the background to the right is the steel skeleton of the Golden Gate Theater, under construction at Golden Gate and Taylor.

Designed by Alfred Henry Jacobs, this opulent movie palace opened in 1921 under the Publix banner as the Granada Theater. It had a four manual, thirty-two rank Wurlitzer organ and boasted an operating staff of 122 people. After becoming a part of the Fox chain for awhile, the theater was returned to the Publix fold and on 31 January 1931, after extensive remodeling, was reopened as the Paramount.

Source: San Francisco History Center, S.F. Public Library

Paramount Theater, 1930. The view from the loge of the newly remodeled theater.

Source: San Francisco History Center, S.F. Public Library

Paramount Theater after remodeling, 1930.

Source: San Francisco History Center, S.F. Public Library

Paramount Theater, 1942.

Post-mortem

^{PARAMOUNT THEATER SITE – 1066 MARKET STREET}

When the Paramount was demolished, two small storefronts were hastily erected to plug the resulting gap between adjacent buildings. Incongruous, commonplace and cheaply made, they are emblematic of the poor planning that helped to catalyze the district’s downfall.

Regal

^{REGAL THEATER SITE – 1046 MARKET STREET}

Unoccupied storefront (formerly Pompeii Theater, Regal Theater, Bijou Theater, L A Gals). 1925.

Opened in mid-1925 as the Pompeii, the theater was renamed the Regal on 8 February 1936. For some thirty years, the Regal was one of several popular small Market Street cinemas that catered to the walk-in trade, showing for a very low price action films that were changed four times a week. In the mid-50s, double features became triple features and six color cartoons were included with every program. In 1972, the theater started showing hardcore films; when the Mitchell Brothers took it over in 1974, it was renamed the Bijou, then later renamed the Regal once again before it finally devolved into a lap dancing venue named L A Gals.

Fascination

^{FASCINATION SITE – 1027 MARKET STREET}

Fascination was a unique Market Street business that first opened its doors in the 1950s and closed them for the final time in 2003. It was a kind of midway arcade game located on the main thoroughfare of San Francisco. The fact that Fascination was a successful business for all those years is an indication of the steady, if not devoted patronage of its clientele, who were almost exclusively the tenants of surrounding SROs after BART construction disrupted Market Street commerce (see also “Daybreak” in Part One: 6th Street).

Passage

^{HEART of the CITY}

Once the prosperous heart of San Francisco’s theater district, Mid-Market has become a blighted no-man’s-land of empty buildings and frowzy storefronts. Many of the storefronts are boarded up and those that are not have been so often remodeled that nothing is left of the original design; however, look upward and the architecture still appears much the same as it did nearly a century ago. Above the storefronts, one sees the designers’ original intent and the architecture’s true character is revealed. Designed to celebrate and embrace the human spirit, it is exalted, optimistic, exuberant and accessible, built on a human scale.

^{1000 block MARKET STREET}

In 2005, the former Weinstein Company department store was given a bright blue facade and converted to live/work lofts, most of which are still empty in 2009.

Source: San Francisco History Center, S.F. Public Library

Weinstein Company department store, 1950. Newscopy: “THE NEW LOOK AT 1041 MARKET ST. – Exterior view of the Weinstein Company main store at 1041 Market street, as it appears today following recent remodeling. The just inaugurated motorstairs, conveying to and from all floors, in the store climaxes extensive interior remodeling and improvement.”

How far this remarkable street has fallen! At one time a source of civic pride, Mid-Market has become San Francisco’s badge of shame. Surely the angels weep for its passage through neglect into oblivion.

Grand Illusion

^{FURNITURE and CARPETS BUILDING – 1017-1021 MARKET STREET}

Formerly Eastern Outfitting Company. Circa 1907. Architect: George Applegarth. Seven stories, steel frame construction; terra-cotta, steel and glass facade; Corinthian order and huge galvanized iron entablature with “Furniture and Carpets” in relief.

I remember wishing I could levitate upward and in through the open window above me when I captured this image. As often as I have photographed this building’s exterior, I have never been able to gain access to the inside. The little round holes in the window frames are light sockets, which unfortunately have not had light bulbs in them for many years. In the 1940s, the Eastern Outfitting Company became the Union Furniture Store. In more recent years, sweatshops have occupied the upper floors and the storefront has been leased by a succession of short-lived bargain stands.

Pre-World War I postcard.

