The Alcazar Theatre

 116 O'Farrell St. | map |

Opened: The Alcazar building opened on April 1, 1885 but the theatre space in the building wasn't ready until November of that year. This November 1886 photo by O.V. Lange from the Marilyn Blaisdell collection appears on the Open S.F. History Project website.  

Art Siegel notes: "The photo was dated by the poster for 'Boccaccio' with the Pyke Opera Co., which opened November 6, 1886." Versions of the photo are also on Calisphere from the Museum of Performance and Design and on the San Francisco Public Library website. The Library credits it to Hosea Blair. 

The building was a project of Michael H. de Young, one of the two brothers owning the Chronicle. The theatre was envisioned as a playhouse that would be friendly for the family trade to attend. The location was on the north side of O'Farrell between Stockton and Powell, just east of Fischer's Theatre, 122 O'Farrell St. The Orpheum, opened in 1887, was across the street at 119 O'Farrell St.

Architect: William Patton. He was mentioned as the architect in captions for the 1886 exterior photo above as well as a lobby photo when they appeared in an architecture publication. The construction was supervised by George Wallenrod, one of the principals of the firm Wallenrod, Osbourne & Stockwell. He became the theatre manager and, several years later, the superintendent of the rest of the building as well. 

Art Siegel notes that various spaces in the building had initial use for meetings, mostly for fraternal societies. He found a mention in the March 28, 1885 Daily Alta California noting that the Society of Old Friends was planning to move their meetings to the building in April. 

November 16, 1885 was the building's debut as a theatre with a concert by the singer Emma Nevada. It was not just any theatre but "The Handsomest Decorated Hall *** (Moorish)*** In the World."

Thanks to Art Siegel for locating this ad in the November 1, 1885 Daily Alta California.

This article also appeared in the November 1, 1885 Daily Alta California. It was located by Art via the California Digital Newspaper Collection:

"San Francisco has long felt the need of a general entertainment hall, suitable to the advanced tastes of the majority of its people. For years past it has had none such. The Alcazar on O'Farrell street, which is nearly completed, is designed to supply the existing want, and no house of amusement could possibly be better adapted to that object. It is unquestionably one of the finest entertainment halls in the world, rivaling many of those of greatest celebrity in Europe. It reproduces the choicest features of Moorish architecture, copied in part directly from the Alhambra. 

"The plan of the hall and its dependent rooms and corridors, is very convenient. The main floor can be cleared and made ready for dancing in just fifteen minutes. By descending two or three steps the visitors find themselves among spacious supper-rooms, kitchens and toilet rooms, tastefully decorated and elaborately furnished. After a concert has been given the entire audience may take refreshments and, when they return to the hall, will find it converted into a ballroom. The Alcazar is cosy in its proportions, being neither too small nor too large. Seats are both comfortable and elegant, covered with a rich crimson velvet. 

"But the chief impressiveness of the Alcazar is in the bewildering wealth of form effects and color effects produced by its interior; the great vestibule is arched overhead in fantastic fashion, and the carved canopy is supported by lofty pillars with golden shafts; broad and sweeping stairways lead to the balcony or dress circle; massive pillars, that suggest the ancient Hindoo temples, hold up the heavy ceilings, adorned in blended or varied tints and shades, which preserve throughout a marvelously perfect harmony. 

"Gold, silver and bronze meet the eye everywhere; the face of the balcony is a beautiful colonnade with requisite panels between silver pillars; it is continued in front of the boxes, on each side of the stage. These are without canopies and are separated from the neighboring stalls by a carved balustrade. From the centre of the ceiling a glass globe depends, enmeshed in golden cords. The proscenium arch is magnificent in its proportions and its adornment. The stage is well equipped, but it is not intended that the entertainments given here shall be theatrical in their nature. The Alcazar will open with the concert of Mile. Nevada on November 16th."

There was a sneak preview of the house a few days before the inaugural concert. Thanks to Art for locating this in a column of theatre news in the November 12, 1885 Daily Alta California:

"The New Alcazar. The opening last night of the new Alcazar Theatre afforded several thousand ladies and gentlemen an opportunity to privately inspect and admire one of the most beautiful theatrical bijous in the whole country. The general arrangements of the house were as nearly perfect as possible although a few touches here and there are necessary to complete its adornments. 

