The Majestic / Tower Theatre

 2465 Mission St. | map |

Opened: April 1912 as the Majestic Theatre. It's on the east side of the street between 20th and 21st. It had a full stage with fly capability. The photo is a March 2017 view looking south from Google Maps. 

Seating: 1,000 originally, later down to 870.

Architects: O'Brien and Werner designed the original building. At some point between 1932 and 1936 the Majestic acquired a huge vertical sign and got a new deco trapezoidal marquee. S. Charles Lee designed the 1937 moderne rebuild.

An illustration of the facade that appeared with a page four article in the July 22, 1911 Chronicle that announced the project. It was part of a spread titled "City Real Estate Affairs in Sound Condition This Season." Thanks to Jack Tillmany for finding the article. It's on Newsbank. The article gives us the name of the architects and noted that the projected cost was $50,000 and concluded with this informative sentence: "The theater has been leased for a term of years to a theatrical company."

A c.1912 photo from the Jack Tillmany collection. He comments that here it all looks pretty new.

 

A look at the east side of Mission between 20th and 21st from page 578 of the 1914 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map. Thanks to Art Siegel for locating it via the Library of Congress website. That's Mission up the left side of the image, Capp St. on the right side.

 

 

A closer look at the Majestic as it appears on the 1914 Sanborn Map. They note that the building had automatic sprinklers above the stage and in the dressing room area under the stage. Loading in a show was a problem. You either went down the narrow exit passages on either side or through the front door. 

The Majestic is mentioned as being of "splendid construction" in a article surveying San Francisco theatres in the July 15, 1916 issue of Moving Picture World. At the time it was running lots of Fox product and changing programs three times a week. You only got vaudeville with your show on Sundays. The issue is on Google Books.

Majestic Trivia: In 1919 Boris Karloff was top billed at the theatre as a member of the Robert Lawrence Stock Company performing in "St. Elmo," a dramatization of the novel of the same name. Jack Tillmany included a March 24 clipping about the show in a post on the BAHT Facebook page.

 

The cover of an October 1920 program located on eBay by Art Siegel. An inside page listed the staff including manager J.J. MacArthur and musical director Joe Levingstone. The part of the vaudeville program listed on the page we get noted that after the overture it would be an "Interesting Series of Motion Pictures" followed by Miss Lorraine, "Singing and Dancing Soubrette."

The S. Charles Lee renovation: The theatre got a new deco front by S. Charles Lee in 1937 that included a revamp of a recently installed marquee. The vertical remained unchanged. The August 1937 Architect and Engineer issue had a single sentence on page 57 noting that Lee had let contracts for the remodel but didn't specify the scope of work.  The lobby was also redone at this time.

A plan of S. Charles Lee's 1937 facade remodel from the collection of Gary Parks. He comments: 

 

"The facade went through considerable revision from drawing to actuality. While the horizontal bands and outermost pylons on the facade went up essentially as drawn, the whole central bay of the facade was reconfigured at some point during Lee's design process. The end result is actually a bit more fanciful than what is shown on the blueprints."

A boxoffice detail from the plans in the Gary Parks collection.

The 1937 lobby remodel designed by S. Charles Lee. Thanks to Gary Parks for the photo.

A lobby stair detail from the plans in the Gary Parks collection.

 

Becoming the Tower: The theatre got another remodel in 1942 that included Mexican themed murals on the auditorium walls and the "slab" facade that's still on the building today. The marquee was again redone as well. When it reopened after the work on February 20, 1942 it was called the Tower Theatre. 

 

Gary Parks notes that "when it became the Tower, the 'M' and 'E; on the marquee were reused. The 'M,' when turned upside-down, made a perfect 'W.'" It's unknown if the 1942 work was designed by S. Charles Lee or another architect. 

 

The ad appearing in the Thursday February 1, 1942 Chronicle announcing the Tower's opening on February 20. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for locating the article on Newsbank.  He calls your attention to those "Magic 'Black Light' Wall Murals."

The vertical sign that had been on the theatre came down with the 1942 remodel. Later it was reinstalled across the street on the Majestic Department Store. See a photo down at the bottom of the page. 

