2550 Mission St. | map | Also see: New Mission - interior views
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As a nickelodeon: It opened as the Premium Theatre in 1910. The location is on the west side of the street between 21st and 22nd. It's across the street from the hulk that used to be the Crown Theatre.
Architect: Henry H. Meyers designed the original theatre on the site. The facade drawing is from the March 1910 plans
for the project that are in the Gary Parks collection. A dozen images
from the plans are down near the bottom of the page.
Seating: About 400. The house was 34 rows deep with one center aisle.
This was a larger replacement theatre for a Premium at 2692 Mission St. That 300 seater had opened as the Bijou Dream around 1908. It was listed as the Premium in the 1909 and 1910 city directories. In the city directory for 1911 the Premium Theatres Co. was listed as having three theatres: the Premium at 1525 Fillmore St. (later known as the Progress Theatre), the Premium Theatre at 1063 Market St., and this new one at 2550 Mission. In the Fillmore there had also been an earlier Premium Theatre at 1305 Fillmore, a venue that became the Quality
Theatre.
An October 1911 trade magazine photo from the Jack Tillmany collection.
The Premium theatres on Market, in the Mission and in the Fillmore were
among those listed in "Nickels To Pour Into Fund From Film Shows," an
article that Art Siegel located that was part of a full page in the
April 24, 1912 issue of the Examiner that was devoted to promoting
various Titanic benefit shows. H.C. Quick was listed as manager of the three theatres.
At some point the company operating the Premium houses was bought out by Leon Kahn and Louis Greenfield. This venue, in what was destined to be the lobby of the New Mission, was last operated as the Idle Hour from mid-1913 early 1916.
Expansion to become the New Mission:
Opening: The mini-circuit of Kahn and Greenfield opened New Mission Theatre on May 14, 1916. At the time they also had the New Fillmore and the Progress. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for locating the photo in the September 23, 1916 issue of Moving Picture World. The article from that issue is reproduced lower on the page. There had been an earlier Mission Theatre at 2605 Mission, a theatre later called the Grand and then the Realart.
Architects: Reid Brothers. A bit more than a year after the opening work started to add an upper section to the balcony. The project
proceeded without a shutdown and the addition opened Nov. 15, 1917. Seating capacity was increased by 602. Work included a new two-story lobby behind
the existing inner lobby that was across the rear of the auditorium.
This
announcement of the new theatre appeared in the October 30, 1915 issue
of Motion Picture World. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for locating it. Note
that they said that the Idle Hour would probably keep running until February
1916 when it would be renovated to become the lobby for the new theatre.
Thanks to projectionist Jim Cassedy for tracking down this September 23, 1916 Moving Picture World article on Internet Archive.
In 1922, Louis
R. Greenfield, the surviving partner of the firm Kahn & Greenfield, looked back on the the history of the circuit and the
construction of the New Mission. He
was profiled in "Good Luck Fairy's Magic Wand Nothing But Hard Work...," a
story that was located by Art Siegel in the December 10, 1922 issue of
the Chronicle. An excerpt:
"...Greenfield
and his late partner, Leon L. Kahn, began their operations at the
Quality Theater, at Eddy and Fillmore streets, a house seating 199
persons, with one 'hand grind' machine in the operating room. That was
in 1908... After the Quality had succeeded, Kahn & Greenfield bought
out the Premium Theater Company, a corporation that operated seven
small houses in the Mission and on Market-street. They soon gave up on
the Market-street theaters and devoted themselves to the neighborhood
houses. The Progress came next, so named because of the 'ever forward'
motto of the firm. This house is still among those controlled by
Greenfield.
"But
he wanted to do something big, and the New Mission Theater is the
result of that desire. The Mission Theater, which was operated by the
firm, then occupied the space now used for the lobby of the New Mission.
'All the theaters then,' Greenfield said, 'were long narrow buildings,
usually stores converted into theaters. I had ideas about the sort of
house I wanted. And I knew the screen perfectly. It was my business.
