History

When the Paramount opened in December 1931, the United States was twenty-six months into the Great Depression and Oakland’s commercial district was contracting. The Fox West Coast Theatres chain, which commissioned the building, was betting that an extraordinary venue could draw audiences who might otherwise stay home. Pflueger delivered something extraordinary: a building whose exterior alone — two stories of backlit mosaic panels rising above the Broadway sidewalk — was worth crossing the Bay Bridge to see.

The theatre operated continuously through the 1930s and 1940s, then declined with the movie palaces of its era as suburban multiplexes drew audiences away from urban centres. The Paramount closed in 1970. Two years later the Oakland Symphony Association, searching for a permanent concert hall, purchased the derelict building from Paramount Pictures for a symbolic dollar. A $1 million restoration — painstaking in its attention to original materials and craftwork — returned the building to public life in September 1973. The reopening launched a national conversation about the viability of historic theatre restoration that continues today.

In 1977 the Paramount was listed on the National Register of Historic Places; in 1981 it became one of only a handful of movie theatres in the country designated a National Historic Landmark, reflecting its architectural and cultural significance. The Oakland East Bay Symphony now calls it home, alongside the Oakland Ballet and touring Broadway productions.