The Dragon Theatre

731 Grant Ave. | map |



Opened: It was running c.1909 as the Dragon Theatre with C. Ricketson as manager according to Jack Tillmany's research. It was also known as the Kinetoscope, as we see in the postcard.

Seating: 142

The building, still surviving, is on the west side of the street at the head of Commercial St. The address seen on the postcard is 739 but the current address for the space is 731. The 739 address lands you in a building off to the right. Thanks to Bob Ristelhueber for the postcard, one he included in a set on the San Francisco History Facebook page.

It appears that originally the upper restaurant floors (once home to Hung Far Lo) were accessed only via Waverly, the street behind. A staircase, most recently used by the Four Seas Restaurant, was later added in the former Kinetoscope space to allow access from Grant. 

Status:  The closing date is unknown. The theatre's storefront space is now partly footage for the store at 729 Grant that occupies the rest of the main floor. The 2nd floor restaurant, now Mister Jiu's, uses Waverly as their entrance.



We're looking south on Grant Ave. with the Dragon Theatre space just beyond the gentleman in the lower right. Thanks to Bob Ristelhueber for the card, included in a post with other Chinatown cards on the San Francisco History Facebook page.



The space with the blue awning was once the theatre's entrance. Photo: Bill Counter - 2016 

| back to top | San Francisco Theatres: by address and neighborhood | alphabetical list | list by architect | pre-1906 theatre list | home

No comments:

Post a Comment