First, I wanted an architect that had never built a theater, and so
would follow my plans and not try to do things he knew. I had admired
the plainness and simplicity of the Fairmont Hotel, and I found it was
built by the Reed Brothers [sic]. So I went to them and they told me
they had never built a theater, and I engaged them.'
"'We built the New
Mission, behind the existing theater, without even the people of the
Mission knowing what we were doing. It is square, you know. But when it
got up pretty well, people with screens and organs and other equipment,
found out we were building, and they came to sell me their goods. I
wanted a screen 19 by 25 feet, when the largest up to that time was 15
by 20. Pretty soon, when they discovered the dimensions of the house and
the style in which I was building it, they said I was crazy. The Minusa
Cine Product Company, who were to furnish the screen, wrote to their
agent here: You have picked a house that is certainly not being built
for for perfect projection of moving pictures, and if we were the
parties who have money invested we surely would not have let them
butcher up the house as they are doing.'
"But
Greenfield went ahead. He knew projection and was confident he was
right. So confident was he that he would not allow the screen to be
tested with a picture. 'I had the screen watched, so nobody would do
what I did not want done,' he said. 'I got the focus with a match, and
there wasn't a picture thrown on that screen, which they said was too
big and the throw too long and the house way out of shape, until it went
on at the first performance. There was never any readjustment.' That
was in 1916. The New Mission was the largest and most expensive theater
devoted to pictures for some time. After that came the New Fillmore,
another splendid theater, and the Realart, a smaller house, at
Twenty-second and Mission streets; and then the firm reached out to
Santa Cruz..."
The theatre in the lobby space was actually called the Idle Hour at the end of its life, not the Mission Theatre as noted in the article. Greenfield and his circuit were also profiled in "Public Is Boss Slogan, Key To Success,"
an article in the December 9, 1922 issue of the San Francisco Call.
Thanks to Art Siegel for locating it via the California Digital
Newspaper Collection.
An image from the Reid Brothers plans for the balcony addition that are in the Gary Parks collection. See 20 additional images from the set at the bottom of the page.
The 1922 Chronicle article quoted earlier noted that at that time the firm had the New
Fillmore, the New Mission, the Progress, the Realart, the Santa Cruz in Santa Cruz and the Princess in
Honolulu.
Later, control of the New Mission passed to the Nasser Brothers. Timothy Pflueger did a 1932 remodel for them. While some work was done in the auditorium, the most noticeable changes were a redone deco outer lobby and a striking neon-lit pylon as part of a new facade.
A December 23, 1932 ad in the Examiner showing off the theatre's new signage. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for locating this.
Seating: 2,020 after the balcony addition. In the 5 theatres after the Alamo Drafthouse renovations it's now 326, 94, 37, 45 and 37.
A November 1936 calendar. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for spotting it on eBay.
Closing: It closed as a film house May 4, 1993 and was then used as a furniture store and for storage.
The rebirth: Alamo Drafthouse did a $5+ million renovation and reopened as a 5 screen complex in December 2015. Toby Morris of Kerman Morris Architects was the project architect.
More exterior views:
This photo spread appeared as part of an ad in the September 2, 1916 issue of Moving Picture World. The New Mission's early facade is on the lower left. Thanks to Charmaine Zoe for finding the collage and adding it to her delightful Vintage Cinemas: California album on Flickr, a compendium of many interesting trade magazine items. The full page can be seen on Internet Archive, along with the rest of the issue.
Kahn & Greenfield were really excited about their ticketing system. Or, so says the manufacturer in this 1916 ad in the Moving Picture News. It appeared on the Alamo Drafthouse Facebook page. The ad can also be seen on Internet Archive.
A look north on Mission from 22nd St in 1918 from the scrapbooks of H.H. Dobbin. The building to our left would become (or was then?) the Mission Market. Down the block on the left is the New Mission Theatre, across the street is the Wigwam, later the Rialto, Crown, Cine Latino. The photo is in the collection of the California State Library. Thanks to Maureen Price for posting the view on the Facebook page San Francisco Remembered.
A c.1925 photo looking north from the Jack Tillmany collection. The New Mission has some unreadable double bill. Across the street the Wigwam is running vaudeville. Jack notes that way down the street there's no vertical yet on the Majestic but there's a glimpse of an early one across the street on the Majestic Department Store.