Furniture and Carpets

^{FURNITURE and CARPETS BUILDING – 1017-1021 MARKET STREET}

The Furniture and Carpets building is close to where Market Street intersects with Sixth Street, Golden Gate Avenue and Taylor Street. The upper stories of a building in the foreground are part of the San Cristina residential hotel. The ground floor is currently occupied by the Show Dogs restaurant, owned by David Addington (see “Warfield” in this chapter), the most recent in a succession of restaurants. The building is also where Christian Slater interviewed Brad Pitt in Interview with the Vampire. It is a flatiron building, shaped like a long, narrow triangle in order to fit the acute angle of Market Street intersecting Golden Gate Avenue. What appears to be a turret-like structure is actually just the narrow tip of the triangle.

Where the Tenderloin Begins

2007 Survey

^{INTERSECTION: MARKET, GOLDEN GATE and TAYLOR}

On the left is the San Cristina residential hotel and in the background, behind the streetlight, is the McAllister Tower. In the center are the spires of St. Boniface, a block-and-a-half away on Golden Gate Avenue, and to the right are the entrance and marquee of the Golden Gate Theater.

Source: Bancroft Library, U.C. Berkeley

Market, Golden Gate and Taylor, 1906. Left of center are the ruins of St. Boniface on Golden Gate above Jones.

Empty Buildings

^{GOLDEN GATE THEATER – 1 TAYLOR STREET, WARFIELD BUILDING – 988 MARKET STREET}

Now mostly empty, the Golden Gate Theater and the Warfield Building were designed by G. Albert Lansburgh,  one of the great American theater architects of the Twentieth Century. Raised in San Francisco, Lansburgh worked for both Bernard Maybeck and Julius E. Krafft while studying at U.C. Berkeley. Following his graduation, he moved to Paris and studied at the prestigious Ecole des Beaux-Arts, earning his diploma in 1906. He returned to San Francisco one month after the city’s devastation by earthquake and fire, beginning here his long and illustrious career.

Golden Gate Theater

^{GOLDEN GATE THEATER – 1 TAYLOR STREET}

1922. Owner: Shorenstein Hays Nederlander Organization. Architect: G. Albert Lansburgh. Eight stories; dome, arcaded top story, brick and fine terra-cotta facade, wrought-iron balconets. Entry and marquee altered, storefronts boarded shut.

The Golden Gate Theater stands at one of the busiest entries to the Tenderloin. Featuring vaudeville, the theater first opened its doors in 1922. Over the years, theatergoers saw everything from the Marx Brothers to Cinerama. Most recently, it has been a venue for Broadway shows, including Rent, the film version of which was shot less than a block away on Sixth Street. Programming since 2006 has been sporadic and the theater often sits empty and unused for months at a time.

The  theater’s owner, scion of one of San Francisco’s wealthiest families and the City’s largest owner of downtown commercial properties, has boarded up storefronts along Taylor Street and Golden Gate Avenue that once housed colorful theater-related businesses. The owner has kept the office space at 25 Taylor vacant since evicting an entire building of non-profit organizations in 1995. The terra-cotta and wrought-iron details of this Art Deco palace have suffered greatly from neglect and the six-story neon signs haven’t worked in ages. The building’s rundown, semi-abandoned aspect and the interdiction of small business have both suppressed neighborhood commerce, and proliferated blight.

Source: San Francisco History Center, S.F. Public Library

Golden Gate Theater, circa 1923.

Warfield

^{WARFIELD BUILDING – 988 MARKET STREET}

1922. Owner: Fair Market Properties LLC. Architect: G. Albert Lansburgh.  Eight stories, steel frame construction; decorative brick, painted terra-cotta and stucco facade.

Composed of the Warfield Theater and attached office space, the Warfield Building was purchased for $12 million in 2005 by David Addington, principal at Fair Market Properties LLC, Atlanta. The theater lease was taken over in May 2008 by Goldenvoice Presents, part of the Anschutz Entertainment Group*, after the acrimonious departure of Bill Graham Presents (owned since Graham’s death by Clear Channel).  Following some minor renovation work on  the theater, concerts were resumed in September 2008.

*Anschutz Entertainment Group is owned by multi-billionaire Philip Anschutz, who also owns the San Francisco Examiner.

Source: San Francisco History Center, S.F. Public Library

Warfield Building, 1922.

^{WARFIELD OFFICE BUILDING ENTRANCE and STOREFRONTS}

Of the Warfield Building’s six storefronts, only one is occupied: a head shop (not visible in this photo), next door to the now-closed Warfield Barber Shop.

