The Cortland / Capri Theatre

802 Cortland Ave. | map |

Opening: This Bernal Heights neighborhood house opened in 1915 as the Cortland Theatre. The c.1945 photo is from the Jack Tillmany collection. He notes that this was pretty much the original look except for the "New" vertical sign.

In 1957 Ward Stoopes updated the facade and changed the name to Capri Theatre.  The building is on the south side of the street between Ellsworth St. and Gates St.

Architect: A.I. Coffey

An elevation from Coffey's plans. Thanks to Jack Tillmany for doing a reverse image from the blueprints. Gary Parks has a set of the plans for the job. See six images from those plans down at the bottom of the page.

Seating: 400. On the plans the architect notes 399. 

Closing: April 1969.

Status: It's been a church since the 1970s.

A July 1944 flyer from the collection of Adriano Jeday. Thanks to Art Siegel for spotting it posted on the page for the Bernalwood Facebook group.

A September 1949 Calendar from the Jack Tillmany collection.  

A March 1951 Calendar from the Jack Tillmany collection.

A March / April 1955 calendar from the Jack Tillmany collection. He comments: "The Cortland installed a very impressive CinemaScope wide screen in early 1955 and with a 1 1/2 yr backlog of virgin anamorphic titles, played them all off with at least one CinemaScope on every program."

A 1957 calendar from the Jack Tillmany collection. He comments: "They mailed them out every month. The theatre had an excellent wide screen CinemaScope presentation thanks to a more or less square auditorium and a wide stage."

A view to the front of the auditorium as a church. Thanks to Vicki Walker of the Bernal Heights History Project for her photo.

A look toward the rear of the auditorium. It's a photo that appeared on the Facebook page of the Bernal Heights History Project.


More exterior views:

A 1928 view looking north on Cortland Avenue from the Jack Tillmany collection. The theatre is on the right side of the street, in the center of the photo.

A September 1944 photo from the Jack Tillmany collection.

A 1966 photo of the theatre, almost a decade after it had been redone as the Capri. It's from the Jack Tillmany collection.

A c.1967 photo by Tom Gray from the Jack Tillmany collection. It appears on the Open SF History Project website. The bus is on the #10-Monterey line. On the right is St. Kevin's Catholic Church.

The closed theatre in 1973. It's a photo by Max Kirkeberg on Diva, a project of Academic Technology at San Francisco State University. 

The theatre as a church in 1995. It's a photo by Max Kirkeberg on Diva.

A 2006 photo by Max Kirkeberg that appears on Diva. Thanks to Vicki Walker for locating the Kirkeberg photos.

A 2017 view. Photo: Google Maps

Images from the plans for the theatre in the Gary Parks collection:

An elevation of the facade. Gary comments: "I think this is an incomplete set. Other exterior elevations are missing, for example."

At the top it's a ceiling plan of the ticket lobby and rear of the auditorium as well as a floor plan at booth level. Below is an elevation of the same areas. 

A detail of the wall ornament in the auditorium.

At the top it's an elevation of half the proscenium. Below is a section looking at the front of the auditorium and stage. Gary comments: "Note to the left of the upper drawing, the architect’s name. There is no traditional info box in the corners of these sheets—unusual."

A plan view of the entrance and rear of the auditorium. Gary comments: "Note the one little bathroom off the lobby for both men and women. The stairway in the room next to it led to to a landing outside the booth with only a wash basin."

A plan of the front of the auditorium and stage. Those dotted lines across the stage are the footlights as well as a note that there were to be 12 electrical outlets around the proscenium arch. 

Thanks, Gary!

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.

Cinema Tour and Cinema Treasures have pages about the theatre. 

See "Now Showing: The Lost History of the Cortland Theatre," a 2013 post on the Bernalwood blog.

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