I wondering if anyone has any images of the Rafael while it was being rebuilt? I have some exterior shots of the demolition but none of the interiors. I remember walking through it and was saddened that the oldest surviving interior details (before the rebuilding after the 1928 fire) were being destroyed. I asked the main lady and she said they only cared about the Art Deco details and not the history of the theatre before the fire.
Now of course the fire was fairly minimal and not the ragger that is mostly reported. The theatre was not destroyed. The great theatre architect S. Charles Lee did a wonderful design for a rehabed building but it never happened. He designed an amazing facade that would have given San Rafael one of the most important theatre facades of that era.
