The Corinthian-style temple of amusement, which had cost a quarter of a million dollars, opened on January 18, 1869, with a performance of Bulwer-Lytton's play Money.

[8]Buttressed by good financial prospects due to a mini-boom in mining in Nevada, the California Theater enjoyed a blockbuster premiere season.

With Annette Ince as leading lady, and a fine supporting cast largely recruited from rival manager Thomas Maguire, the California hosted plays ranging from Shakespeare through melodrama and comedy.

[10] At the end of the first season, the large cast and crew of the California traveled to Virginia City, Nevada to perform for over a month at Piper's Opera House in popular shows including Sea of Ice.

[13][14] The theater enjoyed exceptional years in the mid-1870s due to good economic times following the discovery of the discrete big bonanza ore chamber on the Comstock Lode.

[20][Note 3] A new California Theatre,[4] opened on the site on May 18, 1889,[21] but was destroyed in the 1906 earthquake and fire, but it never regained its former status after Ralston's death in 1875 and McCullough's departure in 1877.

The vestibule is rectangular in shape, is finished in antique oak panelling, with pilasters and arabesques, and is lighted by thirty-two 16 candle-power lamps and an electrolier of eight 82's.

In the auditorium, behind the eight proscenium boxes, with dome-shaped canopies supported by columns, rise arches of Indian fretwork carrying pillars surmounted by 88 candle-power lamps enclosed in opalescent globes shaped like pineapples.

Throughout the house the decorations are so designed that lamps in the midst of bands of flowers, dados and carvings, not only afford light, but add hitherto unknown features to the general ornamentation.

At the back of the metal and plastic tracery of the boxes, balcony and gallery, panels of cathedral glass are inserted, which soften the radiance of 16 candle-power lamps set behind, and give to the railings the effect of carvings thrown into relief by mellow light.

[1] The landmark marker, located at 430 Bush Street, mentions the January 18, 1869 opening date, and lists a number of artists who played there.