The Queen Theatre

1537 Polk St. | map |


Opened: April 16, 1910. When the Queen Theatre opened on the west side of the street a bit north of California St. it was one of the first in the neighborhood. The image of the building's half-timbered facade is from the 1910 plans for the building.

Architects: Harris Allen designed the original building. N.W. Sexton did some auditorium and facade renovations in 1915. Gary Parks has several sheets of plans from both projects. You'll find images from those blueprints down lower on the page. 

Seating: 340 originally. 57 additional seats were added at the rear of the auditorium during the 1915 renovations. 



This photo showing the look of the facade after a 1915 renovation appeared in the February 17, 1917 issue of Moving Picture World. Jack Tillmany points out that it's a sliver of the Royal Theatre on the left edge of the photo. The Royal had opened in 1916. Gary Parks comments: 

"It’s interesting how the facade and entrance evolved at some point between the 1910 drawings and what we see in the c.1917 photo. The final Queen is also Tudor, but instead of split-beam Tudor Craftsman, what is shown in the photo is more of a Tudor stone manor house. From looking at the photo I can see that alterations to the entrance — moving the doors and moving the box office out to the property line as seen in the 1915 drawings (see below) — had been made. 

"I'm assuming the split-beam Tudor facade the house had when it opened was then modified with the gables increased in pitch and the whole front getting a movie set-like faux stone skin. Structurally, it looks as if the 1915 plans were followed, save for a steepening and heightening of the two gables. The rest was a change in surface embellishment."

Closing: The Queen was running until 1920.

Status: It's possible the building is still there but got seriously remodeled for use as a branch bank.  Gary comments: "It doesn't seem to be the same building. The proportions are different, and that would have been a major remodel job. Not impossible that it's the same, just seems unlikely." There's currently a church in the space.



The February 17, 1917 issue of Moving Picture World article about the Queen.



The Queen Theatre building (if it really is) in 2015. That's the condo-ized Royal on the left. Photo: Google Maps


Images from the 1910 plans for the theatre in the Gary Parks collection:


A title block on one of the sheets.



A floor plan.



An entrance detail. Note the boxoffice and entrance recessed from the street. That would be reworked in 1915. 



The plan at booth level.



An elevation of the original half-timbered Tudor facade.



A section through the building.



 A detail of the lobby end of the section.



The seating layout. Gary comments: "This seating chart was done on a sheet of tracing vellum and was rolled up with the blueprints. Surprised to find that preserved, as well."



The title information.



The architect kindly numbered the rows for us.


Images from the 1915 renovation plans in the Gary Parks collection:


A title block from Mr. Sexton on a sheet of plans for the renovations.



A 1915 floorplan.


 
A detail from the entrance end of the plan. Note the boxoffice and entrances moved closer to the street, a revamped ladies room, and seats added at the rear of the auditorium. 

Thanks, Gary!

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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