By Rachel Brahinsky

IF YOU'VE NEVER heard of the Harding Theater, it's probably because it has spent the past 30 years as a Baptist church, quietly serving the African American population that survived the city's razing of thousands of homes and black-owned businesses in the Western Addition. Before that, the 1920s-era building on the corner of Divisadero and Hayes Streets was a Gothic-style single-screen movie theater and then a venue for rock bands including the Grateful Dead, Big Brother and the Holding Company, and New Riders of the Purple Sage.

Now the Harding is facing demolition, and neighbors and local business owners who want to see the building preserved are battling the developers, who want to tear it down.

The Harding was designed by the Reid Brothers, well-respected turn-of-the-century architects who also crafted the Fairmont Hotel, Golden Gate Park's Spreckel's Temple of Music, the Columbo Building, the 1909 Cliff House, the New Mission Theater, and several movie houses in the Richmond District. But the church's directors sold the building in 2003 to developers Michael Klestoff and Patrick Stack, who claim the building is too decrepit for restoration.

However, a report on the building's history that has so far been ignored suggests that the Harding's condition is better than the developers have claimed, and that it's worthy of restoration.

If the demolition is stopped, there are several options for the building's preservation, including a proposed buyout by a group of local merchants led by Jim Siegel, owner of Distractions (1552 Haight), and including owners of several Western Addition establishments, such as Herbivore (531 Divisadero), Café Abir (1300 Fulton), Fly (762 Divisadero), and the Independent (628 Divisadero), the nightclub next door to the Harding.

At the neighbors' urging, several members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors appealed the demolition permit. Initiated by David Tornheim and the Central City Progressives, the appeal has gained public attention, in part because key players in the development community, including Residential Builders Association boss Joe O'Donoghue (see "Deconstructing Joe," 9/15/04), have gotten involved.

Last fall the Planning Department's environmental assessment of the project said that since the building had not been listed in any of a handful of official historic registers, it was not architecturally significant. A Dec. 9 staff report contended that "major modifications of the interior (with the exception of the removal of the seats), degradation of materials and removal of finishes and fixtures make any potential reuse of the structure unlikely and cost prohibitive."

But planner Geoffrey Nelson, who prepared the report, told the Bay Guardian that due to funding and time constraints, no planning staffers had been able to visit the building and that the information about it "came from the project sponsor."

And a report by Jonathan Pearlman, principal at the firm Elevation Architects, contradicts the planners' assessment. (Klestoff gave the report to the city after the Planning Commission had already approved the demolition proposal.) Although it notes some out-of-character renovations and some notable wear and tear, the report, titled "Historical Resource Evaluation," says, "The interior of the building is almost fully intact from its original design. Photos from 1942 show the interior just as it is today, albeit very worn and run down.... The seating throughout the auditorium is the same as can be seen in the 1942 photographs."

Klestoff told us that the state of the building isn't the real issue and that the Harding's neighbors would never stand for a theater-project proposal. "If somebody applied for a theater right now, they wouldn't get it. There's no parking," he said.

For his part, Siegel says his group hopes to restore the Harding as a mixed-used building, with the renovated 1,200-seat theater as the main draw, bolstered by an art gallery, café/restaurant, and two retail stores. But he insists his main goal is to ensure the building is preserved. "We are happy for anybody to try to get that theater and use it," he said. "Whoever gets to preserve it, we'd be happy."

At press time the Board of Supervisors was planning to postpone the hearing on the demolition permit to Feb. 15, during its regularly scheduled 2 p.m. meeting at City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Pl., S.F. (415) 554-5184.