A Jack Tillmany collection photo taken in October 1932. Across the street the Wigwam has become a film house called the Rialto.
An October 14, 1932 photo looking south on Mission. On the right it's a last look at the marquee of the New Mission before the Timothy Pfleuger remodel. The photo appears on an Open SF History Project page.
A terrific July 1936 panorama of the street that was discovered by Jack
Tillmany. In the foreground as we look south are the Majestic Theatre on the left, later
to become the Tower, and the Majestic Furniture Co. across the street. In the distance are the New Rialto and the New Mission, the latter dominating the street with the 1932 pylon designed by Timothy Pflueger.
A July 10, 1936 shot from the SFMTA Photo Archive. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for locating it for a post on the BAHT Facebook page. Jack notes that the photo was taken because there was some track reconstruction work underway. The theatre was giving away a new Plymouth that night.
A look south in mid-July 1936 during the track work. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for sharing this detail from a larger photo. Note the new angled marquee on the Rialto.
Looking north during the last week of July 1936. Up the street on the right is the vertical for the Majestic and that of the El Capitan beyond. It's a photo from the Jack Tillmany collection. In this shot and the one below the New Mission's marquee was advertising "Big Brown Eyes" with Cary Grant and Joan Bennett along with Buster Crabbe and Monte Blue in "Desert Gold."
Looking north on July 24, 1936 with the Rialto on the right and the New Mission on the left. The photo is in the SFMTA Photo Archive collection on Flickr.
Looking north in 1939 during the Old Mission Trail celebrations. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for spotting the photo by Judith Lynch in the Open SF History Project collection and sharing it in a post on the BAHT Facebook page. Art Siegel notes that the site also has a shot of the Mission Trails Building at the 1939 Fair.
A 1939 photo from the Jack Tillmany collection of a billboard advertising "Winter Carnival" and "Island of Lost Men."
He comments: "It's promoting a double feature program playing at both New Mission and New Fillmore in November 1939. This was the initial 2nd run neighborhood release for these 2 films, after having already been shown first run, downtown, a month or so earlier. That's the NW corner of Alemany & Onondaga. Line #12 ran from 5th & Market, out Mission, Ocean Avenue, and Sloat Blvd. to the Zoo, until 1948.
"Once upon a time all the major first run venues and even some of
the nabes, such as New Mission and New Fillmore, promoted their films
with colorful 24-sheet billboards, maintained by Foster & Kleiser,
at high visibility locations all over the City, in the days when there
was an abundance of such vacant lots, which, before they were 'developed,' provided no other source of revenue
for their owners."
A Summer 1941 view from the Jack Tillmany collection. He notes that the features on the marquee are "Road Show" and "Knockout." The "Dionne Quintuplets" on the bottom line of the marquee probably referred to a newsreel item.
The
theatre is running "Stage Door Canteen" in this 1943 view from the Jack
Tillmany collection. It appears with a 2012 story on the Timothy
Pfleuger Blog "High Hopes for New Mission Theatre Plans." A smaller version is also on the San Francisco Public Library website.
A 1944 look north on Mission from 22nd. It's a photo on the San Francisco Public Library website. It also appears, along with many other vintage shots, on a 2009 Burrito Justice post "History Theatre -- Win Some, Lose Some." Michael Scripps also had it on the Facebook page San Francisco Remembered.
A 1944 look north on Mission from 22nd. It's a photo on the San Francisco Public Library website. It also appears, along with many other vintage shots, on a 2009 Burrito Justice post "History Theatre -- Win Some, Lose Some." Michael Scripps also had it on the Facebook page San Francisco Remembered.
Looking north in 1948. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for sharing the photo in a BAHT Facebook page post. He comments: "The New Mission showing 'The Velvet Touch' nails it as November 1948. 15 January 1949 marked the end of what had once been URR, Market Street Railway & (after the 1944 merger) Muni rail service on Mission Street, from South Ferry Terminal to the Cemeteries, as well as from 5th & Market to San Mateo on Line 40. Line 11, in its last weeks of rail service to 24th & Hoffman, is Southbound on Mission, about to turn West onto 22nd."
