Victoria Theatre

The Victoria Theatre holds the title of the oldest operating theater in San Francisco. It first opened its doors in nineteen oh eight as Brown's Opera House, a venue built by Edmund Joseph Brown, the grandfather of California governor Jerry Brown. In its earliest years, the building hosted vaudeville acts and early silent films. Throughout the Great Depression, the theater survived by rebranding as the Sixteenth Street Theater, where patrons could watch second-run movies for a nickel and receive promotional depression-era glassware as a reward for their attendance.