Imperial Disaster

Change is very hard for me to handle. I have been weepy and emotional since hearing about what's about to go down when this is demolished.    I can understand why the Irish immigrants who dominated Eureka Valley before the gays took it over and started calling it the Castro reacted with consternation.

They are building condos for the "creative,bike-centric millenials" (I can't say the word millenial) flooding the area.  Snot-nosed kids with attitude and lots of money are coming to mid-Market.

 The original outcry I posted on Facebook has inspired a resounding discussion and stirred people's memories of the venues they've enjoyed there over the years.

Michael Flanagan a , Facebook user, recalls, "Before it was a strip club it was a music venue. In 1981 I saw William S. Burroughs there on the 'You're The Man I Want To Share My Money With' tour (with Laurie Anderson and John Giorno). I also saw the Bush Tetras there back when Laura Kennedy and Pat Place were an item. So it had a little Punk/Beat LGBT history associated with it back in those days as well."


Ever since I helped assemble the  Polk Street oral history project for the SF GLBT Historical Society, I have understood that history exists within our hearts, minds and souls and must be passed on and preserved in order for it to benefit the future generations    My neighborhood of mid- Market is noisy every  day as a hub of construction changes its face.  The buildings that can no longer serve a practical purpose are meeting the wrecking ball.   This is heartbreaking to me but I understand the precious value of real estate and the need we have to maximize any space'e potential. That being said, I won't have to mourn the structure if its soul is preserved through people's stories.  If the anecdotes that have been copping up on Facebook are any indication of the tsunami of memories the razing of Market Street is about to conjure, I have fantasies of reeling them all in for posterity.   This is the only way I can cope with the crumbling cornerstones.

This is the mockup plan that Loewe's originally had in 1969.
It didn't transpire.

I wanted it to be preserved so badly until I learned that the classic architectural details that existed at its origins were destroyed in the 1967 remodel by Loewe’s when they acquired the building from United Artists. The facade on the outside was permanently altered to appease the stripper joint it had been forced to become in 1972 as the Imperial was violated by shifty shysters in shameful depravity as the neighborhood around it was neglected. As of today it’s been slated for demolition because the National Historic Landmark status it was issued in 1986 was classified as an INTRUSION which means it was not only stripped of its dignity but now is losing its crown and promise for eternal protection. The city feels there is nothing left in her worth saving to merit holding the parking space she’s occupied for 102 years. Goodbye Grauman’s Imperial. If it’s haunted, I hope they hang around after the new property is built. All this time, I thought the ugly facade was just hiding the original underneath until it could be removed This news of its pending demise has come as quite a shock to me and I am emotional for it implications about the bigger picture. pardon the pun.



I have always had a sneaking suspicion that my overly sentimental tendency to want to hang on to things past their prime is a result or related to having been adopted. . As a kid, I hoarded Christmas ornaments that my mom was trying to sell at the church bazaar. I didn't want to part with anything that had once been special. Today I learned that a 102 year old movie palace in my neighborhood that has been closed for a couple years since its final degrading act of having turned into a stripper joint 40 years ago when the area went into decline has been slated for demolition. It's been sporting an ugly facade since I that I had always assumed was temporary. I fantasized about the day it would be removed to reveal its former grandeur underneath. I knew it could never be destroyed because it was a National Historic Landmark. That changed quite abruptly today when I found out it was registered as an Intrusion which means everything historically significant that merits preservation was ripped out in 1967 leaving nothing worth saving. ;I've passed by that building every day for 10 years imagining the treasures that must lie behind the gates. I am actually crying and having a very difficult time dealing with the change. As a volunteer tour guide for the city of San Francisco and resident of a neighborhood that's coming out of a 40 year slumber since Twitter and the tech industry discovered its cheap real estate, I've been feeling the pain of these old buildings as their worth is weighed to determine whether they're worth saving. History should be preserved no matter what. I can't let go of these attachments to these old buildings. Shouldn't what's been there have a right to just be there forever? Of course, I know that's preposterous but I can't explain the empathy I've always had for the soul of inanimate objects. It s as if I'm wanting to save their history for the missing part of mine. That has to be it. I have to become okay with the changes because they're happening all around me. I'm crying all of the time as my neighborhood is torn apart. The dilapidated historical treasures held distinction but that will be overlooked by the carpet-baggers coming to capitalize.