The Garden Theater at 1165 Lincoln Avenue was a movie house for 39 years. It has now been offices and shops for 38. In about a year the building will have spent more of its life without a movie screen than with one. Even so, it still feels like Willow Glen's theater, because the neighborhood's own calendar keeps sending people through its doors. Tomorrow, October 30, children will pick up free books there during Lincoln Avenue trick-or-treating. On November 8, makers will fill it for an afternoon market. In December, Santa sets up inside.
The building lost its auditorium decades ago. The way it came back into use explains why the neon flower over Lincoln Avenue still marks the middle of downtown Willow Glen.
A Theater Named for the Garden City
The name was never about landscaping. According to Cinema Treasures, "Garden" echoed San Jose's old nickname, "The Garden City." Here is the short version of the building's life:
- June 22, 1949. Opening night was a double bill: Humphrey Bogart in "Knock on Any Door" and Burl Ives in Walt Disney's "So Dear to My Heart." Otto A. Deichman was the architect.
- 1949 to the mid-1970s. For most of these years, General Theatrical ran the Garden as a first-run house, and it did very well as Willow Glen's neighborhood theater.
- Mid-1970s to 1988. New owners changed the programming to Spanish-language films. The theater closed in 1988.
- Late 1980s. Camera Cinemas, the local art house operator, wanted to buy the Garden, restore it and turn it into a triplex. The owners asked for more than Camera could pay, so Camera bought the Towne Theatre instead.
- 1989. The building was converted into offices and shops, and the auditorium was stripped to bare walls.
The Preservation Action Council of San Jose says the theater had stayed "virtually unchanged for nearly 40 years" when it closed. Original owners Ben Levin and Jimmy Lima seemed to spare no expense, from the tile and etched-glass box office to the chandeliers over the seats.
What the 1989 Conversion Left Behind
The 1989 conversion was rough on the interior. Cinema Treasures reports that the auditorium chandeliers were allowed to crash to the floor. Other pieces were saved. Many figures in the auditorium murals, painted by the Anthony B. Heinsbergen decorating company, were on canvas glued to the plaster, so they could be peeled off. Workers also removed the lobby's bas-relief friezes and every etched-glass door.
Some of those pieces are still in use, just not in Willow Glen. Cinema Treasures says several of the Garden's doors and selected mural figures now sit in the Orinda Theatre in Orinda, and more doors are at the Oaks Theatre in Berkeley. If you see an old movie palace in the East Bay this winter, you may be walking through a door that once opened onto Lincoln Avenue.
On the street side, the facade, the marquee and the vertical blade sign all survived the conversion. The Preservation Action Council lists the marquee and blade sign in its San Jose Signs Project. It describes the original design as the theater's name framed by a giant neon flower whose animated leaves flashed at night. Developer Michael Mulcahy and SDS NexGen Partners chose to keep the signage and restore it, and Arrow Sign Co. did the rehabilitation. Cinema Treasures notes that the neon lights up every night.
The neon kept the building looking like a theater from the street. Getting people back inside took something else.
The Room Upstairs Became the Avenue's Meeting Hall
Once the auditorium was gone, the Garden needed a new reason for neighbors to come inside. The Willow Glen Business Association supplied one. According to the WGBA, its monthly board meeting takes place in the second-floor Garden Theatre Conference Room, so decisions about Lincoln Avenue events are made inside the building that hosts many of them.
This year the building has held something nearly every season. In February, the WGBA's WellFest brought a free health-and-wellness market to 1165 Lincoln Avenue. Twenty-three downtown businesses took part, with demos and a DJ, and classes met in Room 200 on the second floor. In July, the Mercury News events calendar listed "A Family Day on the Avenue" at the Garden Theater on July 25, with more than 15 downtown businesses, food and entertainment.
Even the Halloween book giveaway has moved into the building over time. The Mercury News 2025 trick-or-treat guide said Books for Treats pickups were split between Bertucelli's and the Garden Theater last year. The WGBA's 2026 listing puts both sessions at the theater.
Halloween to Santa on the Garden Theater Calendar
Here is what the WGBA has scheduled at the Garden Theater from tomorrow through December 20:
- Friday, October 30: Books for Treats. Free books in two sessions during Lincoln Avenue trick-or-treating. The 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. session is for kindergarten-aged children and younger. The 3 to 4:30 p.m. session is for grades 1 through 6. Participating businesses run from Minnesota Avenue to Willow Street, so the theater sits in the middle of the route. Details are on the trick-or-treat page.
- Sunday, November 8: Garden Theatre Fall Makers Market. Noon to 4 p.m. More than 20 local artists and makers, open to the public, no ticket needed. See the Makers Market listing.
- December 12 to 20: Selfies with Santa. Four mornings, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., inside the theater. Some WGBA listings give December 12, 13, 19 and 20, and another gives December 13, 14, 19 and 20, so check the Selfies with Santa page before you go.
Two more WGBA holiday events happen nearby but aren't listed as taking place in the theater. The Holiday Bubbly Walk is December 5, 2 to 5 p.m. The Holiday Trolley Rides run December 6 through 17, with evening departures from 5:15 to 9 p.m. Bubbly Walk tickets are on sale now through the WGBA events page, and the trolley page has the latest on ride tickets.
If you're heading to the Makers Market, plan around the Saturday market down the street the day before. The Willow Glen Farmers' Market runs Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 1425 Lincoln Avenue, year-round and rain or shine, according to Urban Village Farmers' Markets.
Coffee, a Haircut and the Neon After Dark
On days without an event, the building is a mix of small businesses. Most of them face the same Lincoln Avenue sidewalk the moviegoers did. Some of the current tenants:
- Dolce Sicilia, Suite 110. A café and pastry shop, open Tuesday through Sunday. It's an easy stop before or after the Makers Market.
- Mesh Salon, Suite 123. A hair salon that books appointments by text.
- Kiss & Makeup Willow Glen, Suite 125. Beauty services and a boutique, with weekly hours posted online.
- Cancer CAREpoint, Suite 300. A nonprofit resource center open on weekdays.
- Marlowe-Pugnetti Company, Suite 300. A media and event production company.
- UEGroup, Suite 335. A user-experience research and design firm. Its headquarters is upstairs, and the San Jose office runs in-person research sessions.
The same building holds offices upstairs, a second-floor conference room for the WGBA board and Room 200 for wellness classes. A 2023 San José Spotlight report shows the same flexibility on the ground floor: the owners temporarily lent vacant retail space to the nonprofit ArtHouse for a student gallery.
Tomorrow from 3 to 4:30 p.m., the Books for Treats line will form under the marquee that first lit up on June 22, 1949.
Old buildings like the Garden Theater are a big part of why Lincoln Avenue feels the way it does. I enjoy sharing them with neighbors and clients, in English or en español. If you own a home near downtown Willow Glen and are curious what it's worth this fall, Elsa Garza can help. Get Your Instant Home Valuation, and if you'd like to talk it through, I'm happy to meet at Dolce Sicilia.
