Opened: June 22, 1907. The Elite Theatre was evidently on the south side of the street a bit west of 6th Ave. A current address for the site might be 507 Clement.
It's in the Henry's 1907-08 Theatrical Guide with J. Davega listed as manager. In November 1907 he opened the Palm Theatre on the NE corner of 6th and Clement, a venture that lasted a bit longer.
Seating: 250
A grand opening ad appearing in the Richmond Banner on June 21, 1907. Thanks to John Freeman for locating it. He notes that although it says the theatre was at the corner of 6th and Clement, it was actually not quite at the corner. This location soon would become a problem when the city began requiring a second exit from theatres.
Free shows for kids were mentioned in the November 29, 1907 issue of the Richmond Banner. Thanks to John Freeman for finding the item.
Closed: 1907. John Freeman reports that it was evidently the week of December 9. It lacked a second exit and the city was then engaged in a crackdown on unsafe theatres.
An article located by John noting the demise of the Elite. It appeared in the Richmond Banner's issue of December 13, 1907.
Status: The Elite could have been housed in the building now at 507, just west of the corner building. In any case, nothing of interest remains.
John Freeman on early nickelodeons: "Those post-quake nickelodeons were essentially stores, replacing fixtures with probably standard chairs. Projector at the entrance end and a screen on the back wall. There was only one exit in a wooden building. The issue of fire safety after the earthquake and fire was an open wound. The entrepreneurs figured a nickelodeon was a quick way to make money, in the unburned residential districts but the Fire Marshall went ballistic.
"The city had lost it’s core because there was not enough water pressure to save it. That problem had not been resolved, only patched together after the 1906 catastrophe. The water pressure issue would get addressed in a massive bond issue in May of 1908, with creation of new reservoirs, high pressure pipes and more firemen and equipment - but that would take years.
"In the meantime, the City got really strict about all public assembly sites, requiring two exits, fire code rated doors, fireproof stage curtains, etc. These hurriedly converted buildings from Summer 1906 to early 1907 were shut down rapidly. All new theaters had to meet not only the exits rule, but be steel frame for seismic safety, and concrete for fire safety."
John discusses the problems of tracking down the Elite: "I checked the 1905 Sanborn map, which really was an updating of the 1899 map. The SW corner of 6th Ave. & Clement had a building that might be the one that is still there today, stuccoed over at some point but the same footprint. West of that corner building (501 - 505) were vacant lots. Checking in 1913, there was significant change. So that makes the west side side of the intersection more probable.
"But the east side gets even dicier. The corner in 1905 was occupied by a small, personal dwelling, with a side entrance for a cleaning and dying service in the back of the structure. By 1913, the 3 story building, with commercial on the ground floor had been built. It is still there today too. But the frustrating part was next door on the east side of the corner. That was St James Missionary Episcopal Church in 1905 and only a slight name change to St. James Protestant Episcopal Church in 1913. I did a church check in the city directories, picking 1907 and 1911. St. James was listed as 'Clement nr. Sixth Ave.' on both ends of our area of interest.
"In 1905 the corner where the Palm Theatre was built, the NE corner of 6th Ave. and Clement, was a vacant lot. In 1913 it showed as 'motion picture theatre.' So I am blocked out wherever I turn in the historic records to find exactly where the Elite Theatre was located. I can’t imagine it was next door to St. James Episcopal, but that could have been true during those intervening years between 1905 to 1913. The west side of 6th Ave. does show development next to 501 - 505 in 1913 and shows a nice footprint of the Richmond /Lincoln Theatre.
"So the building next door to the corner building, showing an address of 507 before the address changing that seemed to have happened in 1909 in the newly expanded districts (the original numbering system had been one number per lot, unless the building had multiple businesses or flats). But after about 1909, the planning department allotted two addresses on all empty lots. So with this 507 becoming 513, it was an indication that there had been a building there prior to the new numbering system.
"That address just west of the corner building is now back to being called 507. The map also shows the building was one story, and the saloon on its west side was a two story saloon (saloon ground floor, residential above), and the rest of the block was not like this building. So I am going with the Elite Theatre being at 507 Clement St. Nothing else makes sense. It is fun to see that the Richmond/Lincoln Theatre was directly behind the short-lived Elite Theatre."
Thanks for the research, John!
More information: Well, there isn't any. No pictures have surfaced.
See "Streetwise: Palaces of the Past" on the Western Neighborhoods Project site where Woody LaBounty discusses other theatres in the neighborhood.
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.
| 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