Ruby Skye was a former popular nightclub located at 420 Mason Street in the Tenderloin neighborhood of

San Francisco, California San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

, in operation from 1990 to 2017.

Building history

Ruby Skye nightlcub in Native Sons of the Golden West building

The nightclub was housed in the Native Sons of the Golden West building at 420 Mason Street, built in 1912 by architect August Headman. The nightclub was housed in what was originally an auditorium/meeting hall. In the 1940s it became a

USO The United Service Organizations Inc. (USO) is an American nonprofit-charitable corporation that provides live entertainment, such as comedians, actors and musicians, social facilities, and other programs to members of the United States Armed F ...

club and was called the "Stage Door." Later it started showing films as the "Stage Door Theater" and hosted the premiere of the

Alfred Hitchcock Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock (13 August 1899 – 29 April 1980) was an English filmmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 featur ...

film '' Vertigo'' on May 9, 1958. By the early 1980s, it had become the Regency III movie theater (the Regency I and II were located several blocks away). In 1989 the theater was renamed the "Stage Door Theater" while it was used as a temporary home for the ACT theater. ACT's

Geary Theater Geary, an Anglicized rendering of the Irish name ''O'Gadhra'', has a number of meanings: __NOTOC__ Places * Geary, New Brunswick, Canada * Geary, Isle of Skye, Scotland, a township * Geary, Kansas, United States, a ghost town in Doniphan County * Ge ...

was heavily damaged in the 1989 earthquake and was being restored.

Club history

According to FOH Online, Ruby Skye's sound system consisted of a five-way EAW Avalon DC1 system that had been modified by JK Sound to use EAW KF series drivers. The system included eight EAW DC1 three-way cabinets, six DCT2 supertweeter arrays and 20 DCS2 subwoofers capable of 140db of bass energy. It was the first nightclub in the world to implement Lake Contour 26 loudspeaker processors for audio management. Ruby Skye played host to a long list of world-renowned DJs, including Above & Beyond,

Afrojack Nick Leonardus van de Wall (; born 9 September 1987), better known as Afrojack, is a Dutch DJ, music producer and remixer from Spijkenisse, South Holland. In 2007, he founded the record label Wall Recordings; his debut album '' Forget the World' ...

Armin van Buuren Armin Jozef Jacobus Daniël van Buuren ( , ; born 25 December 1976) is a Dutch DJ and record producer from Leiden, South Holland. Since 2001, he has hosted '' A State of Trance'' (ASOT), a weekly radio show, which is broadcast to nearly 40&n ...

, BT,

Darude Toni-Ville Henrik Virtanen (; born July 17, 1975), better known by his stage name Darude (), is a Finnish DJ and record producer from Eura, Satakunta. His music is characterised by its progressive/uplifting style. He started making music in 19 ...

, Deep Dish, John Digweed,

Kaskade Ryan Gary Raddon (born February 25, 1971), better known by his stage name Kaskade, is an American DJ, record producer and remixer. ''DJ Times'' voted Kaskade "America's Best DJ" in 2011 and 2013. ''DJ Mag'' named Kaskade fifty-first on its 20 ...

, Mark Farina,

Markus Schulz Marcus, Markus, Márkus or Mărcuș may refer to: * Marcus (name), a masculine given name * Marcus (praenomen), a Roman personal name Places * Marcus, a main belt asteroid, also known as (369088) Marcus 2008 GG44 * Mărcuş, a village in Dobâr ...

Paul Oakenfold Paul Mark Oakenfold (born 30 August 1963), formerly known mononymously as Oakenfold, is an English record producer, remixer and trance DJ. He has provided over 100 remixes for over 100 artists including U2, Moby, Madonna, Britney Spears, Mas ...

, Paul van Dyk,

Pete Tong Peter Michael Tong, (born 30 July 1960) is an English disc jockey who works for BBC Radio 1. He is the host of programmes such as '' Essential Mix'' and '' Essential Selection'' on the radio service, which can be heard through Internet radio s ...

Roger Sanchez Roger Sanchez (born June 1, 1967) is a Dominican-American house music DJ, remixer and producer. He won a Grammy Award for his remix of " Hella Good" by No Doubt in 2003, and is best known for his song " Another Chance", which was an internation ...

Sasha Sacha, Sasha, Sascha, or ''variant'' may refer to: People * Sasha (name), includes list of people with the name and the variants Sascha or Sacha Musicians * Sasha (DJ) (born 1969), born Alexander Coe * Sasha (German singer) (born 1972), born Sas ...

, and

Tiësto Tijs Michiel Verwest (; born 17 January 1969), known professionally as Tiësto ( ), is a Dutch DJ and music producer from Breda. He was voted "the Greatest DJ of All Time" by ''Mix'' magazine in a 2010/2011 poll amongst fans. In 2013, he was vo ...

. It was also a popular location for some of the 106 KMEL House of Soul concerts that the radio station

KMEL KMEL (106.1 FM) is an urban contemporary radio station that is licensed to San Francisco, California, and serving the San Francisco Bay Area. It is owned and operated by iHeartMedia. KMEL has studios located in the SoMa district, and broadc ...

hosts from time to time.

Closure

On March 16, 2017, Ruby Skye announced it would be closing within two months or so after 17 years as a mostly EDM venue. The final event at Ruby Skye took place on Saturday, June 10, 2017, and featured DJ Chuckie with a set called ''Last Call with Chuckie''. A new music venue called ''August Hall'', was opened by new owner Nate Valentine at the same location and would feature a restaurant and a few lanes for bowling on the lower level.

References

External links

Ruby Skye website
Music venues in San Francisco Nightclubs in San Francisco Theatres in San Francisco Tenderloin, San Francisco Defunct nightclubs in California {{US-theat-stub