A March 1955 view by an unknown photographer. Thanks to Art Siegel for finding the image in the Open SF History Project collection. He notes that the New Mission was running "Vera Cruz."
A
detail from the 1955 image. That "Majestic" vertical beyond is on the
Majestic Department Store, 2474 Mission St. The sign used to be across the street on the
theatre that got renamed the Tower.
Looking north on Mission in 1966 with the New Mission down there on the left. It's a Chuck Gould photo from a Found SF page about the 22nd & Mission neighborhood.
This shot from the same shoot in 1966 as the previous photo appeared as a comment by Jimmy Alfaro to a New Mission Theatre photo posted on San Francisco Remembered by Isabella Acuña.
Looking north on Mission in 1966 with the New Mission down there on the left. It's a Chuck Gould photo from a Found SF page about the 22nd & Mission neighborhood.
This shot from the same shoot in 1966 as the previous photo appeared as a comment by Jimmy Alfaro to a New Mission Theatre photo posted on San Francisco Remembered by Isabella Acuña.
A May 1967 photo by Tom Gray from the Jack Tillmany collection.
A 1969 photo from the Jack Tillmany collection. Up the street from the Tower we get views of the Wigwam / Crown / Cine Latino and the New Mission.
A mid-70s look south from 21st with two giant marquees facing off. Thanks to Maria Iclea Kava for the post on San Francisco Remembered.
A June 1975 photo by Tom Gray from the Jack Tillmany collection.
An October 1975 view looking north on Mission with the theatre running "Mysteries From Beyond Earth" and "Kid Blue." It's a photo by Tom Gray from the Jack Tillmany collection. Jack calls our attention to the Halloween Sale at the Value Giant next door.
The photo appears (along with lots
of other great theatre views) with Sam Harnett's 2011 Bold Italic article
about dead theatres. It has also been seen on the San Francisco Remembered Facebook page. The San Francisco Public Library has a somewhat different version.
Thanks to Isabella Acuña for this 1986 look at the theatre's entrance on San Francisco Remembered. This view and many others appear on various posts on Uptown Almanac. The 1986 photo, credited to American Classic Images, appears on a 2011 post "New Mission Theater is a Dump."
A 90s look north with the theatre as a furniture store called "Evermax - Home Furnishings and Gifts." Thanks to Joe Gerrans for locating this shot for a post for the San Francisco Remembered Facebook group. He credits the shot to Shaping San Francisco.
A 1990s view south toward the vertical. Thanks to Ray Morse for sharing his photo on the San Francisco Remembered Facebook page.
A 2009 photo by Anomalous_A of the New Mission and its buddy across the street, the Crown/Cine Latino. The New Mission rehab project hadn't yet begun. The Crown's conversion into a gym was just getting started and would soon stall. The image appears in the 226 photo Mission District SF 2007-2009 album on Flickr.
Thanks to Robert Muller for this shot of the two theatres. Robert added the photo as a
comment to a 1980 photo of the Crown on the BAHT Facebook page.
The view from across the street before demo of the store on the left for the new condo construction. Thanks to Susie Q Schwinn for posting an album of 23 photos of the theatre from a variety of sources. Start at his first one on San Francisco Remembered and you can page through the rest.
Kerwin Berk comments: "I was wandering around Value Giant just before they closed it. The back exit door was accidentally left open and unchained so I walked outside. The store shared a back area with the theatre that you couldn't see from the street behind it. Positively dystopian - graffiti-covered, old theatre parts and an almost vertical concrete stair that led to the back exit doors of the theatre. I started going up the stairs to explore but the manager of Giant Value came out and said I couldn't be back there ... damn."
A 2013 look north with the Giant Value store this side of the New
Mission gone and the Crown stripped down to a skeleton and abandoned.
Thanks to Dashiell Merrick-Kamm for posting the Chriss Carlson photo on
the Facebook page San Francisco Remembered. It's from a Found SF page about the 22nd & Mission neighborhood.
