The San Francisco Playhouse

 450 Post St. | map |

 

Opened: June 16, 1982 as the Theatre on the Square with Lanford Wilson's 1980 play "Talley's Folly." The second-floor theatre space is in the Kensington Park Hotel, a building constructed as an Elks Club. It's on the north side of the street between Powell and Mason. 

 

The c.1985 view of the entrance was taken by Tom Gray when the theatre was running "A... My Name Is Alice," a musical revue by Joan Micklin Silver and Julianne Boyd." Thanks to Jack Tillmany for sharing the photo from his collection. 

 

Architects: Frederick H. Meyer and Albin R. Johnson of the firm Meyer & Johnson. Tony Heinsbergen did some of the interior decoration. The 15 story building, in a Spanish Gothic style, was completed in 1925. In addition to the former lodge room now used as a theatre, there's also a Grand Ballroom and various other meeting rooms. Architect Eugene Angell designed the 1982 renovation of the flat-floored lodge room into a theatre. 

 

Website: www.sfplayhouse.org/sfph     

 

In 2003 it was renamed the Post Street Theatre. It's now called the San Francisco Playhouse. The 2022-2023 season is the 20th for the company. They've only been at this Post St. location since October 2012. 

 

The Elks still use the building as a co-tenant with the hotel. Their site: sfelks.org

The building is discussed in this information that was shared by SFtrajan with a photo he has on Flickr. The text evidently appeared with something called the San Francisco Property Map. Or maybe it was a now-vanished City Guides page:

"A little-known fact: San Francisco Lodge No.3 is the longest continuous running lodge of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks (BPOE). The BPOE was founded in New York City in 1868, and the San Francisco Lodge No. 3 came into being five years later. Since 1925, the city's Elks have been meeting at 450 Post Street, a beautiful Spanish Gothic building in San Francisco’s Union Square. Commissioned by the Elks Lodge and designed by architects F.H. Meyer–who also worked on City Hall–and A.R. Johnson, the terra cotta–clad building spans 15 stories and appeared in early issues of Architectural Digest and Architect and Engineer magazine.

"One of the largest and most richly decorated of San Francisco's many fine downtown club buildings, designed by one of the best and most important firms of the period--and one which consistently produced superior decorative work. Frederick Meyer and Albin Johnson were assisted by Anthony Heinsbergen in the design of the interior. The exterior is a three part vertical composition with a high stacked base that reflects major interior spaces. It has three large central bays and flanking minor bays. The club rooms are expressed on the exterior by broad two story segmental arches in the central bays, each containing three lancet arches. 

 

"The final level of club rooms is articulated by a transitional story with a central balcony supported by paired brackets. The residential rooms (now used for a hotel) occupy the shaft and crown. The bays are contained within lancet arches. The central section is capped by a peaked parapet. The end bays terminate in squat towers flanking the peaked parapet. The relatively light central portion, pierced by many openings, and the massive end bays combine to form a structure which expresses mass and weight. Inside, the entrance lobby is predominently Spanish Gothic in inspiration. The richly ornamented swimming pool with its extensive tile mosaics is modeled after the Sistine Chapel. Other major interior spaces include the auditorium, buffet and card room, billliard room, game room, dining room and lounging room. Above these communal spaces are hotel rooms for visiting Elks. 

 

"The wealth of eclectic decorative interiors, characteristic of Heinsbergen, who specialized in theatre design, was the subject of articles in the contemporary architectural press, including 10 pages in the inaugural issue of Architectural Digest. This building is part of a series of buildings which increase in height and in bulk as they move westward along the block. Its buff-colored brick relates well to the brown of the St. Francis Hotel and the buff of 470 Post Street. Its skyscraper form is part of a group of buildings with like massing, including the Sir Francis Drake Hotel on Powell Street. The scale and power of the Elks Club lends a strong identity to this diverse block."

 

The ten page section devoted to the building in the January 1926 issue of Architectural Digest featured photos by Gabriel Moulin. See the page on the AD website. You have to be a subscriber to look at the individual pages from the issue. 

Seating: 199 currently. Matt Weimer notes that on the venue page of the theatre's website they mention that it used to be a 400 seat space before they reduced the capacity and built a new stage.   

 

The seating in the 400-seat days when it was the Post St. Theatre. Thanks to Matt Weimer for locating the chart on a page of the San Francisco Theater site. He comments: 

 

"If memory serves from seeing shows there previously, the house was both deeper and wider. There are now curtains on the sides which block off areas that used to be side seating. And they moved the stage forward, so any proper proscenium would now be obscured. I don't remember if there had been a classic proscenium. Since the room wasn't originally designed as a theatre, there might not have been.

 

"The advantage to them now is that they have a much larger stage/backstage area, allowing them to build sets behind the show currently running, and move them forward into place, rather than having to wait until one show is done to start building the next, or to pay for outside space to build the sets elsewhere and transport them. That allows them to run their shows longer, since they require less time between productions for set construction."

 

 

The 2012 revamp, now down to 199 seats. Note that the balcony now has just 4 rows. 

 

Lobby views: 

A 2006 shot by Matt H. that appears on an old Yelp page about the theatre when it was the Post Street. Thanks to Matt Weimer for locating it. There are entrances to the auditorium beyond the bar as well as out of the frame to the right.

 

 

A 2016 lobby shot by Thea Pastoral appearing on Google Maps.  

 

 

A lobby view provided by the theatre that appears with a 2021 post about the venue by Artsy Chow Roamer. Thanks to Matt Weimer for locating the article. 

 

 

Ornament above an entrance to the auditorium, named after their angel Walter Casper Teufel, Jr. It's a photo appearing with the Artsy Chow Roamer article.

 

 

 The auditorium: 

 

A 2006 shot by Matt H. that appears on the Yelp page about the Post Street. Thanks to Matt Weimer for locating it. Note the side seating sections that are no longer in use. And a deeper auditorium than at present. This was the 400 seat configuration.
 

 

Another view before the 2012 downsizing. Thanks to Chris Kellberg for sharing this photo in a post on the Facebook page Theatre Architecture. 

 

 

A 2021 photo that appears with the post about the venue on the blog Artsy Chow Roamer. 

 

 

A look to the rear of the house that appeared with a "Theatre Reopens Its Doors...," a 2021 post on the Playhouse website. 

 

 

Ornament on the front of the balcony. The photo appears with the 2021 article by Artsy Chow Roamer.

 

 

A 2022 view of the redone seats appearing as one of 27 photos of the venue on a page on Tripadvisor.

 

 

A look across the front of the house appearing with "San Francisco Playhouse Refurbishes...." a June 2022 post on the Playhouse website.    

 

More street views: 

 

Another c.1985 Theatre on the Square photo by Tom Gray that was taken during the run of "A... My Name Is Alice." It's from the Jack Tillmany collection. 

 

 

A c.2020 photo provided by the theatre that appears with the post about the venue by Artsy Chow Roamer. Thanks to Matt Weimer for locating the article. Farallon Restaurant didn't survive. In 2022 the tenant was called Ula. 

 

The building in 2022 with the San Francisco Playhouse alive and well. We're looking east toward Market St. Image: Google Maps

More information: Jack Tillmany notes: "Dean Goodman provides further details in his book 'San Francisco Stages 1849-1986,' including the names of the principals involved and some of its offerings."

Jack's Arcadia Publishing book "Theatres of San Francisco" can be previewed on Google Books. It's available from Amazon or your local bookseller.

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