Esprit Park Closed for Redo

BY PETER LINENTHAL

The brick building with black columns at 312 Connecticut Street, just up the slope from Goat Hill Pizza, has an unusual history and an uncertain future. For the last 30 years it’s been home to the San Francisco Gurdjieff Society, which bought it in 1993 for $280,000, and has been making extensive renovations ever since. The three-story building features 8,300 square feet of usable space, has been seismically upgraded, with a top-floor apartment and gymnasium

Built in 1913, the Connecticut Street building opened as the Alta Theater, showing silent moving pictures, including the 1914 serial, The Perils of Pauline. In 1929, the theater converted to sound and was renamed the New Potrero Theater, serving as a neighborhood movie house until 1963. Old timers called it “The Nick,” and later “The Flea Bag,” treasuring China dishware given out on ‘Dish Night, Free to the Ladies’. A 1937 film of a St. Teresa’s Church’s saint’s day procession was made to be shown at the New Potrero Theater exclusively. The continues on page 7

PUBLISHER’S VIEW