 

The Tower as it appears in a detail from page 578 of the 1950 Sanborn Fire Insurance Map. Thanks to Art Siegel for locating it via the Library of Congress website.

Closing: It closed as a film house c.1998, the last of the film operations on Mission St. It was later used as a church. They moved out in 2007. The building is owned by Vera Cort, who also owns the nearby hulk that used to be the Crown Theatre as wall as many other properties.

An aborted remodel for City College: Back in 2015 renovations began for was going to become a film theatre/events space for City College to be called Mission Cinema School. The blog Capp St. Crap had a January 2016 story. Working on the project were architect Leonardo Zylberberg and structural engineer Rodrigo Santos of the firm Santos & Urrutia. Santos had been part of the restoration team at the New Mission Theatre.  

Only part of it got done but the ultimate $14 million plan was to dig out a basement and end up with a six story building that would be a full film production facility. Santos seemed to be financing the project himself and was in discussions to purchase the building.

The plan was to restore the signage to its 1942 look. The first floor facade and lobby were demolished, the floor was leveled, and most of the balcony removed. The auditorium walls were furred out and covered with plywood. The City had objected to covering all of the murals. Small areas on the house left and right walls were then uncovered and were going to be restored. Later, larger areas were uncovered when the City stepped in and wanted the murals not only preserved but visible.

Elizabeth Creely's "The tales of two once-grand San Francisco theaters diverge," an August 2018 story for Mission Local, discussed the futures of the Crown Theatre and the Tower. She talked to Santos about the project and his priorities:

"Santos says the mural is the most 'crucial element' of the redesign because its restoration must be complete before the construction of the interior and exterior proceeds. 'We were a little surprised at the emphasis that Planning placed on the restoration of this mural,' Santos, a dapper, energetic man, said during a tour of the site. 'But at the same time, we embraced it.' He’s in the process of hiring an artist, who must be approved by the Planning Department’s Historic Preservation team."

It was curious that Santos thought he couldn't proceed with other work first. Normally the restoration of decorative work would be done near the end of a project.  Work on the project stopped in 2019 with everything left far from completed. TJ Fisher commented at the time: 

"It was championed by Rodrigo Santos, the former City College trustee and Building Inspection Commission president who is under indictment for bank fraud, identity theft, obstruction of justice, etc. The FBI alleges, among other things, that he had clients make checks out to "DBI," Department of Building Inspection, which he later altered to read something resembling "RODBIGO SANTOS" and cashed himself. One wonders whether his intentions here were at all sincere, but I believe his fall from grace and the end of plans to renovate here are related."

 

Santos went to jail on a two and a half year sentence for fraud and tax evasion. The building was owned at the time by San Francisco realtor Vera Cort and her son Robert.

 

As of early 2022 work on the project was again happening, briefly, with a new team. Restoration work on the auditorium murals was assigned to Beate Brühl, who discussed her involvement in a March 12 Facebook post. Fernando Duarte, of the firm Fernando Duarte Design, discussed his work on the signage restoration in comments on Beate's post: 

 

"I have been working on this project for more than 5 years and it is ridiculous bad!!! We lost a lot of time and money with the old owner's contract. He left us a contract without paying us... we are still in limbo. Weird#@#@ projects!!"

 

Status: Co-owner of the property, Vera Cort, died in April 2024. Her son Robert is now the man to do something with it. It's unknown what sort of tenant would be interested in taking on the space. Cort says: 

 

"There’s no plans right now for the Tower Theatre. I'm not developing anything there. I’m just hoping someone will lease it and fill the space."

 

For a nice rundown of the current situation see "Why this blighted theater sits empty after 17 years," Garrett Leahy's May 2024 article for the San Francisco Standard. Thanks to Bob Ristelhueber for spotting the story. 

 

 

The Tower in the Movies:

About 1:35 into Nicholas Meyer's "Time After Time" (Orion/Warner Bros., 1979) Malcolm McDowell, as H.G. Wells, pops into the Argonaut pawn shop next door to the Tower. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for spotting the Tower. He comments: 

"You don't see the name of the theatre but it's easily recognizable. There's no explanation of how he located this place, on the opposite side of the city from Francisco St. near the Palace of Fine Arts where he's been staying with Mary Steenburgen." 