"The brilliant lights, rich and unique Moresque [sic] decorations brightened by columns of burnished gold and silver, made a most enchanting sight and reminded one of the Arabian Night's tales. The enterprise of the proprietor was freely and favorably commented upon by those who inspected his beautiful new temple to be devoted to art, and they left the place feeling that the time allotted was insufficient to fully appreciate all its lovely features."

The Alcazar was described in great detail in a full page article in the November 15, 1885 issue of the Chronicle. Thanks to Art Siegel for locating it. As he says: "This was no surprise given that it was M.H. de Young's building":

 

The grand opening of the theatre was detailed in "A Brilliant Affair," a page five article in the November 17 Chronicle. Jack Tillmany found the story on Newsbank. Art Siegel comments: 

"I guess it wasn't ready for prime time? Maybe the new managers should have read the part in the November 1, 1885 Daily Alta California article about 'The stage is well equipped but it is not intended that the entertainments given here shall be theatrical in their nature.'"

Art found this in the Amusements column of the March 28, 1886 Daily Alta California, just four and a half months after the opening: 

"The proprietor of the Alcazar Theatre has become convinced of several errors in its design and has closed it for extensive alterations, to include a complete rearrangement of the main floor plan, providing for a raised floor, stage-boxes, dress circle and parquet divisions; the latest design opera chairs, superior in comfort and elegance to any in use in this city. 

"Every detail pertaining to ventilation and noise-deafening [deadening?] for walls and ceiling will receive the most practical attention. The house will be reopened as a regular theatre in about two weeks. Among the engagements is that of Miss Isabel Morris, supported by an Eastern company, April 26th."

 

This ad for the April 26 grand reopening appeared in the April 22, 1886 Daily Alta California. Thanks to Art Siegel for locating it via the California Digital Newspaper Collection.  

 

The same exterior drawing of the building that had appeared in the November 15, 1885 issue of the Chronicle popped up again in their January 1, 1887 issue. This time it was with a spread headlined "The Theatres - The Efforts of Our Local Impresarios - A Year Among the Actors" that also profiled the Bush Street, the Baldwin and Vienna Garden. Thanks to Art Siegel for locating the article. The comments about the Alcazar, which they headed "Brief Sketch of a Successful Season": 

 

"All the world's a stage, and it may be added that San Francisco stages furnish the most varied performances in all the world... Few theaters have sprung so suddenly into popular favor as the Alcazar. The reason is not far to seek. First, it is without question the handsomest theater in the city, and then the management have striven to hit and have succeeded in catching the popular tastes in the plays they have placed on its boards. 

 

"During the fourteen months that the theater has been thrown open to the public the programme has been of the most varied, and the success which has attended the introduction of each succeeding opera, burlesque, tragedy or melodrama has been very marked. 

 

"Early in the past year M. H. de Young, the proprietor, introduced important changes in the internal arrangement of the theater. The floor was raised to as to slope toward the stage; a regular dress circle and orchestra were formed and the latest and most convenient seats were supplied. These alterations put the finishing touch on the interior. George Wallenrod, a gentleman hitherto well known in journalistic circles, became the lessee and manager of the theater; and crowded houses were the order of the day. 

 

"Among the specially attractive events of the year may be mentioned the introduction of a series of tableaux vivants and the comedy 'Our Boys,' in which a number of prominent people in society took part for the benefit of the Crocker Kindergarten. Miss Isabel Morris, Jefffreys Lewis and Mssrs. Stockwell and Osbourne, as well as a number of the leading lights of the mimic world, appeared upon the boards before delighted audiences. 

 

"More recently the Pyke Opera Company, with Jeannie Winston and Louise Manfred, introduced comic opera with much success. In the early part of the fall season Messrs. Osbourne and Stockwell joined forces with George Wallenrod, and these three gentlemen now form a private company and are responsible to a great extent for the popularity of the Alcazar."

 

The Alcazar on the 1887 Sanbrorn Fire Insurance Map. Thanks to Art Siegel for locating it on the copy online from the Library of Congress. They mention the gas footlights. The dressing rooms and scene shop were in the basement. Lodge rooms were on the 2nd floor, the Olympic Club on 3.

A main floor and dress circle seating chart. It appeared in the 1889 San Francisco Blue Book. The link will get you to the beginning of the theatre seating chart section, covering seven theatres. It's on Internet Archive. Thanks to Bob Ristelhueber for finding these gems and posting on the BAHT Facebook page.  

The balcony seating chart from the 1889 San Francisco Blue Book.

 

 

 

A view of the new City Hall taken in 1889 by A.J. McDonald. Thanks to Art Siegel for locating this in the California State Library collection. Where's the Alcazar? Well, check out the construction fence in the lower center.  

