Enean Theatre

Boxoffice, May 8, 1948: “SAN RAFAEL, CALIF. - Sheriff’s deputies recovered a battered safe from the shallows of San Pablo bay recently. It was the safe which had been stolen several months earlier from the Enean Theatre in Pittsburg.”

City of Pittsburg owns the building. Stripped of seats and furnishings, the theatre had the main floor levelled for warehouse use. Proscenium, balcony, lobby and lounge areas are all there—-awaiting reuse. It would make a great dance floor for the younger set, with a parking lot next door. The neon and bulb lit deco ceiling lighting along with side wall murals should be fabulous once restored. The lobby has a circular wall mural replete with the Enea family crest. The city has repaired the roof and painted the exterior in repulsive beige. Anyone got a few million to revive this place…?

Just toured it today. pretty sad shape with pigeons roosting in it. Being used by city fir storage. Since they ran out if money before putting in balcony seats in California Theater I don’t see the city restoring this before it is too late. All seats are gone and raked floor is now level concrete

This is from the Modesto Bee, 11/23/40:

PITTSBURG, Nov. 23-Fire of undetermined origin swept through the new Enean Theater yesterday, causing damage estimated at more than $25,000. The flames damaged the theater balcony and ceiling and melted sound transcription records. The playhouse was constructed five years ago at a cost of $150,000.

Plans for the Enean Theatre, by architect F. Frederic Amandes, were announced in the March, 1936, issue of Architect & Engineer magazine.

That same year, Amandes was the architect for remodelings of the Strand Theatre in Alameda, the Egyptian Theatre on San Francisco’s Market Street (listed at CT as the Guild Theatre), and the former T&D Theatre in Richmond, which became the Fox Theatre and then the United Artists Theatre.

Patsy, I was the owner of what your are calling an “unauthorized foreign car body repair shop” . Let me clear your confusion . I bought the theater as an existing auto repair facility back in 1990 ,when it was a Volkswagen wrecking yard. I cleaned and restore many parts of it installed new roof . Some of the pictures are posted by me , in fact that old boat is mine , the City of Pittsburg used Eminent Domain Power to purchase the building from me. The remarkable part about it is that I saved the place from being demolished and turned in to a new office building site.
I spent 15 years of my life working to preserve this palace and my “unauthorized repair shop” helped pay for it. The Eminent Domain story is long an painful but is the past.
Best Regards
Jaime F. Penuela

Point of fact, the organ from the Cal Theatre Pittsburg has been purchased by a determined organ preservationist. This person has a proven track record for quality restoration work. It would be great if the original Morton organ could go back to the Cal someday—but that is a long way off.

I think that the theatre was owned by the Enea family, who also owned a dairy in Antioch where I grew up. I remember attending that theatre when US Steel, which had a plant in Pittsburg, rented it to show a movie on industrial safety to its employees and their families. I remember the theatre being in good condition, with a lot or ornate gilded decoration in the interior. There were two more theatres in Pittsburg, the California down on Railroad Avenue and the Vogue, out near the SP train station. In Antioch, there were three, the Stamm, the El Campanile and the Casino. The Casino did a turn as a flea market in the 70s; the El Campanile is open
again and being restored. The new management seems interested and competent.

Lloyd Prator

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