California Theatre

The state's register lists one member of the opening company as Mrs. Judah Emelie Melville. She was two women. The bronze ends a line with MRS JUDAH and starts the next with EMELIE MELVILLE, and whoever copied it ran them together: Marietta Judah, who had played San Francisco since 1851 and was known as its favorite actress, and Emelie Melville, a Philadelphia-born singer who turned eighteen the day after the house opened on 18 January 1869 with Bulwer-Lytton's Money. The register misspells two more of the company, Mestayer and Sedley. No state plaque stands here.

What the plaque says

On this site January 18 1869 The California Theatre built by William C Ralston opened with the following stock company John McCullough - Lawrence Barrett Harry Edwards - Willie Edouin - E B Holmes William Mestayer - John T Raymond W F Burroughs - W H Sedley Smith John Wilson - Edward J Buckley - Mrs Judah Emelie Melville - Elizabeth Saunders Annette Ince - Marie E Gordon - Sophie Edwin Minnie Walton - Julia Buckley This theatre remained a brilliant center of drama until August 11 1888 - among artists who played here were - Charles W Couldock - Edwin Adams - John Broughan - Edwin Booth - Barton Hill - Walter Montgomery - Mrs D P Bowers - Adelaide Neilson - Lotta Crabtree Tablet placed by the Commonwealth Club of California and the Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company - 1932

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Muir Beach Overlook — 11 mi
  A cliff edge on Highway 1, and the concrete dugouts where two-man crews watched the sea after Pearl Harbor.
• Muir Woods National Monument — 11 mi
  A redwood canyon saved from a reservoir by a gift, and named for a man who had been there once.
• Earthquake Trail — 27 mi
  A short loop along the San Andreas, where a broken fence shows how far Point Reyes moved in under a minute in 1906.
• Kule Loklo — 28 mi
  A Coast Miwok village built in the 1970s to honour a people its builders were told had died out. They had not.

More markers nearby

• Site of Old St. Mary's — steps away
• Site of First California State Fair — steps away
• Site of Parrott Granite Block — steps away
• Hudson's Bay Company Headquarters — 0.2 mi