37.7649, −122.4189 A locator map appears here once a Mapbox token is configured.
Know This Place

District 9 · Block 3570, Lot 031A · ZIP 94103

Brown's Opera House (Victoria Theatre)

2961 16th Street · Mission

  • 1 story
  • 5,336 ft2
  • 5,710 ft2 lot area
  • 1 room
  • 2 bathrooms
  • Unreinforced masonry
  • Zoned NC-3
  • Historic resource
  • City landmark #215
Land$135,876
Improvements$45,275
Total assessed$181,151
37.7649, −122.4189 Street View appears here once a Google Maps embed key is configured.
  1. 1907

    Built.

  2. 1908

    Built by Edmund Joseph Brown, a businessman who owned and ran theatres — father of Governor Edmund G. "Pat" Brown and grandfather of Governor Jerry Brown — as Brown's Opera House, a reinforced-concrete neighbourhood vaudeville house designed by Carl Werner and Matthew O'Brien, specialists in halls and temples.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
  3. 1930s–1970

    After its vaudeville years the house was the 16th Street Theater in the Depression, showing second-run films for five cents; Teatro Victoria in the 1940s and '50s, showing Spanish-language films; and in the 1960s the Follies Burlesque, with Blaze Starr and Tempest Storm, until "the city's last refuge of the stripper's art" closed on March 30, 1970.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
  4. 1979

    Abandoned for four years, the theatre was bought and restored by new owners, reopening as the Victoria Theater, at its designation the only Mission theatre still used for live performance; the uncovered Capp Street wall gave up an old advertisement for Albers Flapjack Flour.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
  5. 1980s

    The Victoria Theater, which hosted a benefit performance for The Women's Building in the 1980s and from 1987 the annual PRISMA Award ceremonies showcasing queer Latino artists and activists.

    Donna J. Graves and Shayne E. Watson, Citywide Historic Context Statement for LGBTQ History in San Francisco, San Francisco Planning Department, adopted by the Historic Preservation Commission November 18, 2015
  6. Oct 1985
    Permit 8511124 $$$ $108,000

    Replacement of existing roof covering.

  7. 1996

    Designated San Francisco Landmark No. 215, Brown's Opera House (Victoria Theatre).

    SF Planning, landmark designation
  8. Oct 1998
    Permit 9820992 $$$ $127,000

    Seismic upgrade per sq ft umb ordinance-disable access work.

  9. Jun 2008
    Permit 200806255337 $$$ $1,200

    Per sffd correction notice installing panic hardware on 2 exist door.(from balcony stairs) and gate on west side of building. that leads to sidewalk. correct # of seat listed by tax collectors (400) to 491 actual.

  10. Aug 2019
    Issued Permit 201908219475 $$$ $18,000

    Clean roof, install silicone roof coating and replace roof, install gutters/downspouts in kind, no change to roof shape or height. ordinary maintenance and repair so no cofa required.

2 expired permits are omitted.

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