A July 2013 photo taken by Bob Ristelhueber. He shared this one and the photo below on the BAHT Facebook page. Gary Parks comments: "With the brick structure of the nickelodeon, which ultimately became the New Mission's lobby, clearly visible. The nickelodeon blueprints show exactly that same profile--even the same type of roof ventilation units."
A July 2013 signage detail from Bob Ristelhueber.
A 2014 view with work happening on the vertical. Photo: Bill Counter
A photo by David Wakely in a lovely portfolio from Architectural Resources Group.
A 2016 photo by Thomas Hawk appearing with "Neon Dreams: 16 old theater marquees around the Bay Area," a February 2018 article on Curbed SF.
A 2016 photo by Al Barna that was part of an exhibit by SF Neon at the San Francisco Public Library titled "San Francisco Neon Survivors and Icons." Thanks to Randall Ann for sharing it in a Facebook post.
A rainy 2024 view from SM Photography. Thanks to Sæn Claude Van Dam for sharing it in a Facebook post.
Images from the 1910 plans for the Premium Theatre in the Gary Parks collection:
Data on the architect from one of the sheets.
Also on the drawings. Gary comments: "Unusual—An extra stamp with the architect’s name, just in case anyone still was unsure who the drawings belonged to."
Information about the building's ownership and, amazingly, the plans are dated: March 11, 1910.
The front of the building. Gary comments: "A respectable facade, befitting its Mission St. location."
A closer look at the entrance ornamentation. Gary comments: "Note that there are grotesque masks depicted at each end of the arch, which clearly has stud-lit rosettes."
A section view showing the entrance doors and signs saying "Premium" and "Theatre" in leaded art glass. The boxoffice is on the right. The matching booth on the left was to contain the rectifier for the arc lamps.
Several details of steel work, electrical, and marble trim at the entrance.
In the auditorium looking back toward the booth. Better seen on the section view below, the booth was about a third of the way into the seating area.
A longitudinal section of the building. Note the booth nearly in the middle of the drawing. Gary comments: "Interesting to see how much seating was beneath and behind the
booth. There’s not much of a rake to the seating, but the screen is
mounted fairly high on the wall. Note the metal vent chimneys. I
remember at least some of those were still visible when the structure
was being seismically retrofitted during the New Mission renovation."
A detail from the section drawing showing the entrance end of the building.
The center of the building. Note the ladder for booth access. This layout with the booth so far forward but no balcony would later be seen in Los Angeles at Sid Grauman's Egyptian and Chinese theatres.
A detail from the section drawing showing the screen end of the building.
The building's floorplan. Gary comments: "While the rows of seats are indicated, the actual seats themselves
are not marked, so I didn’t try to get a seat count here."
A detail from the floorplan showing the entrance end of the building. Gary comments: "Once again, we have an orchestrion in the lobby." The theatre's one toilet was on the house left end of the lobby.
The floorplan of the stage end of the building. Thanks, Gary!
Images from the plans for the 1917 balcony expansion in the Gary Parks collection:
A title block from one of the sheets. Gary comments: "These drawings, stamped Approved by the Department of Works in 1917,
show the draughtsmanship of the Reid Bros. office at its best. I was captivated by the cleanliness of the lines and detail."
A first floor plan. Gary comments: "Being blueprints of the balcony extension, which was added to the
1916 theatre in 1917, the 'main action' is over on the right. However,
this drawing which includes a basic outline of the whole auditorium is
interesting because it shows the profile of an ornamental border which
surrounded the wall-mounted screen. One can see openings between it and
the inner pair of columns, where actors, dancers, and other talent
could enter and exit. Having been backstage for the first time at the
New Mission in 1991, I can attest that the ornamental screen frame is
long gone. The Corinthian columns are still there, of course."
A detail of the stage area from the floorplan.
An elevation of part of the house right side of the theatre back on Bartlett St., a block west of Mission. That bump up on the left isn't a stagehouse -- that end of the building is off to the right. The area with the higher roofline is the new addition to the back of the balcony.