We also see the couple coming out of a screening of "Exorcist IV" at the Ghirardelli Square Cinema.

Interior views:  

The look of the lobby following the 1937 renovation by S. Charles Lee. The October 25, 1943 Jack Tillmany collection photo is on the San Francisco Public Library website. Gary Parks comments: 

"The stairs shown in the photo, however, are differently configured than those shown on the blueprint. However, but this sort of thing happened, especially with remodels--where either cost, existing situations, or both--contributed to last-minute changes to the details. The rest of the features in the photo match Lee's drawing."

This October 25, 1943 view of the proscenium reflects the 1942 remodel work which included black light murals. It's a Ted Newman photo from the Jack Tillmany collection. A smaller version appears on the San Francisco Public Library website. Jack comments: 

"Interesting that the 1942 redo interiors are Mexican motif, even though Spanish language films were not yet the policy and would not be until about 20 years later."

No photos of the 1912 interior exist. And it's not known if any auditorium redecorating was done at the time of the 1937 S. Charles Lee facade and lobby remodel. Gary parks comments:

 

"We can't assume that the auditorium was left untouched (or just repainted, etc.) in 1937. It could be that my collection is missing drawings by Lee's office of the auditorium. I think this is a good possibility. All I have are Sheets 1 and 2. There are many blueprints in my collection where sheets from the middle or either ends of the stack are gone.  If you look at the sides of the proscenium in the photos--even those of the theatre's last years, you see horizontal Moderne decorative bands, which are like those seen on the facade, and around poster cases. I think these features were done by Lee. 

 

"At the time of the building of the new 'slab' facade in the late 40s, I think the 'Mexican murals' were painted, as they evoke the type of decorative painting style that became so popular in theatres during the late 40s into the mid 50s, though this painting style DID begin in the late 30s."

The rear of the auditorium on October 25, 1943. It's a Ted Newman photo from the Jack Tillmany collection. A smaller version of the image is on the San Francisco Public Library website.

A c.2010 sidewall view by R.A. McBride. It's from her 2010 book "Left in the Dark: Portraits of San Francisco Movie Theatres," written with Julie Lindow. It appears on the gallery page of the website about the book. 

A 2011 look down from the balcony. After closing in 1998 and almost a decade as a church, the theatre sat vacant. The photo appears with "The Standing Dead," a Sam Harnett and Gundi Vigfusson article from 2011 on the site Bold Italic that features many views of abandoned theatres.   

A fall 2015 photo by Catherine McMillan appearing with a January 2016 Capp St. Crap article on the renovation project for the City College cinema program. The ceiling was evidently taken out some time earlier -- here it's just steel trusses and the roof.

A November 1916 view of the renovations. Not much was left of the 1942 interior, although that wasn't very exciting to begin with. You can see a bit of the graffitti-covered mural behind the studs at the left. The mural was later uncovered when it was decided that it needed to be restored, not concealed. Photo: Bill Counter

 

Above, note the truss once supporting the mid-point of the balcony. From the girder forward, it all got chopped off. What's left, from the girder on back, was planned as just the booth. Lobby, restrooms, boxoffice, stairs to balcony -- all are gone, to be replaced with new. Note the flat floor that was going in -- it was intended to be a multi-use events space in addition to being a film theatre for City College students. 

 

The doorways in the wall at the screen end of the space go to the former backstage, envisioned to become storage and a catering area. The three holes are for the three stage speaker channels. Ingmar, the contractor, is queried: "Only 3 holes? Where are the subwoofers going to go?" He pointed to the table to indicate another covered hole behind it. He noted at the time that lots of details remained to be designed and some more fundraising was needed to get the project completed.

A 2018 look at the house right wall of the still unfinished project. The gentleman is engineer Rodrigo Santos, who was financing the renovations. Thanks to Elizabeth Creely for the photo, included with "The tales of two once-grand San Francisco theaters diverge," her August 2018 story for Mission Local. Work on the project later stopped.

