The Acme, the first theatre in Noe Valley, was running from around 1908 until around 1916. It was on the south side of the street between Noe and Castro.
In this 1927 photo from the Jack Tillmany collection what had been the Acme is the second building in, with the typical arched nickelodeon style front. We're looking east from Castro St. The Acme is listed in Henry's 1907-08 Official Western Theatrical Guide as being at 24th and Castro.
Other small theatres in the neighborhood opening later were the Palmer Theatre in the same block at 4045 24th St. and the Vicksburg at 3867 24th.
Seating: 350
Status: It's probable the theatre building is still there and remodeled.
Of the 58 nickelodeons running in San Francisco in 1909, 25 were deemed unsafe by Fire Chief Shaugnessey and needed to be remodeled to stay in business. The Acme was on the list.
Thanks to Jack Tillmany for finding this article that appeared in the
March 30, 1909 issue of the San Francisco Call. The paper is available
online from the UC Berkeley Bancroft Library.
The two Acmes were listed as being among theatres that were participating in a May 11, 1911 benefit for Children's Hospital in this article from the May 27 issue of The Film Index. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for locating this list via Internet Archive.
The theatre appears toward the left at 4083 as "Moving Pictures" in this detail from image 62 of volume 7 of the 1914 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map that's in the Library of Congress collection. Thanks to Art Siegel for locating it. Castro St. is on the left, Noe St. on the right.
A closer look at the southeast corner of Castro and 24th.
George Knowles had been running the Acme in 1916 when it was taken over by Ford & Myers. This item located by Jack Tillmany appeared in the June 17, 1916 issue of Moving Picture World. It's unknown how long the Acme's Sunday-only operation continued.
The Acme location in 2017. It's a post office. Jack comments: "When Gary & I walked by the post office, we gave it
the once over, and agreed it's probably more or less the Acme building,
rebuilt to meet whatever contemporary building codes demand." Photo: Google Maps.
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.
The Acme gets a brief mention in a 2003 Noe Valley Voice story "The Movie Palaces of 24th St."
The big house in the neighborhood was the Noe Theatre, opening in 1937.
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