Since opening on May 4, 1920, the California Theatre has been a cornerstone of the New York Landing Historic District in Old Town Pittsburg. Like many Bay Area theaters of the 1920s, it was designed by A.W. Cornelius in a classic revival style and built by the Enea Brothers for $200,000. It quickly became a landmark for Pittsburg, showing leading Hollywood films and vaudeville acts in the Bay Area and setting the stage for the SF Orpheum, Oakland Fox, and SF Curran. The theatre was later modernized to incorporate many of the Art Deco features present today. It showed its last film in February 1954.