The Castro Theatre is a historic movie palace in the Castro District of San Francisco, California. The venue became San Francisco Historic Landmark #100 in September 1976. Located at 429 Castro Street, it was built in 1922 with a California Churrigueresque façade that pays homage—in its great arched central window surmounted by a scrolling pediment framing a niche—to the basilica of Mission Dolores nearby. Its designer, Timothy L. Pflueger, also designed Oakland's Paramount Theater and other movie theaters in California during that period. The theater has more than 1,400 seats.
A movie palace is a large, elaborately decorated movie theater built from the 1910s to the 1940s. The late 1920s saw the peak of the movie palace, with hundreds opening every year between 1925 and 1930. With the advent of television, movie attendance dropped, while the rising popularity of large multiplex chains in the 1980s and 1990s signaled the obsolescence of single-screen theaters. Many movie palaces were razed or converted into multiple-screen venues or performing arts centers, though some have undergone restoration and reopened to the public as historic buildings.
Thomas White Lamb was a Scottish-born, American architect. He was one of the foremost designers of theaters and cinemas of the 20th century.
El Capitan Theatre is a fully restored movie palace at 6838 Hollywood Boulevard in the Hollywood neighborhood in Los Angeles, California, United States. The theater and adjacent Hollywood Masonic Temple is owned by The Walt Disney Company and serves as the venue for a majority of the Walt Disney Studios' film premieres.
The Paramount Theatre is a 2,807-seat performing arts venue located at 9th Avenue and Pine Street in the downtown core of Seattle, Washington, United States. The theater originally opened on March 1, 1928, as the Seattle Theatre, with 3,000 seats. It was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on October 9, 1974, and has also been designated a City of Seattle landmark.
The Mayfair Music Hall was an English music hall-styled vaudeville theater devised and created by entrepreneur Milt Larsen, located in Santa Monica, California.
Timothy Ludwig Pflueger was an architect, interior designer and architectural lighting designer in the San Francisco Bay Area in the first half of the 20th century. Together with James R. Miller, Pflueger designed some of the leading skyscrapers and movie theaters in San Francisco in the 1920s, and his works featured art by challenging new artists such as Ralph Stackpole and Diego Rivera. Rather than breaking new ground with his designs, Pflueger captured the spirit of the times and refined it, adding a distinct personal flair. His work influenced later architects such as Pietro Belluschi.
An atmospheric theatre is a type of movie palace design which was popular in the late 1920s. Atmospheric theatres were designed and decorated to evoke the feeling of a particular time and place for patrons, through the use of projectors, architectural elements and ornamentation that evoked a sense of being outdoors. This was intended to make the patron a more active participant in the setting.
S. Charles Lee was an American architect recognized as one of the most prolific and distinguished motion picture theater designers on the West Coast.
Victoria Theatre is a 480-seat theater in San Francisco's Mission District, which presents locally produced original plays, live concerts, film festivals, musicals, performances by international performing companies and other kinds of events. The theater is located at 2961-16th Street in San Francisco, California. It was not connected to the Red Vic, a now-closed repertory movie theater in the Haight.
The Empress Theatre is a historical landmark located in downtown Vallejo, California built in 1911. It was re-opened in 2008 after nearly 20 years of disuse following the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. The one room movie house has undergone complete renovation and seismic retrofit. Operated as a non-profit, it now shows movies, hosts live performances, and is rented for private events.
The Broadway Theater District in the Historic Core of Downtown Los Angeles is the first and largest historic theater district listed on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). With twelve movie palaces located along a six-block stretch of Broadway, it is the only large concentration of movie palaces left in the United States. The same six-block stretch of Broadway, and an adjacent section of Seventh Street, was also the city's retail hub for the first half of the twentieth century, lined with large and small department stores and specialty stores.
The Alhambra Theatre is a Moorish Revival movie theater building at 2330 Polk Street in San Francisco, California, that opened on November 5, 1926. The theater was designed by Miller & Pflueger.
Reid & Reid, also known as Reid Brothers, was an American architectural and engineering firm that was active from 1880 to 1932. Established in Indiana by Canadian immigrants, the firm moved to the West Coast and became was the most prominent firm in San Francisco, California in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
The Ventura Theatre is a historic live concert venue in downtown Ventura, California. This was "the only luxury theatre built in Ventura County in the 1920s in the "style of the great movie palaces." The lavish, elegant interior of gilt and opulence was originally designed by Robert E. Power Studios of San Francisco and has been restored. The theatre with a capacity of 1,150 and a flanking office building were designed by architect L. A. Smith in the Spanish Colonial Revival architecture that was favored by architects of motion picture theaters during the 1920s.
The Loew's Valencia Theatre is a former movie palace at 165-11 Jamaica Avenue in Queens, New York City. Built in 1929 as one of the Loew's Wonder Theatres, the theater was donated to The Tabernacle of Prayer for All People in 1977. It was designated an exterior landmark on May 25, 1999 by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission.
Hollywood Boulevard Commercial and Entertainment District consists of twelve blocks between the 6200 and 7000 blocks of Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles. This strip of commercial and retail businesses is recognized for its historical significance and was entered into the National Register of Historic Places in 1984.
The California Theatre is a historic theatre in Old Town Pittsburg, Callifornia.
The Metro Theatre is a historic 1924 building and former single screen theatre in the Cow Hollow neighborhood of San Francisco, California, U.S.. The building was listed by the city as a San Francisco Designated Landmark in June 21, 2009; and has a historic marker. It is also known as the Metro Theater, and the Metropolitan Theater. The building is now used as a private gym.
