AKA: Fox West Coast Walker Theater, Santa Ana, CA; Fox West Coast Theatres Corporation, Fox West Coast Theatre, Santa Ana, CA

Structure Type: built works - performing arts structures - theatres

Designers: Boller Brothers, Architects (firm); Carl Henry Boller (architect); Robert Otto Boller (architect)

Dates: constructed 1923-1924

308 North Main Street
Downtown, Santa Ana, CA 92701

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Charles E. Walker was the first manager of this New Walker Theatre when it opened in 01/1924. The West Coast Theatres chain bought the venue in 1925 and kept Walker in charge; four years later, the West Coast and Fox exhibition chains merged, creating the Fox West Coast Theatres Corporation. This facility continued to show films until the 1980s when it was closed. In 1991, a local church, the Christian Tabernacle, acquired the building for its congregation. They purchased it for $750,000 and set about its restoration.

According to the Cinema Treasures.org web site: "The Fox West Coast Theatre has the distinction of being the 100th theatre designed by the Boller Brothers. Charles E. Walker built the New Walker Theatre at a cost of $250,000 on the site of the old Princess Theatre. Construction was completed in record time with three shifts working around the clock. The original 1,355 seating capacity included 800 on the main floor, along with 55 loges and 500 in the balcony, which was tested with a 25-ton cement weight. The theatre opened in January 1924...." This facility was also known under several other names: the New Walker Theatre, West Coast Walker Theatre, and Fox Walker Theatre.

The theatre underwent modernization in the late 1950s, receiving a treatment resembling those by the Skouras Brothers. Particularly active after World War II, the Skouras Brothers made a living at renovating the interiors of movie palaces, giving them often streamlined, decorative and bland characters. The interior was renovated by the Christian Tabernacle in 1991.

PCAD id: 8964