 

 

A detail from the 1889 shot. The Alcazar was advertising a production of "In the Leather Patch" starring Edward Harrigan. Art located a mention of the show in the July 18, 1889 Daily Alta California. It's on the California Digital Newspaper Collection website. 

 

In 1896, in the middle of the afternoon of July 4, lessee and theatre manager George Wallenrod left his son upstairs, had a glass of whiskey at the bar, and went down to the electrician's office in the basement under the stage where he killed himself with a pistol. Thanks to Mark Reed for researching the event. His report:

 

"In covering the suicide, the San Francisco Call reporter doubled as drama critic in his account of Wallenrod's final moments in the basement, ending 'The pistol dropped at his right hand and as he fell his hand grasped the back of a chair... The body swayed around and fell face downward across the floor and the chair fell on top of it, and George Wollenrod [sic] had made his exit... He was uninvariably [sic] cherished as a friend -- a kind, considerate, genial friend; a good companion.' (SF Call, 7/6/1896). Misspelling an actor's name, the unkindest cut of all."

 

Mark's post about the event on the San Francisco History to the 1920s Facebook page revolves around Wallenrod's home at 2618 Bryant St., called the Alcazar Cottage. See the post and its comments for an illustration of the cottage as well as links for more information. 

 

 

The story was picked up for the July 5 issue of the Sacramento Union-Record. It's an item located by Mark Reed. 

 

 

George Wallenrod. It's an illustration that appeared in the July 6, 1896 issue of the San Francisco Call. Thanks to Mark Reed for locating it. 

The cover for a February 1897 program for "Andy Blake."

 

 

Inside pages from the "Andy Blake" program.  

 

Another page from the 1897 "Andy Blake" program. Thanks to Bob Ristelhueber for locating this for a post on the BAHT Facebook page. 

This 1900 program cover is on Calisphere from the Museum of Performance and Design Performing Arts Library.   

A 1904 program cover from the 413th consecutive week of the Alcazar Stock Company. Mr. White Whittlesey was appearing in a play in four acts, "Rupert of Hentzau" by Anthony Hope. It's on  Calisphere from the Museum of Performance and Design Performing Arts Library. 

 

 

The Alcazar and its neighbor Fischer's Theatre are seen in this detail from Volume 1, pages 35-36 of the 1905 Sanborn Fire Insurance Atlas. It appears on the website of the David Rumsay Historical Map Collection. Also see a discussion page on the site's blog with links to various pages of the six volume publication. That's O'Farrell on the left and Geary St. running up the right side of the image.

 

A page from a 1905 program when the theatre was running Ibsen's "Ghosts." Thanks to Rick Bellamy for sharing this from a program in his collection. It was a post on the BAHT Facebook page."Are You a Mason?" was back for another run in 1906 and was playing at the time of the earthquake.

Closed: Well, the April 1906 earthquake and fire did it in. 

A New Alcazar, a venue that ended up being called the Uptown, opened in the Fillmore district in March 1907. Also see the page on the 3rd Alcazar Theatre, on O'Farrell St. a block up from this original house. 

 

The lobby:

A November 1886 lobby view by O.V. Lange from the Marilyn Blaisdell collection that appears on the Open SF History Project website. 

More exterior views: 

The entrance to the theatre in 1896. It's a photo from the Jack Tillmany collection.

A 1901 view looking toward Market. On the left it's Fischer's Theatre with the Alcazar just beyond. On the right it's the original Orpheum Theatre with its awning sticking out to the edge of the sidewalk. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for the photo from his collection. 

A c.1905 look at the entrance. Thanks to Glenn Koch for the photo, one that appeared in an October 1906 souvenir program in his collection for the Colonial Theatre, a house later known as the President. It was part of a portfolio honoring theatres lost in the fire and earthquake plus a few of the hasty replacements. See Glenn's post on the BAHT Facebook page for 26 more images from the program.

A February 6, 1905 view east from Powell St. with Fischer's and the Alcazar on the left. In the gloom down the block on the right is the Orpheum's awning. The photo from the Marilyn Blaisdell collection appears on the Open SF History Project website.

Other versions of the photo appear on Calisphere from the Museum of Performance and Design Performing Arts Library and in the scrapbooks of Hamilton Henry Dobbin in the California State Library collection. The San Francisco Public Library also has a version as well as a detail from the photo.

