The Hillcrest Theatre: When movies came to Uptown in 1913

If you lived in Hillcrest in 1913, going to the movies no longer meant heading to downtown.

A movie house had arrived in the neighborhood.

The Hillcrest Theatre opened May 10, 1913, at 3825 Fifth Ave., becoming the first film theater built in San Diego outside downtown, according to Cinema Treasures.

The San Diego History Center also dates the theater to 1913 and records its later history under several names.

Its arrival reflected how quickly Hillcrest was developing.

William Wesley Whitson purchased 40 acres of undeveloped land in 1906 and filed a map for the Hillcrest Subdivision that year. The following year, he formed the Hillcrest Co. and opened a sales office at Fifth and University avenues to promote the new development.

Whitson, who had served as San Diego County’s first coroner, is widely recognized as the founder of Hillcrest. The Hillcrest Co. began subdividing the tract, installing streets and curbs, and constructing homes as the neighborhood took shape.

By 1909, the company was actively developing the neighborhood, and within a few years Hillcrest had begun filling with homes, schools and businesses. In 1913, the Hillcrest Theatre and a general store were among the businesses serving the growing community.

The city of San Diego’s Uptown Historic Context notes that 1913 was an important year for Hillcrest. The Hillcrest Theater was built, University Avenue and Washington Street were paved, and Nelson’s Dry Goods, Hillcrest’s first dime store, opened on Fifth Avenue.

Another city document similarly notes that in 1913, the Hillcrest Theater and a general store began serving the growing community.

The theater did not have an uninterrupted run.

The San Diego History Center records that the Hillcrest closed in 1917 and reopened in the 1930s under the Fox chain. Cinema Treasures says Fox West Coast Theatres operated it for about two decades.

The theater eventually took on a new identity.

It was renamed the Guild Theatre on Nov. 17, 1961, and became an art-house theater. By the 1970s, it was showing adult films. Landmark Theatres took over in 1978, after which the theater returned to art-house programming.

That change came as Hillcrest itself was evolving.

The neighborhood had become an important commercial center, and by the 1970s it was undergoing a major social and cultural transformation. The San Diego History Center describes the neighborhood’s transformation during that decade, while the city of San Diego’s historic context identifies the theater as one of the neighborhood’s early commercial landmarks.

The Guild remained at 3825 Fifth Ave. for decades. By the 1990s, the theater was known for art-house movies and late-night screenings, including The Rocky Horror Picture Show. It closed in 1997, the same year the nearby historic Park Theatre also closed.

The theater building was demolished in 2002 and replaced by a new structure with a facade designed to simulate the appearance of the original. The charming interior and historic details, however, were gone.

What makes the old Hillcrest Theatre worth remembering isn’t simply that Hillcrest once had a movie house.

It was part of the neighborhood’s early transformation.

In 1913, Hillcrest was gaining businesses, improved streets and gathering places that allowed residents to find more of what they needed close to home. The theater was one of those early additions.

Over the decades, the name changed, the movies changed and eventually the theater itself disappeared as did the neighborhood.

But the story began on Fifth Avenue in 1913, when Hillcrest got its own place to go to the movies.

Sources:

San Diego History Center Early San Diego Theaters.
San Diego History Center Photographic Essay of Hillcrest.
City of San Diego Uptown Historic Context.
City of San Diego Uptown Community Plan.
Cinema Treasures.
Guild Theatre / Hillcrest Theatre.