This classical revival building, originally called the Columbia Theater, features tripartitioned Roman columns and Renaissance Italian commedia dell’arte arches. It dates from 1910, and its construction marked a period of massive rebuilding after the 1906 earthquake. William Faville and Walter Bliss designed the building, as well as the St. Francis Hotel on Powell Street, around the corner. The theater helped San Francisco develop a reputation for the performing arts. During the 1940s, Laurence Olivier and his wife Vivien Leigh appeared here in “Romeo and Juliet.” The theater also screened notable films, such as “Citizen Kane.”

The Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989 badly damaged the theater, but  after a major restoration project, it reopened in 1996. In 2006, it officially became the American Conservatory Theater.

Credits and Sources:

American Society for Environmental History.

Photograph courtesy of the American Conservatory Theatre.

Note: The Geary Theater is a San Francisco Landmark (#82).