 

An April 18, 1906 photo with the fire still south of Market but only several hours remained before the destruction of the theatres. On the left is a bit of the Alcazar with signage for "Are You a Mason?" and the bottom several letters of the theatre's vertical visible. The Orpheum's awning is on the right. 

Thanks to Art Siegel for locating this view by W.E. Worden that's in the Open SF History Project collection. He notes that in the distance the signage is visible for the Oberon Concert Hall on the tapered roof of that building's tower at O'Farrell and Stockton. Just beyond is the signage on the side of the Belvedere Music Hall at 30 O'Farrell.


The aftermath:

A Bear Photo Co. view toward the Call Building after the earthquake and fire. Fischer's Theatre is on the near left and the short ruin of the Alcazar is just beyond. The Orpheum is on the right with the skeleton of the rounded awning that had extended out to the curb still visible. The photo appears in the California State Library collection.

Looking into the ruins in April 1906. The photo from the scrapbooks of Jesse Brown Cook is on Calisphere from the Bancroft Library's collection. 

A look at the north side of the street with Fischer's on the left and the Alcazar ruins in the middle. The photo by Sacramento photographers Hodson & Walsh is in the San Francisco Public Library collection.

This colored postcard version of the previous photo appears on Calisphere from the Museum of Performance and Design, Performing Arts Library.

A later look toward Market with more of the wall between the Alcazar and Delmonico's collapsed. The photo from the Wyland Stanley collection appears on the Open SF History Project website. The site also has another version of the photo. 

A closer view toward Market with the Alcazar on the left. The building beyond at 110 O'Farrell once housed Delmonico's restaurant. The ruins of the Orpheum are on the right. The photo appears on the website of the Open SF History Project.   

Looking west from Stockton. The Orpheum is on the left at 119 O'Farrell. On the right it's Delmonico's at 110, the Alcazar at 116 and Fischer's at 122. The Pillsbury Picture Co. photo from the Zelinsky collection appears on the Open SF History Project website. 

A California Historical Society photo looking from Stockton up toward Powell. The Orpheum is part of the mess at the left. The Alcazar is the second building on the right, followed by Fischer's. The photo is on Calisphere. A version of the photo is also in the San Francisco Public Library collection.

This similar view but taken back a tad farther by Lisle C. Green is in the San Francisco Public Library collection.

Yet another shot up from Market of with the Alcazar and Fischer's ruins beyond the tall building on the right. The Orpheum, up there on the left, still has the skeleton of its awning that extended out to the street. It's in the USC Digital Library collection, where they give a credit to Preston Photo with J.D. Cardinell as the photographer.   

 

A fine view of the theatre ruins on O'Farrell St. from above. At the left, that's Powell St. headed up Nob Hill going by the burned-out St. Francis Hotel. Fischer's is the building just right of center with the 5 arches on the second floor. To its right is/was the Alcazar. On the near side of the street in the lower right we get a look at the inside of the arch that was the entrance to the Orpheum. Thanks to R. Christian Anderson for adding the photo as a comment to a post on the San Francisco History Facebook page about Enrico Caruso's 1906 visit. And thanks also to Glenn Koch for spotting it there.  

 

 

Ruins of buildings at Geary and Fillmore following the earthquake. Thanks to Art Siegel for spotting the billboard for the Alcazar's show "Are You a Mason?" in this photo from the Open SF History Project website. He notes that the show was the one playing at the time of the earthquake.

The rebuilt block in the 20s:

We're looking toward Market St. in this photo from the Jack Tillmany collection. Note the repurposed Fischer's Theatre facade on Tait's Coffee Shop, that third building down. They've added a new top floor for the ballroom, Tait's Dancing Palace.

Jack comments: "Just for comparison purposes, here's a photo of the same block of O'Farrell Street, in the 1920s, with the Union Square Theatre in more or less the same location as the pre-1906 Alcazar, and just a smidgen of the Orpheum and its vertical directly across the street. Busy little block, that, with Coffee Dan's (later site of Omar Khayyam Restaurant, I believe), Tait's Dancing Palace, with Ben Black's Band, etc."

More Information: The 1906 and Earlier album on the BAHT Facebook page has photos of many San Francisco theatres before the earthquake.

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 Alcazar is mentioned on page 108 of the book "San Francisco's Lost Landmarks" by James R. Smith. It's on Google Books.


Fred Beall's article on the four Alcazars:

The article appeared in the Theatre Historical Society publication "Marquee." Thanks to Jack Tillmany for making it available. 

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