Fox Oakland Theatre, Concert hall in Downtown Oakland, United States.
The Fox Oakland Theatre is a concert hall in downtown Oakland, California, that stands out with its terracotta facade and gilded accents. The main dome rises above the entrance and forms the visual center of the street front.
The Fox Oakland Theatre opened on October 27, 1928, after two years of construction, as the 251st theater in the West Coast Theatres chain; its 3,200 seats made it the largest in Oakland. It was renamed the Fox Oakland in March 1929 after William Fox bought the chain. Films ran until 1965, with sporadic events after; the city bought the building in 1996 and a $75 million restoration led to a reopening as a concert hall on February 5, 2009.
The facade shows elements borrowed from Hindu temples, visible in domes and ornaments reminiscent of mosques and eastern palaces. Inside, visitors find murals and stucco combining oriental motifs with Californian building traditions of the 1920s.
The entrance is on Telegraph Avenue and the hall offers 2,800 seats across multiple levels. A modern Meyer sound system ensures good acoustics throughout all areas of the space.
The theatre was nearly demolished in 1975, when the city's Public Works Department proposed buying the building and turning the site into a parking lot. It was instead designated an Oakland City Landmark in 1978 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979.
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