Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts

For two decades this beaux arts landmark on the edge of Lake Merritt stood shuttered. A 1914 auditorium that had hosted Elvis Presley, the Grateful Dead, and Martin Luther King Jr., slowly moldering behind locked doors marked “No Trespassing.” In January 2026, after a $100 million restoration, it opened again as the Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts.

The building was designed by Pittsburgh architect Henry Hornbostel, who also gave Oakland its City Hall, with local associate architect John J. Donovan. It opened as the Oakland Auditorium in 1914 as a place of civic gathering and the arts. A relief on the western side still bears the words: “Auditorium of the City of Oakland dedicated by the citizens to the intellectual and industrial progress of the people.”

Its guest list reads like a who's who of 20th century American life. Elvis Presley, the Grateful Dead, and Iggy Pop all played here. Woodrow Wilson and Bill Clinton spoke from its stages. In 1918 the auditorium served as a makeshift hospital during the Spanish flu epidemic. And on December 28, 1962, Martin Luther King Jr. marked the 100th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation in the arena.

Unable to make the venue profitable, the Oakland City Council closed it in 2006, setting aside just enough money to mothball the building. It sat empty for years while proposals came and went. In January 2012, Occupy Oakland attempted to seize it as a new base. The police response — riot gear, tear gas, some 400 arrests — became one of the movement’s most violent scenes.

The city-endorsed revival started in 2015. The building was renamed the Henry J. Kaiser Center for the Arts in 2023, and Mayor Barbara Lee cut the ribbon on the full reopening in early 2026.

Today the complex holds a large arena, the roughly 1,500-seat Calvin Simmons Theatre, ballrooms, and a lakeside terrace. Access is by event or ticket rather than general admission, so check the schedule before visiting.