El Rey Theatre (San Francisco, California)

El Rey Theatre is a historic theater building in the Ingleside Terraces neighborhood of San Francisco, California, United States. The building is listed by the city as a San Francisco Designated Landmark since 2017.

History
The Balboa Theatre (built in 1922) at 1634 Ocean Avenue had preceded the El Rey in the Ingleside Terraces neighborhood.

The Art Deco–Moderne El Rey Theatre building was designed by local architect Timothy L. Pflueger. It contains a 150 ft tower, and the tower once contained an aircraft beacon, and neon lights. The El Rey Theatre opened on November 14, 1931, and had 1,800-seats. The opening show was The Smiling Lieutenant (1931), starring Maurice Chevalier. One of the retail spaces next door to the theater was the first location of The Gap (now Gap Inc.) in 1969. In April 1, 1977, the theater closed.

In 2016, the building was sold at auction to the "Voice of the Pentacost or A Place to Meet Jesus" church, which later defaulted on their mortage. Since 2021, the former theater building has been slated for redevelopment into a multi-unit housing building.