Before Santa Rosa Plaza, a beloved theater stood in its place

Fifty years ago, a determined group of local citizens formed a committee in an attempt to “save the Cal,” Santa Rosa’s historic California Theatre threatened by the city’s downtown urban renewal.

The old theater was built just over a century ago, with construction beginning around mid-1923 on B Street.

“It will be one of the finest theaters in any small city in the country,” said general contractor A. M. Hildebrandt in a Nov. 16, 1923, article in The Press Democrat. “In construction it meets every requirement set by San Francisco standards, the highest in the country, and in other ways it will compare favorably with any like theater.”

Originally called the Reavis G & S Theatre, the $200,000 playhouse would include 2,000 seats, blue velvet drapes, a heating and ventilation system, 17 fire-proof dressing rooms, a $20,000 Wurlitzer organ and other elaborate, modern fixtures (save for the “asbestos curtains”).

The grand opening was held on Dec. 3, 1923, with a showing of the play “Blossom Time,” to which 2,000 people crowded the theater to see, according to the next day’s Press Democrat. The theater offered varied types of entertainment over the years, from plays and vaudeville performances to films and music concerts.

In January 1926, the G & S Theatre had been redecorated, refurnished and renamed as the California Theatre under new management, West Coast Theaters, Inc.

Over 3,000 people attended the Jan. 21 reopening of the renovated theater, which included a song and dance revue called “Salad Ideas” by dancing duo Fanchon and Marco, as well as a “Charleston Contest” and screening of the Constance Talmadge film “Her Sister From Paris,” according to the Jan. 22, 1926, Press Democrat.

The California Theatre was remodeled again in 1932 as “now one of the finest (theaters) on the Pacific Coast,” boasted the Sept. 20, 1932, Press Democrat. Sen. Herbert W. Slater gave the dedication address at the gala reopening, which included a showing of the film “Guilty as Hell.”

After years of entertaining the local masses, the Santa Rosa Urban Redevelopment Agency made plans in the early 1970s to raze the landmark theater along with other old buildings on B Street to make way for a new shopping center. According to santarosahistory.com, locals formed a committee and launched a “Save the Cal” campaign on July 18, 1974, to get a proposition on the November ballot to preserve the historic buildings, which also included the city’s old post office and the Scottish Rite building.

An ad from the committee in the July 21, 1974, Press Democrat urged readers to “voice your desire and interest in saving and renovating this theatre” and “to decide the future character of their city.” In addition to saving the Cal, the citizens’ committee hoped to integrate it with a cultural arts center.

“Saving the Cal may mean saving the city from becoming a concrete jungle,” the ad pleaded.

After some years of public debate, inspections, petitions and lawsuits, Superior Court judge Joseph P. Murphy Jr. made a ruling blocking referendums from both pro-mall and pro-Cal groups due to a conflict with state law on redevelopment. The public wasn’t allowed a vote on whether they wanted to preserve the historic B Street buildings or to build a shopping mall.

The California Theatre held its last show on July 5, 1977, and the following month it sold its organ, seats, ticket booth and other items in a liquidation sale. The Cal was torn down in November 1977 and the Santa Rosa Plaza mall began construction in its place. In 1981, Macy’s department store, the first of the mall’s shops, opened where the Cal once stood.

Santa Rosa’s current, nonprofit California Theatre opened on Seventh Street in September 2022 to continue the legacy of the city’s original Cal Theatre.