The Harding Theater, the only surviving single screen theater in San Francisco’s Western Addition, remains in jeopardy. Developers purchased the Harding, located on Divisadero at Hayes, with plans to demolish it to build 16 condos. Without consideration of the Harding's historic merit, the Planning Commission voted to approve demolition and the condo plan in December 2004. The Harding opened in 1926 and was designed by the Reid Brothers, a prominent San Francisco architectural firm that was a prolific theater designer, and whose works include the Fairmont Hotel, the 1909 Cliff House, and original portion of The New Mission Theater. The Reids’ San Francisco theaters also included the Alexandria, the Metro, the Balboa, the Coliseum, and the Avenue, as well as the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland and the State Theater in Monterey. None of the Reids’ San Francisco theaters remains intact except for the Harding. The Harding has a long history of serving the community as a neighborhood movie/vaudeville house, later as a live theater and music venue, and most recently as a church. Contrary to the developers’ claims, the above photos reveal that the theater remains remarkably intact. The Harding is the most intact of the Reid Brothers theaters in San Francisco and still includes the original stage fly for vaudeville productions, the orchestra pit, the organ grilles from silent movie days, as well as some of the original 1920s plaster detail. Most significantly, though, the auditorium is unique in retaining an original sense of place from the “pre-talkie” days. A coalition of community and preservation organizations, including the Friends of 1800, successfully banded together to contest the Planning Department’s action before the Board of Supervisors. As a result of this effort, the Board sent the project back to the Planning Department in the Spring of 2005 for further review. As of this writing, no plans have yet been approved for the Harding. The growing neighborhood and citywide support for saving the Harding can stop its demolition. |
UPDATE: On April 19, 2005, the Board of Supervisors sent the proposed condo project back to the Planning Department for further review. In September 2005, the Harding developers submitted a new plan scaling back their condo development from 16 to 9 units, proposing to “save” most of the original theater auditorium and to build the condos at the rear of the lot. They would demolish the vaudeville fly and orchestra pit to make way for the condos. As of July 2006, the Planning Department still has not received definitive plans from the developers, and so has not yet proceeded with the project review required by the California Environmental Quality Act. 
SF Board of Supervisors 2/1/05 agenda item No. 12 concerning the Harding Theater with links to all documents submitted in the action. San
Francisco Neighborhood Theater Foundation
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