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Overview

This remarkably ornate, Moorish-influenced fraternal hall served the Shriner's between 1917 and 1970. Its design followed the group's focus on employing symbols, imagery and rites derived from various "oriental" sources, including Islamic architecture in Spain, the Middle East and India.

Building History

This theatre opened as a Shriner's Temple in 1917, a part of the Ancient Arabic Order of Nobles of the Mystic Shrine (A.A.O.N.M.S) fraternal group formed as an off-shoot of the Masons in New York, NY, in 1870. The founders and first two initiates in the order in New York, were actor William J. Florence (1831-1891) and physician Walter Mallard Fleming (1838-1913), the former having interacted with Arab culture in Europe, Egypt and Algeria. The Shriners had a penchant for buildings utilizing Islamic architectural motifs, drawn from various sources. Over the years the group built many notable Islamic-influenced buildings across the US, such as the Kora Temple, Lewiston, ME, (1908), whose parts were reassembled from Moorish precedents, the Medinah Temple (1913), Chicago, IL, the Mosque of Mecca Temple (1924), New York, NY, and the Tripoli Shrine (1928), Milwaukee, WI, based on the Shah Jahan's Taj Mahal. San Francsico architect T. Paterson Ross () relied on the elevations of the Patio de las Doncellas (Courtyard of the Maidens) in theReal Alcázar de Sevilla (Royal Palace of Seville), in Seville, Spain.The patio's lower section was built for the Christian King Peter of Castile (1334-1369), who reigend as king from 1350 until 1366.

This clubhouse at 650 Geary Street functioned as the San Francisco Shriners' fraternal meeting house until 1970.

In 1976, after a remodeling effort, it was converted into a 511-seat theatre and renamed the "Alcazar Theatre." San Francisco has had four "Alcazar Theatres" in San Francisco: a first one located at 116 O'Farrell Street (operating from 1885-1906), a second (the "New Alcazar") at 2101 Sutter Street, a third at 260 O'Farrell Street (1911-1961) and this one.

Building Notes

The Los Angeles Shriners also adopted Islamic imagery for their Shrine Auditorium (1926), designed the San Francisco architect Gustave Albert Lansburgh (1876-1969).

In 2002, San Francisco's Islamic Temple chapter of the Shriners changed its name to the "Asiya Shrine."

Alteration

The interior was altered in the mid-1970s when the building was transformed from a fraternal hall into a ltheatre hosting live entertainment.

The building's original interior was removed in 1982 and remodeled, reopening in 1993.