Polk and Pine

1401 Polk St. | map | 

Date: This theatre was planned for the northwest corner of Polk and Pine in 1910 but never built. The images on the page are from plans in the Gary Parks collection. It's not known who commissioned the plans or what they intended to call the theatre.

Architects: Havens & Toepke

Data from one page of the plans. No mention of the owner's name.

 

The date on the plans. 

 

The Polk St. facade. 

 

A closer facade view. 

 

A detail of the south end of the facade. 

 

The boxoffice. 

 

Ohhhh…look who’s back! Jade is helping hold down this transverse section while Gary photographs it. On the left we get a view of the proscenium. On the right it's a look toward the exit doors at the back of the auditorium. 

 

A proscenium detail from the section. Gary comments: "Notice how deep the foundation goes at the point of the proscenium, and where the level of the sidewalk is. Pine slopes up as it heads west, and so the builders would have had to have done a lot of more excavating as they went from the front of the property to the back."

 

The rear of the auditorium.

 

A longitudinal section. We're looking at the house right auditorium wall. The exits were to go to a passage along the north side of the building. 

 

A detail from the section showing the boxoffice and north end of the ticket lobby. To the left we get the rear of the auditorium and the projection booth. 

 

A section detail showing the middle of the auditorium. 

 

A section detail showing the screen end of the building. 

 

 

 

An elevation of the Pine St. side of the building. The diagonal line is the sidewalk slope. 

 

A detail of the south side of the entrance. 

 

The building's floorplan. 

 

The plan view of the screen area. 

 

The plan view of the Polk St. end of the building. 

 

The building that was actually constructed on the site. We're looking west with Pine St. along the left of the building. Photo: Google Maps - 2019

Gary comments: "This one story building seen on Street View is on a plot of land long and narrow enough to have had a theatre, and the ground slopes up toward the rear of the property, as the blueprints show, but the building standing there today looks like it could have been designed and built in the Teens, but it was obviously a storefront from the get-go—based on the way the structure and detailing is placed. Had this theatre been built, it would have made an interesting addition to the streetscape, in the Arts & Crafts style."

Thanks, Gary!

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