Skip to main content

Alcazar Theater - San Francisco - Moorish/Byzantine Art





San Francisco Landmark #195 Alcazar Theater 650 Geary Street Between Jones and Leavenworth Built 1917

This eclectic Moorish/Byzantine building, commissioned by the Shriners as the Islam Temple, Ancient Arabic Order Nobles of Mystic Shrine, was designed by architect Thomas Patterson Ross.

The façade, with Byzantine arches and filigree lattice work, is primarily of ornate polychrome terra cotta with a granite water table. The June 1917 edition of Architect and Engineer noted that the temple was "an adaptation from Alhambra, a building that stands as the highest mark of Arabian art and civilization."

The Islam Temple was used for Shriner meetings and ceremonies from 1918 to 1970. Later it functioned as a small theater in the tradition of the original Alcazar Theater which was located on O'Farrell Street. (The original Alcazar opened in 1885, was destroyed by the 1906 Earthquake and Fire, was rebuilt, and was razed for a parking lot in 1963.)

(Source: San Francisco Landmarks Preservation Advisory Board Final Case Report 17 May 1989) https://noehill.com/sf/landmarks/sf195.asp https://business.facebook.com/oahu2sf/

Labels:
Location: 650 Geary St, San Francisco, CA 94102, USA

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Movie Review: Send Help

The movie, Send Help premiered this past Friday and I wanted to makes sure I enjoyed a movie outing. I know many people don't go to theaters to watch films these days, but it's a perfect getaway as I have so much room to enjoy a movie without people whispering a movie's plot in the back row. Besides, once those theater doors close behind me, I really become void from the reality of what's out in the real world. Especially these days, political upheaval, social pressures, and anything else that can get on my nerve. Movies has been an escape for me. Period. I'm old school.  When I read the movie summary and saw the trailer, I thought "oh, another Rom-Com ". Boy was I mistaken. It was a good selection for a movie that weekend. Another movie called, Melania was being heavily promoted but received barely any fanfare, thank god! It was a political documentary on the current U.S. First Lady, Melania Trump . Another political annoyance. She ended up receiving ov...
Post a Comment
Read more

Book Review: Madam Secretary, A Memoir - Madeleine Albright

  It took me awhile to read this memoir from Madam Secretary , but it's so appropriate to have completed reading this memoir as we are in an election year. How funny is it that some of her challenges back in in the 1990s is here again. Repackaged in a way that is seemed like something new but realize it's something that could have been resolved back then takes center stage in an attempt to win an election.  I remember very well how those very issues were pressing, but our American government lacked the political will to make things whole on behalf of the American people and global citizens. Seems like it becomes a generational attempt of presenting something that's old but reworked to be something acutely important today.  Madam Secretary, clearly documents and shares her trials and tribulations of being a first female Secretary of State . Personally, I found it refreshing as I knew she as up to the tasked. As a public service for so many years, it seemed fitting that sh...
Post a Comment
Read more