The red building at 1660 Haight Street, now the Wasteland vintage store, opened in 1907 as the Sunset Theatorium, a 300-seat nickelodeon charging five cents. In 1911 it was rebuilt as the 500-seat Sunset Theatre, designed by architect Bernard J. Joseph in an ornate Art Nouveau style. The facade, painted fire-engine red, is the most elaborate on the block.
The theater was renamed the Superba in 1918 and closed in 1924, one of several neighborhood movie houses that did not survive the rise of the downtown palaces. It became the Superba Market and ran as a grocery for decades.
Since the 1990s it has been Wasteland, a used and vintage clothing store. Much of the theater interior survives behind the racks: the high ceiling, the proscenium shape, and the raked floor. Step inside to see it.