Opened: It debuted as the Excelsior Theatre in 1911 and closed in 1915. It was on the west side of the street, north of Onondaga. That's two blocks south of Ocean Ave.
The report from Jack Tillmany: "Its earliest telephone directory listing is February 1911, and earliest city directory listing is August 1911. In addition to being the neighborhood nickelodeon, it also served as a local gathering place for speech making and political concerns; popular Mayor Rolph chose to use it as the site of his hands on meetings with his constituents there in September 1911, for example. The last city directory listing of it as the Excelsior was in June 1915, after which it disappears from the records."
It later reopened as the Bell Theatre and perhaps closed for good in 1919.
Status: The remodeled building is still there on Mission St.
A May 10, 1915 SFMTA photo looking north from Persia St. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for finding it in the collection. He notes that the theatre, here still called the Excelsior, closed the month after the photo.
A detail of the theatre building from the May 1915 photo.
An August 18, 1919 view north on Mission of track work being done that's in the SFMTA archives. Thanks to Bob Ristelhueber for posting the photo on the BAHT Facebook page.
Jack Tillmany comments: "By the time of this photo, it had obviously already been closed up for some time, but the Green Valley Bakery and macaroni factory next door seems to still be doing OK."
A closer August 1919 view of the theatre as the Bell from the Jack Tillmany collection. A smaller version of it is on the San Francisco Public Library website.
Other Bells: There was a Bell Theatre at 3266 Mission in 1910, replaced by the New Bell at 3259 in 1911. Just to keep it interesting there was also a Bell Theatre listed that year at 540 Columbus.
More information: Jack Tillmany's Arcadia Publishing book "Theatres of San Francisco" can be previewed on Google Books. It's available from Amazon or your local bookseller.
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