^{WARFIELD CARYATIDS – 982 MARKET STREET}

^{WARFIELD THEATER ENTRANCE and MARQUEE – 982 MARKET STREET}

Opened on 23 May 1922 as Loew’s Warfield, the theater was named for People’s Vaudeville Company co-founder David Warfield (born David Wohlfeld in San Francisco on 28 November 1866), one of Marcus Loew’s best friends and one of the first investors in the corporate empire that became Loew’s-MGM. Originally a venue for both vaudeville and cinema, the theater operated as a first-run movie house until the late 1970s, when it began to occasionally host live music by artists such as Siouxsie and the Banshees and Devo. The theater was leased by Bill Graham Presents about the same time that Graham closed down his North Beach venue, Wolfgang’s, after a suspicious fire. Since then, just about every top name in rock has performed at the Warfield. Jerry Garcia set the record for most performances at the theater by appearing eighty-eight times with the Grateful Dead and various side bands.

^{WARFIELD LOBBY}

^{WARFIELD PROSCENIUM}

Source: San Francisco History Center, S.F. Public Library

Loew’s Warfield, opening day, 1922.

Crest

^{CREST THEATER SITE – 980 MARKET STREET}

Next door to the Warfield, what is now the Crazy Horse “Gentlemen’s Club” was for most of its life a cinema. Opened  in 1909 as the Lesser Nickelodeon, it became Grauman’s in 1910, the Maio Biograph in 1912, the Circle in 1924, New Circle in 1932, Newsreel in 1939, Cinema in 1949, Crest in 1958, Egyptian in 1976 and the Electric in 1981. The theater was reincarnated as the Crazy Horse in 1994.

Final Curtain

^{ST. FRANCIS THEATER – 965 MARKET STREET}

Closed since May 2001, the St. Francis is one of Market Street’s oldest cinemas. Designed by John Galen Howard, the theater opened in 1910 as the Empress, then was taken over by Sid Grauman and renamed the Strand in 1917, becoming the St. Francis in 1924. When the theater was twinned in 1968, one screen was christened as the Baronet and the other screen retained its name as the St. Francis; in 1976, the theater was renamed for the last time as the St. Francis I and II. Several years after the final closing, I had an opportunity to get inside and was amazed to find that everything from the lobby to the projection booths was completely intact. All too soon, this building will be but another page in history, as it is slated to be replaced by the so-called CityPlace shopping complex, which will go a long way toward transforming this part of San Francisco into Anyplace, USA.

Source: San Francisco History Center, S.F. Public Library

Empress Theater, 1910. Note the horse-drawn carriages parked in front of the theater.

Poster, circa 1911.

Charlie Chaplin, circa 1911.

Source: San Francisco History Center, S.F. Public Library

St. Francis Theater and storefronts, 1953.

^{ST. FRANCIS THEATER – 965 MARKET STREET}

No sign remains of the retail shops that once thrived in the St. Francis storefronts, all of which were boarded-up in 2002.

Pantages

^{UNOCCUPIED BUILDING – 939 MARKET STREET}

Former Pantages Theater. 1911. Architect: B. Marcus Priteca. Seven stories, steel frame construction; facade completely stripped and remodeled.

The Pantages Theater opened on 30 December 1911 and operated until February 1926, when the new Pantages Theatre (later the Orpheum) opened at 1192 Market Street. Soon thereafter, the building became a retail store for the Kress chain, and from the 1980s until 2007 it was occupied by the Social Security Administration; the building has been unused since then.

Source: San Francisco History Center, S.F. Public Library

Pantages Theater, circa 1920.

Near Market and Mason

In between the check-cashing companies, liquor stores, and boarded-up buildings, numerous short-lived enterprises sell cheap imported clothing and electronics of questionable origin.

Along this row of storefronts, the frequent changeover in proprietorship is evident in the painted-over business names on tattered canvas marquees.

Pix

^{PIX THEATER SITE – 942 MARKET STREET}

Garfield Building. 1907. Architect: Reid Brothers. Seven stories, steel frame construction; brick facade, terra-cotta spandrels and lintels, galvanized iron cornice, double-hung sash.

Opened on 4 April 1946, the Pix was so small that it didn’t even issue tickets. Instead, there was a turnstile that was activated by the cashier after admission was paid. The theater had no lobby—restrooms, lounge and snack bar were downstairs. The Pix, like the Centre, was a “shooting gallery” theater, with rows of six seats on either side of a center aisle. Unlike the Centre, however, the Pix was just wide enough for a small, 1.85:1 screen to be workable. Amazingly, the tiny theater was air-conditioned, and in fact for years was the only theater in San Francisco that could boast of this. Programmed as a grind house (a theater with continuous showings of violent or sensational films), the Pix showed three “action hits” and six color cartoons for an admission price of fifty cents. On 25 August 1950, the Pix became the Newsvue, which showed only newsreels on weekdays and a program of twenty-five cartoons on weekends. Audiences grew tired of newsreels, however, and in 1955 the newly renamed Pix resumed its former grind house programming. Toward the end of its life, the Pix became an adult theater and, after closing for the last time in 1972, was converted to retail space.

