The Class A / Temple Theatre

1745 Fillmore St. | map |

Opened: 1910 as the Class A Photoplay. The location was on the ground floor of the King Solomon's Hall Building. The November 1910 trade magazine photo appears on the Cinema Tour page about the theatre. The operating company was evidently the Fillmore St. Amusement Co. -- it got a listing that way in the 1910 and 1911 city directories.

It got renamed the Temple Theatre in 1924. The building at the time was known as the Members of Light Grand Lodge Building. The location was on the west side of the street between Post and Sutter. That's just around the corner from the AMC Kabuki 8.

Seating: 400

 

A May 1906 view north on Fillmore toward Sutter, taken after the earthquake. On the far left it's King Solomon's Hall, built in late 1905. It would later be the home of the Class A / Temple Theatre. The Art Nouveau facade next door was, at the time, the home of the Haussler Photo Studio. Later that building would house the Haussler Theatre. The three story building on the corner beyond Haussler's would later house the Shell Theatre in its south storefront.

Thanks to Art Siegel for locating this image in the Open SF History Project collection. It's by Underwood & Underwood and comes from the Martin Behrman Negative Collection of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. 

 

"Pictures - Vaudeville." It's a photo that appeared with "Dangers in Picture Shows - Law Breakers Exposed To Prevent Tragedy," an article in the September 4, 1911 issue of the San Francisco Call. Thanks to Art Siegel for locating it. One of the films advertised, "The General's Daughter," starred Alec B. Francis, Anne Schaefer and Helen Case. Their caption for this shot of the Class A:

 

"Entrance to Harry Baehr's motion picture show in Fillmore street near Sutter. It is in a good building, but only has four exits. The lights to them are dim and the doors are not easily opened."

The article also included photos of the Globe Theatre and the Wigwam Theatre, both in the Mission, to illustrate "Places where moving pictures are shown and that do not comply with the law." Here's the story, much of which is about problems at the Lyceum Theatre, also in the Mission:

 

Thanks, Art!

 

"Moving Pictures 1st - Lodge Rooms Above. It's detail from the 1913 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map showing the King Solomon's Hall auditorium in use as a film house. The Haussler Theatre, outlined in blue at 1757-1759, is the next building to the north. The space once occupied by the Shell Theatre, just north of the Haussler at 1761, had been converted to other uses by the time of this map. Fillmore is up the right side of the image, Post St. runs along the bottom.Thanks to Art Siegel for locating this via the Library of Congress collection.

 

The 1929 Sanborn map, again showing "Moving Pictures" at King Solomon's Hall. Thanks to Art Siegel for locating it. He notes that the Haussler building to the north was by this time in use only as a photo studio and no longer a theatre. This is from Insurance Maps of San Francisco, California Volume Three 1913; Revised to 1929 SHEET: 266.  

A 1964 Alan J. Canterbury photo. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for supplying this version. There's a smaller one on the San Francisco Public Library website. 

 

Status: The Temple Theatre closed May 30, 1966 and the building was demolished that year. 

 

More Information: See the Cinema Tour and Cinema Treasures page on the Temple Theatre.

Head to the Fillmore District album on the BAHT Facebook page for photos of many more theatres in the area.

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