The Castro Theatre

This guide to the Castro Theatre in San Francisco opens inside a packed 2022 city hall hearing over the fate of the movie palace's seats, then steps back to architect Timothy Pflueger's 1922 circus-tent ceiling and a gilded screen arch that vanished behind drywall for decades. It traces the theater's later life as a community landmark, from the premiere of the film Milk to drag sing-alongs that filled the room, before new owners proposed tearing out the sloped floor for a standing-room venue.