All Gone

^{ESQUIRE and TELENEWS THEATER SITES – 934 and 930 MARKET STREET}

The Esquire, opened in 1909 as the Market Street Theater, was one of the first large-scale cinemas to open on Market Street. After a series of name changes over the years, in 1940 the theater was finally named the Esquire. During the ‘40s, the theater showed first-run Abbott and Costello comedies and Universal horror films, leavened intermittently with Technicolor extravaganzas. By the 1960s, the theater was showing mostly Roger Corman films and other American International fare. The Telenews Theater opened on 1 September 1939, featuring newsreels of the Nazi invasion of Poland. Both the Esquire and the Telenews were demolished in 1972 to make way for the new BART station and Hallidie Plaza.

Source: San Francisco History Center, S.F. Public Library

Esquire and Telenews Theaters, 1943. Newscopy: “Smoke from film and equipment blazing from a projection booth fire darkens the front of the Telenews Theater in Market Street, where trolley cars and automobiles were tied up in long lines and thousands watched the (?) One man was hurt, 30 safely filed out of the theater.”

Powell and Market

^{BANK OF ITALY BUILDING – 1 POWELL STREET,  FLOOD BUILDING – 870 MARKET STREET}

Bank of Italy Building. 1920. Architect: Walter Danforth Bliss. Flood Building. 1904. Architect: Albert Pissis.

In 2005, the historic Bank of Italy building was purchased by SPI Holdings for an undisclosed price from Wilson Meany Sullivan, who had spent $35 million in renovations that included a seismic retrofit, a new floor, and conversion of the 90,000-square-foot building to 25,000 square feet of retail and forty-nine rental apartments. The retail tenant is Forever 21, a purveyor of trendy fashions for women. Long-time tenant Bank of America has moved its branch to below street level. As of early 2008, monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $3,900.

Storm Season

^{FLOOD BUILDING and ALBERT S. SAMUELS CLOCK – 870 and 856 MARKET STREET}

Flood Building. 1904 (restored following 1906 earthquake and fire). Architect: Albert Pissis. Twelve stories. Steel frame construction, Colusa sandstone facade (extensively restored mid-1990s).

James C. Flood (1826-1889), one of the Silver Kings of the 1870s, was the financial mind behind the Consolidated Virginia mine, which yielded the largest mineral strike in U.S. history. The grandiosity of the building that bears his name reflects his tremendous wealth. Truly a monumental edifice, its facing is entirely of hand carved stone and the elaborate ornamentation looks like an architect’s holiday. The four-faced clock, now a historical landmark insured by Lloyd’s of London, was built by jeweler Albert S. Samuels in 1915.

Postcard, circa 1904.

Source: San Francisco History Center, S.F. Public Library

Baldwin Hotel, 1898. Before the Flood Building, there was the Baldwin Hotel, here photographed during the fire that destroyed it.

Late Winter – Hobart Building

^{HOBART BUILDING – 582-592 MARKET STREET}

Although the buildings in this image and the one following lie outside the area covered in this chapter, I have included them to illustrate the depletion of San Francisco’s architectural legacy as it is supplanted with impersonal, antiseptic constructions that stand cold and aloof to what remains of our history.

I had taken a walk down Market Street to my favorite tobacco shop to buy a handful of cigars, and on my way back home I stopped at a sidewalk cafe to have a double cappuccino. A glorious morning on the first day of March seemed like a good time to give myself some treats. While seated at one of the sidewalk tables, I was admiring some of the surrounding architecture and noticed what was happening with the shadows that played across the facade of the Hobart Building. It was Pythagorean poetry.

The 500 block on Market Street contains two structures by Willis Polk, 564 Market and the Hobart Building at 582 Market, which is thought to have been Polk’s favorite commercial building. He was the most active architect during the reconstruction of the city after the earthquake and fire, designing 106 buildings between 1906 and 1914.

Abyss

^{(VANTAGE POINT: MARINES’ MEMORIAL HOTEL – 609 SUTTER STREET)}

When a building has been around for a while it shows signs of time’s passage, revealing its history in a wonderfully arcane visual language. What I captured with my camera here can’t be seen from street level; it is a hidden world. With the encroachment of new skyscrapers in the distance, this image symbolizes for me what is happening to all cities in America today. In the forty years I have lived in San Francisco, I have witnessed the passing of much that was admirable and unique. It saddens me that this chapter is largely an epitaph for what used to be.

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