Gary comments: "The
racetrack-shaped thing on the right is a very nicely-planned system of
catwalks and lighting access for the new, cove-lit dome which hung over
the balcony extension." At the left it's a layout of the seating risers with the very shallow original balcony on the far left and the new addition behind it.
A closer look at the riser layout.
Gary comments: "From my photos and memories of how the New Mission lobby still
is—for the most part, I can say that the areas were built as drawn.
Perhaps there were some variations in the inset ornamental panels, but
not much. Even during the early thirties Pflueger remodel, these areas
were left mostly untouched: New Deco light fixtures, furniture, carpet
and paint…and that was about it."
A detail from the lower drawing in the previous image showing ornament at the bottom of the house left end of the stairs.
A closer look at the upper section view of the stairs from the larger drawing. Gary comments: "It’s interesting to see on the floor plans that this little
added space under the stairs in the lower center of this image is referred to as the Board Room. Perhaps
the New Mission was the location of a District Office? The extensive (analog) 'cut and paste' work that was done on
most of these drawings resulted in considerable warping of the
underlying paper, thus, the inability to flatten parts of some
drawings."
This is an elevation of a section of the north wall of the inner lobby at the back of the main floor that was part of the earlier version of the theatre. Although not in the new space, they were evidently giving it a refresh and making it more elaborate.
The new two-story lobby is behind this wall, with an entrance to it off to the right. Heading farther to the right you'd be in the outer lobby and Mission St.
A closer look at the proposed re-do of a decorative panel on the north wall of the inner lobby.
An elevation showing the re-do of the south wall of the inner lobby. We're looking toward the screen with an entrance to one of the aisles on the left. The booth is on the main floor farther off to the right.
A section through the new addition looking west toward house right. Bartlett St. is behind the side wall. Note the balcony configuration of the original theatre on the left, shown with dashed lines. The original inner lobby, not indicated here, is just to the left of center, before the floor starts sloping. Gary comments:
"Who would have thought in the early years of the twentieth century that this necessary extension of the balcony and
lobbies—done to accommodate the immense popularity of the theatre, would
one-day be a key saving grace of the building in the early twenty-first century? It is this plethora of passages, stairs, ramps, and
lounges—and the generous extra balcony space above them—which enabled
the theatre to have its practical and creative remodeling into a
five-screen theatre, with bar, kitchen, restaurant, and in-theatre table
service."
A detail of the stairs from the section seen above. The earlier inner lobby and auditorium are off to the left.
A detail of the stairs and the second floor on the west side of the space.
A detail from the section showing the dome and house right wall at the top of the new seating area. Gary comments: "Comparison of the dome’s plaster ornament as drawn with what is
actually there reveals that the final product was somewhat more ornate
and fanciful that what is shown here. This dome and the decorative
panels on the walls can still be enjoyed as a complete space, used today
as the uppermost screen in the complex. For an auditorium whose width
is considerably greater than its depth, the sightlines are remarkably
good."
A view north toward the back of the addition.
With the Alamo renovation of the theatre, this upper section is a separate theatre. Three much smaller screens are in the balcony spaces below the crossaisle, with the front of the balcony extended forward to provide more room for screens and speakers. The main floor is a single screen, relatively untouched, although with substantially reduced capacity due to the new layout of seats with attached tables.
A detail of the ornament on the house left end of the crossaisle.
A plan of the ceiling above the new seating area and crossaisle.
A closer look at the drawing of the dome.
A seating plan for the existing balcony and the new addition.
A seating breakdown from the previous drawing. Thanks, Gary!
See the Cinema Treasures page on the New Mission. A 2017 National Trust article featured nice photos of the theatre. There's a page about the theatre on the site Noe Hill. A December 2015 SFist article, "A Peek Inside...," included many photos of the project.
The Wall Street Journal ran a Sept. 5, 2012 story while the renovation project was underway.
At the time of the opening the main theatre was equipped for 35mm as well as digital. The two stacked digital machines are Sony 4k model SRX-R515DS. The 35s later got swapped out for a pair of Century 35/70s.
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.
Pages on the New Mission: back to top - history + exterior views | interior views
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