 

The masked lady is restoration expert Beate Brühl. The project started up again in 2022 and she's working on restoring the murals. This photo, and the one below, appeared on the Beate Brühl Design Facebook page as a March 12 post.    

 

 

 

A 2022 wide-angle view of the auditorium. Thanks to Beate Brühl for sharing the photo. She comments: "... I am tasked with cleaning, repairing and in-painting the murals now. At this point, saving what is left. These days, my paints are mixed with tears... They’ve been over painted, and varnished, which has yellowed. It’s not a full on restoration, the best I can do."

More exterior views: 

 

A May 13, 1913 photo by John Henry Mentz. The Majestic, on the right, was advertising "America's Greatest Acrobats - The Florenze Family." Thanks to Art Siegel for locating this one in the SFMTA Archives. It's their #UO3968.

 

 

 

A detail that Art extracted from the 1913 photo. 

 

 
A look north on Mission St. between 21st and 20th on February 11, 1918.  It's a photo by John Henry Mentz from the SFMTA Archives, their #UO6030. Thanks to Bob Ristelhueber for locating it in the collection for a post on the BAHT Facebook page.

A detail that Art Siegel extracted from the 1918 photo. Bob Ristelhueber notes that they were playing the 1917 release "One Law For Both." The film has a page on Wikipedia.

A terrific 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 and the Majestic Furniture Co. across the street. In the distance are the New Rialto and the New Mission.

A July 1936  view looking north from the Jack Tillmany collection. Note the vertical for the El Capitan in the distance.

The theatre in October 1937 running "Cafe Metropole" with Loretta Young. Note the revamped marquee. It's a photo from the amazing collection of Jack Tillmany.

Did you wonder what was hiding in the darkness in the photo above as far as the look of the facade? Here's the daytime version courtesy of Jack Tillmany. The facade redo was a design by S. Charles Lee.

A look at the theatre with its 1942 slab facade. This October 28, 1943 photo with the Tower running "One Dangerous Night" with Warren William was taken by Ted Newman. It's from the Jack Tillmany collection and appears on the San Francisco Public Library website. 

A c.1963 photo taken by Jack Tillmany after the house had gone to Spanish language product. Things had changed in the Mission district. Thanks to John Hough for working some magic on the image.

A 1964 view of the theatre by Alan J. Canterbury in the San Francisco Public Library collection.  Thanks to Jack Tillmany for this version, a larger one than on the SFPL website.

A 1969 photo from the Jack Tillmany collection. Up the street we get views of the Wigwam / Crown / Cine Latino and the New Mission. 

A 1975 Jack Tillmany photo of the theatre appearing with "The Standing Dead," a Sam Harnett and Gundi Vigfusson article from 2011 that features many views of abandoned theatres. It's on the site Bold Italic. 

A closer look at the boxoffice in 1975. It's a photo from the Jack Tillmany collection. 

A 1978 photo included with an Eat Drink Films article by Tom Downs about the resurrection of the New Mission Theatre. The photo by Al Barna is from the book by Mr. Barna and Randall Ann Homan, "San Francisco Neon: Survivors and Lost Icons." The theatre closed c.1998.

A 2002 look at the theatre repurposed as a church. It's a John Rice photo from Cinema Treasures.  

A 2009 look at the Tower during the "For Sale" era. The photo is part of the Mission District album by Anomalous A on Flickr where you can page through more facade views.   

A Tower collage that appeared on Loopnet. In the lower right note a drawing of the original 1912 facade.

The 2014 version of the Tower. Let's see the progress in 5 years: more of the sign panels have fallen off. Oh, yes, they got a different broker trying to sell it -- the first guy obviously had no luck. That tagging on the wall way back there is on the proscenium wall. It's got a full stage. Or did anyway. Photo: Bill Counter 

The south side of the stagehouse as seen from a parking lot for a building on 21st St. Yes, it's another theatre in the Mission where one wonders how they ever loaded in a show. Photo: Bill Counter - 2014. 

A July 2015 look up the tower of the abandoned theatre. Thanks to Bob Ristelhueber for his photo, one in a set of four from a post on the BAHT Facebook page.  

