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Overview

Opening in the summer of 1861, this was the second Metropolitan Theatre to operate in San Francisco, CA.

Building History

According the The San Francisco Directory for the Year 1861, on June 29, 1861, "The new Metropolitan theatre lighted up for the first time.” (See “Chronological History of Principal Events, from July 1st, 1860, to June 30th, 1861,” The San Francisco Directory for the Year 1861, p. 27.)

The Metropolitan Theatre #2's opened with a performance of "Love Chase," a melodrama starring an actress with the last name "Guggenheim," D.C. Anderson and John Wood. It occurred on a Monday night before a packed crowd. A writer for the Sacramento Daily Union described the theatre's interior: "The new theater, on the site of the old Metropolitan, in San Francisco, was openedon Monday night, the 1st of July. The building was crowded in every part, with a fair and fashionable audience. It is large, very commodious, and the stage can be seen from every part of the house. The decorations are few. Around the front of the gallery and of the dress circle runs a little foliage, the stem of gold and the leaves of green. The heading of the gallery is also gilt, upon a groundwork of white. The green leaves are not in harmoney with their surroundings. Above the stage, and over the private boxes is a white wall which is too glaring, and the eye seeks in vain for an object upon which to rest. The seats of the dress circle of crimson damask, and the fronts of the galleries of crimson velvet, giving a pleasant air of warmth to the house. The gasaliers are decorated, each with a bronze eagle very artistically executed.In the ceiling a large ventilator is tastefully painted in scroll work." (See "The New Metropolitan Theater at San Francisco," Sacramento Daily Union, vol. 21, no. 3204, 07/04/1861, p. 3.)

In 1872, William H. Lyon was the Metropolitan Theatre's proprietor. (See San Francisco Directory, 1872, p. 462.)

Building Notes

In 11/1871, the proprietor and manager of the Metropolitan Theatre was E.G. Bert.

Demolition

The Metropolitan Theatre was razed to make way for the construction of Columbus Avenue in 1873.

PCAD id: 20294