Clay Theatre

1. 1913

   Built by L. A. Rose.

2. 1913

   The Mutual Amusement and Investment Company built a one-story building, about 60 by 119 feet, holding a nickelodeon movie theater and a store, at a cost of $12,000; it had no backstage, being made only for showing films.

   SF Planning, landmark designation
3. 1913

   The Sanborn map showed the building with small stores on either side of a moving-picture hall, numbered 2251, 2253 (the theater) and 2255 Fillmore.

   SF Planning, landmark designation
4. March 21, 1913

   A building permit was issued for the theater and its flanking stores, the first building on the lot since the 1906 earthquake and fire; the permit was filed under 2257–59 Fillmore.

   SF Planning, landmark designation
5. December 1913

   The theater was running as the Regent by December 1913, when it showed Mary Pickford in In the Bishop's Carriage.

   SF Planning, landmark designation
6. 1916

   Operation of the Regent passed from J.P. Hughes to Leroy Blanchard and L.F. Salbach.

   SF Planning, landmark designation
7. 1917

   G. M. McDonald was the Regent's proprietor.

   SF Planning, landmark designation
8. 1918

   The Regent appeared in the city directory for the first time, at 2251 Fillmore Street.

   SF Planning, landmark designation
9. April 1930

   An advertisement described the Regent as fully equipped for talking pictures.

   SF Planning, landmark designation
10. March 1935

    Film distributor and exhibitor Herbert Rosener took over the theater to run it under a new name, the Clay-International, as a house for foreign-made films, the first dedicated foreign film theater in San Francisco.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
11. April 11, 1935

    The Clay-International opened with the Swedish musical Sangan till Henne, shown with English titles, followed by French, Spanish, Russian and British films.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
12. July 1935

    New projection equipment, carpet and seats were installed.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
13. July 1935

    The theater began weekly Saturday midnight showings of second-run foreign films, which were dropped after several months.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
14. 1938

    The theater's name changed from the Clay-International to the Clay Theater, still with a foreign-film program.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
15. 1943

    Ownership passed from an older ownership group to a group that included the theater operators Richard J. and Henry W. Nasser of Nasser Brothers, builders of the Castro and Alhambra theaters.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
16. November 4, 1946

    A permit was issued for a remodel by theater architect Vincent G. Raney for Nasser Brothers: the vestibule was cut to half its depth to fit a second-floor office, a rounded ticket booth was placed at its south wall, and the arched opening in the façade was filled with a band of casement windows.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
17. January 27, 1947

    A permit was issued to mount neon-lit block letters spelling C-L-A-Y on the canopy.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
18. June 1948

    A fire did $7,000 of damage and closed the theater for four weeks; it reopened with a French film of Dostoyevsky's The Idiot.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
19. February 1952

    The theater joined the San Francisco Museum of Art to preview the art-history documentary Pictura: An Adventure in Art.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
20. June 8, 1955

    The property was sold to Bay Properties, Inc.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
21. May 1956

    CinemaScope and wide-screen projection were installed.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
22. May 27, 1958

    A $15,000 remodel designed by Gale Santocono was permitted: the 1946 vestibule gave way to a metal-and-glass storefront nearer the sidewalk, the small south storefront and the projecting cornice were removed, restrooms replaced the old stairs, and the auditorium seating was rearranged.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
23. 1961

    Permits were issued to Wonderlite Neon Co. to move the vertical projecting sign and add a double-faced horizontal sign.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
24. June 19, 1964

    Photographed, showing the Clay Theater.

    San Francisco Subjects Photograph Collection (SFP 162), San Francisco Public Library
25. November 9, 1965

    The property was sold to a new ownership group; foreign and prestige films stayed on the program.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
26. 1966

    Advertising called the theater the New Clay.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
27. 1971

    The theater held retrospective film festivals for Greta Garbo and Mae West.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
28. 1971

    The Clay was among the San Francisco theaters giving George Romero's Night of the Living Dead a midnight-only run.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
29. July 1972

    The theater closed for about a year for renovations.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
30. October 1973

    The theater reopened under the direction of Mel Novikoff, operator of the Surf Theater and film curator at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, who added series on fascism, psychiatry and women's cinema to the foreign-film program.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
31. July 1974

    John Waters' Pink Flamingos began a four-month run of midnight showings, ending on November 9, 1974; the theater was not, as sometimes claimed, the site of its first midnight screening.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
32. 1979

    The theater gave the West Coast premiere of Robert Mapplethorpe's short film Still Moving/Patti Smith, on a bill with videos by the Dead Kennedys, Devo and the Mutants.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
33. 1988

    Operation of the Surf Theater Group's houses, the Clay among them with the Castro and the Lumiere, passed to Blumfield Enterprises.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
34. August 10, 1990

    A restructuring sale left the property with the same ownership group.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
35. 1991

    Landmark Theatres took over operation of the theater.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
36. 2008

    The property was sold.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
37. Apr 2019

    Filed Permit 201904107627 $$$ $200,000

    Correction of non-code compliant condition, expand current food concession prep area, demolition existing non original / non-load bearing walls, existing non-code complaint restrooms, new code complaint stairs, new code complaint accessible restrooms, new storefront, new accessible route (ramps / stairs) in theater.

38. January 2020

    The theater closed, ending more than a century as a single-screen movie house.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
39. July 27, 2021

    The Board of Supervisors initiated landmark designation of the theater.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
40. August 4, 2021

    The Mayor approved the Board of Supervisors' resolution initiating the theater's landmark designation.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
41. January 19, 2022

    The Historic Preservation Commission recommended the theater's designation as a city landmark.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
42. April 26, 2022

    Designated San Francisco Landmark No. 302, Clay Theatre.

    SF Planning, landmark designation
43. Apr 2026

    Issued Permit 202604079056 $$$ $34,632

    Interior demolition of non structural elements and treatment of interior defining features. in preparation for future renovation approved by planning. per ab 017, ti, mep and accessiblity is deferred under a separate permit.

44. Jun 2026

    Filed Permit 202606012231 $$$ $457,467

    Voluntary seismic strengthening. demolition of structural elements & exterior features. shoring for historcal facade protection. make 2261 fillmore st structural independent of 2259 fillmore street.

1 expired permit is omitted. The theater's opening is dated both 1910 and 1913.