Alcazar Theatre
- Architect
- T. Paterson Ross
- Year
- 1917
- City
- San Francisco, CA
Built in 1917 as a Shriners' Temple at 650 Geary Street for $150,000, the building was designed by T. Paterson Ross in an Exotic Revival style modeled on the Alhambra. It served as a Masonic temple until 1970 before being converted into the 511-seat Alcazar Theatre in 1976.
the building
Alhambra-inspired facade. On its 1917 opening, Architect and Engineer magazine described the temple as 'an adaptation from Alhambra, a building that stands as the highest mark of Arabian art and civilization' — the Islamic-inflected ornament Shriners favored for their lodges.
the style
The Exotic Revival style, dressing the building as a Moorish palace, was standard for Shriners' temples of the period, which drew on imagined Middle Eastern imagery for their fraternal architecture.
significance
Gutted in 1982 after salvage attempts failed, the theatre reopened in 1993 and is listed as a San Francisco Designated Landmark.
nearby
- YMCA Hotel
- Metropolitan Club
- Toni Rembe Theater
- Grace Cathedral
- 450 Sutter Street
- James Flood Mansion