"That you don't know what you've got
‘Til it's gone
They paved paradise
And put up a parking lot"
-- Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell
This song could easily been written about the Oakland Fox Theater.
The Oakland Fox Theater first opened in October of 1928 to great fanfare. However, by the sixties, it had fallen out of favour with film audiences. It continued its downward spiral in the seventies, when porno films became it's bread and butter. By the eighties, the Fox had fallen into severe disrepair, was closed, and a date with the wrecking ball scheduled.
This architectural paradise was doomed to be replaced with, yes, a parking lot.
Luckily, thanks to some visionary thinking (and three million dollars), the City of Oakland purchased the dilapidated structure, restored it, and reopened the East Indian Buddhist Temple-themed palace in 2009. During the day, it serves as the auditorium for the Oakland School of the Arts and at night, a concert venue.
Well done, Oakland.
No comments:
Post a Comment