c.1931 4
The Broadway Theatre was located at 1121 Broadway (1065 Broadway before 1912 renumbering) beginning in 1909. The location had formerly been the Novelty Theatre. Guy C. Smith took it over and renamed it the Broadway. 5
The building was razed in 1930, and a new building constructed. Theatres of Oakland says the remodel was designed by Frederic F. Amandes. 3 The new building included a neon sign from the Brumfield Electric Sign Company in San Francisco, and "the latest improved Western Electrical Sound System." 6
1912 Sanborn excerpt
1930 6
1951 Sanborn excerpt
The building was demolished in November 1972 to make way for Oakland City Center, a $150 million, 15-block City Center downtown regional shopping center, with a skyscraper hotel proposed for the theater’s former site. 1,7 Construction of the City Center project was stalled in the late 1970s and during the 1980s, so it was not until the late 1980s that construction was begun on an office building on the site. Construction was again paused after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, and what is now known as 1111 Broadway opened in 1990 as the headquarters of American President Lines.
1972 7
Links and References
- Broadway Theatre Cinema Treasures
- Novelty Theatre Cinema Treasures
- Theatres of Oakland by Jack Tillmany and Jennifer Dowling Arcadia Publishing 2006
- ohrphoto.oaktheaters.003 Oakland History Center, Oakland Public Library
- Guy C. Smith, Veteran in Show Business, Takes Charge of the Novelty Theater, Henceforth to Be Known as the Broadway Oakland Enquirer March 27, 1909
- New Broadway Theater Special Page Oakland Tribune August 8, 1930
- Broadway Theater To Fall to Wrecker Oakland Tribune November 21, 1972
