About Us
The Cerrito Theater, on San Pablo Avenue between Fairmount and Central, was built in 1937 as neighborhood, art deco movie house. The theater closed in the early 1960's, and the building was used as a storage facility for Kiefer's furniture store for several decades, until that business closed, too.
Friends of the Cerrito Theater, as a project of the El Cerrito Community Foundation, began to organize in 2001, when the building came on the market for the first time in 40 years, and residents discovered, to their amazement, that the beautiful art deco murals and mirrors inside had survived! Initial efforts were directed towards saving the building and its interior artwork, with the intention of renovating and resurrecting the movie theater. Close to BART, the revitalized El Cerrito Plaza and foot and car traffic on San Pablo, Friends saw that the theater could be an entertainment venue and gathering place for El Cerrito, and that it could play an important role in the revitalization of the city's "downtown."
Following an outpouring of community support, including an open house at the theater that attracted about 3,000 people (see photo on left), the City of El Cerrito purchased the building. Speakeasy Theaters, operators of the Parkway Speakeasy Theater in Oakland, agreed to operate the Cerrito. Architects began developing plans to renovate the building, rebuild the marquee and add a second, upstairs theater. The Parkway has prospered in Oakland by catering to the local community with a mix of new films, classics, film noir festivals, a Baby Brigade night for parents with babies, and more. Similarly, programming at the Cerrito will be based on community input and response, including special programs for families and teenagers.
Although most of the funding for restoring the theater is coming from the El Cerrito Redevelopment Agency (as a loan), and from Speakeasy Theaters, the Friends of the Cerrito Theater and other community groups are also raising funds to help out. These funds will be especially useful in restoring some of the theater's historic elements. Besides organizing fundraising events, the Friends focus on building community support for the theater by periodically providing updates on the status of the project. The community continues to demonstrate its support for this project by responding at an astonishing level.
