Balboa Theatre

Balboa Theatre in San Diego, California, with a tour group gathered in front.
Stop 03 of 10 · Indoor waterfalls, a tiled dome, and 1924 glamour

Balboa Theatre

San Diego’s 1924 Spanish-Renaissance movie palace — with indoor waterfalls that still run beside the stage.

The Story We Tell Here

Why Balboa Theatre Matters

Opened in 1924 with a tile dome that still crowns the Gaslamp skyline, the Balboa was San Diego’s Spanish-Renaissance movie palace — complete with indoor waterfalls flanking the stage that still run today.

It spent decades dark and nearly derelict before a $26.5-million restoration brought it back in 2008. Today the waterfalls murmur again beside a working stage — one of the great theater rescues in California.

This is stop 03 of ten on our Free Walking Tour through downtown — English daily at 10 AM, Español at 10:30 AM, about two hours from the Gaslamp Arch to Seaport Village, always pay-what-you-wish.

See Balboa Theatre With a Local Guide

Meet at 222 Fifth Ave next to the Gaslamp Quarter Arch — look for the blue umbrella.