Thanks to Bob Ristelhueber for this 2015 photo on the BAHT Facebook page.  

A 2015 signage detail from Bob Ristelhueber on the BAHT Facebook page.   

Another 2015 photo from Bob Ristelhueber on the BAHT Facebook page. Thanks, Bob!  

Thanks to Michael Thomas Angelo for his 2016 photo, part of a post on the BAHT Facebook page including several other views of the theatre.

Another view from Michael Thomas Angelo's 2016 post on the BAHT Facebook page. 

At the time of this November 2016 photo there was hope that it was coming back to life. The "Available" sign had been taken off the marquee. There was a glimmer of light visible through a crack in the plywood construction fence. The door was open. It was under renovation to become a film theatre/events space for cinema students at City College.

Ingmar, the contractor, said the facade would be restored to its original look. He was queried: "You mean when it was the Majestic, a vaudville house in 1912?" He didn't know that earlier history -- he meant the 1942 look done after the interior had been redone and the slab facade added. Note the green neon of the New Mission in the distance. Photo: Bill Counter 

 

The project in August 2021, at the time dormant. It's a photo taken by Lee Stokes that he shared as a post on the San Francisco Photography Facebook page.  

 

A look up the vertical in 2023. Thanks to Gary Parks for sharing this photo he took on the BAHT Facebook page.  

 

A shot by Garrett Leahy appearing with "Why this blighted theater sits empty after 17 years," his 2024 article for the San Francisco Standard. Thanks to Bob Ristelhueber for spotting the story. 


Not the Majestic Theatre:

A 1948 photo of the Majestic's vertical, but not on the theatre. It was taken off the theatre during the 1942 remodel and renaming. Here it's across the street on the Majestic Department Store at 2474 Mission. We're looking north from 21st. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for the photo. There's also a less-sharp version on the San Francisco Public Library website where they give it a 1947 date.

Jack comments: "This 1948 photo of one of the last of the #9 line cars Southbound on Mission at 21st has shown up on some websites, and in at least one Arcadia Publishing book, identifying the building in question as the Majestic Theatre. Among other things, the author of the Arcadia book, in addition to getting the building wrong, was unaware that the photo had been taken six years after there was ever a theatre bearing that name in operation on Mission Street! The store, across the street on the west side of Mission, which faced the theatre, and who interestingly took ownership of the theatre's former vertical in 1942 when the theatre renamed itself the Tower. Clever these sofa salesmen!"

The corner deco building is still there. As is the Majestic building -- but with a new facade and no vertical. The Tower Theatre can be glimpsed on the far right. It's a 2015 Google Maps view.

A 1954 Chronicle ad for the "Mission Miracle Mile" that includes the Majestic Department Store. It's on a lovely Burrito Justice post about the Mission in the 50s.

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.

See the Mission District album on the BAHT Facebook page for many photos of neighboring theatres. Cinema Treasures and Cinema Tour have pages on the Tower for you to browse.

Elizabeth Creely's "The tales of two once-grand San Francisco theaters diverge," an August 2018 story for Mission Local, discusses the Tower and the Crown. 

Regarding black light murals, Gary Parks comments: "Black light murals seem to have emerged in the late 30s, for instance at Lee's Tower Theatre, in Fresno, still operating, with murals still glowing. Jack of course can tell you about the murals at the Lorenzo--he had the UV lamps shining on them, for the desired effect. Still there, stained, but they do glow when portable UV lamps have been brought in for public tours--I've been there. Not many people know the Orinda's murals are designed to glow, but later paint touch-up on a few of the mural figures was done with the wrong paint, so if UV lamps are installed, a few of the characters look like they have eczema or psoriasis.

"I was told by a former FWCT manager of the Carlos, in San Carlos, that the murals glowed there--once he reinstalled UV lamps in the sidewall sconces.  They'd been gone for some years.  This was in the late 60s. The best in-person viewing I've ever had of glowing theatre murals was at the Stamm, in Antioch.  Perfectly preserved, and were they ever luminous!  This was in the 90s. I understand they were painted over when the Stamm was churched. Based on the volumes of Theatre Catalog I have, glowing murals seem to have dwindled out after the mid-50s."

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